11:42 pm Sunday, March 13, 2011
A.E.D. = Any Extra Duty
Last September Hubby suggested that I try teaching again. His school has some Allied Educators (AEDs) who do small-group coaching for weaker students, and they seem to be very free, ending work at half-day. It would help relieve some of his burden of being the single income provider.
I was not very keen because I felt it was important to be with Boyboy at his young age. But small-group teaching is more meaningful to me, and I still had an interest to teach. Being an AED who ends work at half-day would mean I will still have time with Boyboy. Especially if the school is nearby.
So I tried signing up and went for the interview. The moment they offered me Art at primary level, I jumped at the chance.
Unfortunately, 天时地理不人和 :(
(1) Applied for Punggol, Sengkang or Hougang schools. They gave me Yishun.
My travelling time one-way alone is 1.5 hours, which means I had to leave home at 6am. Luckily Hubby would drop me off at a mid-way bus-stop, saving me 20mins.
But going home was still a problem. When school ends at 2pm, by the time I leave the school and reach home, it would be 4+ or 5pm. Then Boyboy would be at my Mum's cos she needs to be home to cook dinner. So I had practically no time with him on weekdays :(
I asked, not allowed to transfer school until end of 2nd year. WTH?
(2) Who says AEDs work half-days?
Apparently not. My school is also an extreme exception; my fellow AEDs were told their knock-off time is 4.30pm. On my first meeting with my Principal and VP, I had clarified that my family commitments meant I cannot stay back after school. They said ok, I just need to stay back for CCA.
But more and more duties were laid onto me, so I ended up having to stay back til 5pm on at least 3 days. Leaving school at 5pm means I had to rush home in a cab in order to pick Boyboy up and put him to bed. Ended up spending $15 every day in cab fare home. Not worth it.
(3) Damn lousy supervisor!
This is the main reason why I resigned.
The Head of Art in my school had gone on no-pay leave just before I came, due to health issues. So the Art department only had one remaining member, a young female Malay teacher, let's call her Z. So she become the 'queen', controlling anything to do with the department.
There is another AED in the department, so the two of us became Z's sidekicks cum personal assistants. She would expect us to move together in school as a 'team', even during free periods and lunch. She delegated tasks that were her own problem, nothing to do with the department.
She gave all her instructions verbally i.e disorganised, messy and incomplete. And fickle. We would complete a task and be told to redo it because it was not as she instructed. Because nothing was in black and white.
This was made worse because I can't meet up on weekends and evenings for random things such as buying a few art materials or checking some place out. Which in fact she can do on her own and does not need to involve us. So I was left out of the (verbal) loop on many things, making her instructions even more indecipherable.
I tried to clarify and communicate with Z, but I think she has poor EQ. She would act as if she did not hear me, no response. Even after repeated asking. It's not just me, I realised from asking around.
Worst of all, Z did not go for her Art lessons at all. She would hide in the staff room surfing or tong-ing her hair while doing 'extremely urgent admin matters'. The department was in charge of Primary 3-6 art lessons; I was tasked with P4 and 6, the other AED was thrown P3 and 5. Where's my small group?
I don't mind teaching, but only if I have control over my classrooms. No, Z insisted on deciding on the lesson plan i.e what and how to teach. She would 'ask for our ideas', but still override everything and use her initial plans even after we submitted pages of suggestions with research.
And Z is a super-procrastinator. Reminders were no use. She would confirm the lesson plan only the Sunday before the new topics began on Monday. So superwoman me had to pia all the research, powerpoints and worksheets for P3, 4, 5 and 6 overnight.
Ok if you don't have a life, but I do. I have a family to give attention to!
Then in class when I am talking and giving instructions halfway, she would suddenly appear and override my instructions in front of the whole class, apparently due to a 'flash of inspiration'. She wanted to control even simple things like which of 3 artrooms to use, when there were no one else using them except me. My students had to exit the class, pick up their bags and move in all over again.
Super undermining my authority. She also wanted to mark all the works, even when we had decided to grade based on effort. How do you do that when you are not even there?
Anyway, ended up she didn't mark the whole term's work. She decided to 'go with her instincts' and grade based on her past knowledge of the students. So kelong and unfair :(
The students learnt that anything I say doesn't count. They would keep asking "Where is Z?" and not pay attention in class. How to manage students with such an image? :(
Z ruled her classes using fear. She would be shouting at everything and anything and cursing and swearing and threatening students, even locking them in the dark storeroom. That's not my style. So every time she waltzes into the class for fun, she kills the entire atmosphere.
I ended up having to use Z's style on my students since that's the way they're used to, and it worked. But I didn't like behaving that way, and found it difficult to get rid of the negativity outside of school.
Z is also super kelong, as all the external instructors we hire turned out to be her friends, and her boyfriends gets paid lots to do many artworks around the school that are not even suitable for the students e.g. an evil-looking Alice in wonderland... What the????
I didn't see the point in staying and doing the dirty job for her. I don't want to let her get away with skiving. Our expectations from students are different too; I want them to explore and learn; she wants perfect work.
And it is definitely difficult to work in a diploma-level job when I have a degree, and be treated like a servant by someone I deem so much lesser than me, in terms of both qualifications and values.
(4) Grandma is a babysitter, not an educator
My Mum offered to look after Boyboy. She would come over at 6am in the morning from across the road, so I can wash up in time for work. Felt bad about this, as it's still dark and dangerous at that time.
She would lie in bed beside Boyboy and wait for him to wake up, bringing him over to her place in the afternoon til Hubby and I fetch him in the evenings.
Boyboy is ready to be potty trained, feed himself and learn to sit down and read. But all Grandma does is play with him. She says that at his age he should play more. Yes, but life skills are also important.
Grandma also looks after Boyboy and Boyboy alone. My house windows are not open, left the way it is the when we leave home. My home is super dirty as I am not home to clean it. Every day one weekend is spent at the in-laws, leaving one miserable day to do everything, while looking after Boyboy.
Boyboy's clothes are not washed until I realise he has run out of pyjamas. His nails are not trimmed until I realise it's painful when he scratches my face. Grandma says I can do all those when I get home.
All in all, I appreciate Grandma's efforts to take care of my son, but it's not going as ideally as I hoped. And I definitely do not want to be one of those weekend parents who dump their kid at the grandparents', only bringing them home on the weekend. That's not what being a parent is about.
Boyboy is also getting more spoilt after spending so much time with the grandparents on both sides. It's time to step in with some discipline and routine.
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In conclusion, all the crap I'm taking in this AED job is not worth the opportunity cost Boyboy is bearing.
So I've resigned again. If MOE blacklists me, then no choice also. I've almost decided not to work in such formal institutions again... too many restrictions and hierarchy and crap.
Maybe it's time to go back to being a ad-hoc art teacher...?
Labels: Designing My Future, I'm A Mummy
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