I think the main characters in this episode of eslteachersboard.com should all get together for a jolly good knees up

I'm another of the "bare minimum" low lives. My "school" isn't a school. It's nothing more than a bookshop. I do demos to attract new kids to the school and also keep the ones i've got. I've got some wonderful students. But sadly, I also have a couple who are just... pieces of shit. I still get on with them most of the time, but they give my TA nightmares and really upset them. These kids are disrespectful and rude but I never know exactly what's going on, because the TA wont tell me and my Chinese isn't good enough.

Anyway, I just want to stress the fact I am a lazy bugger! I came to China in particular, because I could live cheaply and work 20 hours a week just for being white! OK I said, sounds great! I spent 7 hours lesson planning for one days work once, never again. I realised that the main thing is having enough games and flashcards to entertain the kids. This was the business of the school, nothing else. So I did my research, chose about 20 games and use the whiteboard flipcharts sparingly because...they take time to make. Time that could be spent "being busy doing nothing"

But where is my sense of responsibility I hear you cry! I make the kids repeat the target language and sentence structure as often as I can without them getting too bored. It's my job to entertain them after all and make them like me, which they do because i'm funny and ideal for this kind of crappy language mill! However, i'm tired of it now. Tired of the Chinese nonsense and hideous greed. They could run the school miles better if they weren't so god damn greedy! I had a meeting with the new owner recently as I said I was leaving. I gave her my advice, she took it and is implementing the changes so that new deechers might want to stick around longer than six months. I'm also tired of being used as some sort of wind-up toy. You all know what I mean by that as I work for an ESL school.

I do the bare minimum in lesson planning. I know what games I can do and they are in my notes section of the scoreboard. If I forget what to do exactly during a lesson (which rarely happens) i'll just check my list of games and pick one. No harm done. My kids are between 4 and 10 years old and the TA's are more involved in their grammar than I am anyway. I'm just the oral coach, nothing more. I control the classroom environment as best I can.This job, is just that...a job. I'm not paid to lesson plan but I am payed to entertain the kids, so I do! I wont listen to my "superiors" and talk of responsibility when the company runs in such an idiotic way. They don't deserve my full sense of proffessionalism in any way. They've slapped me round the face with it too many times to the point where I just "do my bit" in the class and as long as the kids are happy that's it.

Making elaborate, thoughtful lesson plans takes too much time when I can just as easily, play a ton of FC games instead. I'm still doing what's required, see

Anyway

All the best folks and keep up the good work!