Making a commitment

As I've said before, there is a rumble of discontent at the school especially about the level of salary and the lack of teacher development. These issues have been addressed (at least partially) in various ways. However, staff morale has been low and it seems likely that the majority of the people I flew out here with will be leaving at the end of the year.

For a while it looked as though I might have been one of those people. My reasons for coming to BsAs were many: I wanted to live on a different continent (done Europe, sneezed at Africa); I wanted the opportunity to visit monuments that most people have only read about; as always, I wanted to experience a different culture albeit a 'Europeanised' one; I wanted to get back to the basics of teaching (students in a classroom, not business people in a meeting room whose attention was always focussed on their mobile phones); I wanted some professional development (sadly lacking in Italy) but most of all I needed to get away from Italy (don't take that too personally all my Italian friends but there is someone there who has broken my heart).

Last year in Milan, I did the DELTA (a professional qualification for serious teachers only). It was a lot of hard work and I thought I'd done my best. The DELTA is assessed in three parts: a) an exam - I passed that; b) a case study of an individual student - I passed that; c) teaching practice with background reading and a written assignment - I was referred on that. I didn't know I'd been referred until I'd accepted the job in BsAs and it came as something as a shock (especially in the way I found out which was via a colleague on the same course and not directly from the tutor). Referral basically means you've failed but you have the chance to make it good. For me to make it good I have to write another background assignment and have a lesson externally assessed. Not too difficult I hear you say (wait till you try it, is all I can say). Apart from summoning the necessary motivation, conversations with other DELTA qualified teachers have left me feeling a little cheated about the quality of the course I did. In addition I would have to pay for the assessor to come to me (the nearest one is in Brazil) ie flights, expenses, accomodation and Cambridge fee, all of which would be approximately the same as doing the course again because I would be bearing the cost alone.

Now this is where all that rambling begins to make sense. One of the other reasons for coming to BsAs is that the school runs the DELTA course every two years and I would be able to piggyback onto the assessor coming out for the next course. However with the ecomonic downturn, the low staff morale, the likelihood of everyone leaving at the end of the year, the lack of regular teacher development sessions (and the piss-poor wages), it seemed likely that it wouldn't be happening next year. If that was the case, I would have had to leave in order to find somewhere else to complete my DELTA. However, on Tuesday L, U and myself sat down with the director and told him that we were prepared to commit to staying for the second year on the condition that the school runs the DELTA. He assured us that the school has every intention of running the course and will be seeking candidates from outside the school to ensure this happens.

So people it looks like I'm here until December 2007 as originally planned. Obviously if the DELTA doesn't run here next year I'll have to leave earlier and the director knows this but the look on his face when we said we were prepared to stay for a second year was 'enlightening'. I have the feeling that apart from the DoS and ADoS, we three will be the only full time teachers remaining which will make us the big guys in the playground next year! (oh, god not responsibility - I can handle anything but responsibility).

Update
I found out today (on the grapevine) that the director was horrified when the three of us asked to talk to him because he thought we were resigning. (As if I'd need to do that as part of a delegation!).