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What's the Worst?

Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:22 pm
by PsyGuy
Weve often talked about directly or in passing about those train wreck ISs and the experiences. Inspired by a recent post (@Nomad68), and without naming and shaming (forum rules), whats the worst IS experience any of membership want to share?

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 1:00 am
by migratingbird
New school opened by a big brand company in Africa. Arrived to find school a building site. Company refused to believe average rental rates so forced to live in the boarding house - walls were still damp and mould was rife. Had to walk through school to get home. After being told we would have 300 children, we opened with 35 kids from nursery to Y10 - I had 2 in my class. We had to prepare amazing displays for a parent cocktail evening with no coloured paper, no internet, no printer, and no photocopier. And no pencils. Regularly got paid a week late. Every single resource bought had to be approved by the mother company, even a few cheap plastic skipping ropes to entertain these children who were studying in a building site. Went through 3 principals in my two years. Some local staff had contract terms changed, meaning they weren't paid for summer break...and were told this as they returned from said break. It hasn't got any better since I left.

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 4:06 pm
by shawanda
Starting at a school this school year and within weeks the school's neighborhood, and just yesterday, the school's campus itself, descending into a war zone - literally. Utterly horrifying. I thought by skipping on Africa, ME, and South Asia I would at least avoid open warfare. Troops on campus yesterday disabused me of that notion. I learned that it's been almost this bad before, but not for over 30 years. Great city/country otherwise, but if I fear for my life, what's the point?

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:42 pm
by Alexandru
I posted this on this forum a long time ago, but here it is again.

My worst experience was at a school in Latin America. We were told by a colleague that a man from a cartel was killed in our backyard, and my roommate took a selfie with the body. That was maybe a month before we moved in. We wanted to move to a different part of the city after hearing that story. After one of my friends begged and begged the director, we finally got moved to a decent place. However, two of my roommates had had enough, so they left the school two days apart in October without telling the school. My boss was a lunatic, and he asked me to take a lie detector test because he didn't believe me when I told him that I didn't know why they left or where they went. I told him that I didn't think it would be professional to take the test. He continued to argue with me about how, if he was me, he would take the test because he would have nothing to hide. Then, he told me that he was going to take extra money out of my paycheck to cover the rent of our apartment since they left. I ended up leaving in December, along with all of the other expat teachers.

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 8:57 pm
by Teach1010
Wow, @shawanda and @Alexandru. That's terrifying. Would you mind sharing what countries this stuff happened in so the rest of us can be aware of the risks if we end up with an offer in that country?

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 2:03 pm
by shawanda
A cursory review of the international news would reveal where I am. But here's a hint: it's what the Portuguese call a "little farm," and indeed, it is full of animals. :-/

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:42 pm
by Teach1010
Where in the world is Shawanda San Diego? I'm afraid I might need another hint... my cursory searches of international news for countries that are not in Africa, the ME, or South Asia and that have cities unexpectedly descending into war zones is not producing a clear match.

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:53 pm
by vandsmith
venezuela?

v.

Comment

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 10:58 pm
by PsyGuy
Venezuela was my conclusion as well.

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:45 am
by Teach1010
The comment about "it's a great country/city otherwise" is what made me think it couldn't be Venezuela. I don't know anyone who would call Venezuela a "great country" right now. She made it sound like she was surprised that there was conflict.

Discussion

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:16 am
by PsyGuy
I just concluded it had to be in LCSA and Venezuela is the closest to a conflict occurring.

Venezuela isnt that bad if you have dollars and are outside the hot zones of conflict.

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:10 am
by reisgio
Gosh, I hope most of you don't teach high school students how to conduct research, because you are horrible at it.

This mystery is not hard to solve at all.

Hint 1: She mentioned the place could be referred to something in Portuguese. How many Portuguese speaking countries are there?! Starting with the most populous in terms of people and international schools, that leads us to Brazil.

Hint 2: What means little farm in Portuguese? Go to Google and you will find Rocinha, which is the name of Brazil's most famous favela (slum).

Hint 3: Rocinha has been in the news in recent weeks for massive violence (most newspapers are referring to it as open warfare in the middle of the city, which is spilling over into the city's most elite neighborhoods like Gavea) between drug gangs (Shawanda referred to these as animals) and the army:
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/25/roc ... -violence/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... and-police
http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/r ... st-favela/

Hint 4: What is right across the street from one of the entrances to Rocinha? Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro, the American School of Rio de Janeiro.

Hint 5: Going to Google News and typing "Escola Americana" brings up multiple articles in Portuguese about how the school was shut down for days because of the violence in Rocinha. Tanks were right one Estrada da Gavea, the road EARJ is on.

Shawanda, I pray you are safe and that the violence has now subsided. As international teachers, we all should be better informed about what our colleagues are facing in regions around the world. Even "great counties" can often see sudden or prolonged bouts of violence (anybody following Barcelona this weekend?).

Shawanda, assuming you are safe (safety first), what do I win for getting it right?

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 10:57 am
by idonteven
reisgio wrote:
> Gosh, I hope most of you don't teach high school students how to conduct
> research, because you are horrible at it.
>
> This mystery is not hard to solve at all.
>
> Hint 1: She mentioned the place could be referred to something in
> Portuguese. How many Portuguese speaking countries are there?! Starting
> with the most populous in terms of people and international schools, that
> leads us to Brazil.
>
> Hint 2: What means little farm in Portuguese? Go to Google and you will
> find Rocinha, which is the name of Brazil's most famous favela (slum).
>
> Hint 3: Rocinha has been in the news in recent weeks for massive violence
> (most newspapers are referring to it as open warfare in the middle of the
> city, which is spilling over into the city's most elite neighborhoods like
> Gavea) between drug gangs (Shawanda referred to these as animals) and the
> army:
> https://theintercept.com/2017/09/25/roc ... -violence/
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... and-police
>
> http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/r ... st-favela/
>
> Hint 4: What is right across the street from one of the entrances to
> Rocinha? Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro, the American School of Rio de
> Janeiro.
>
> Hint 5: Going to Google News and typing "Escola Americana" brings
> up multiple articles in Portuguese about how the school was shut down for
> days because of the violence in Rocinha. Tanks were right one Estrada da
> Gavea, the road EARJ is on.
>
> Shawanda, I pray you are safe and that the violence has now subsided. As
> international teachers, we all should be better informed about what our
> colleagues are facing in regions around the world. Even "great
> counties" can often see sudden or prolonged bouts of violence (anybody
> following Barcelona this weekend?).
>
> Shawanda, assuming you are safe (safety first), what do I win for getting
> it right?

Yes, I'm sure their researching skills are terribly inadequate; it couldn't possibly be that they didn't care enough to bother Googling anything.

Hopefully you will have the opportunity to regale us with your high school level researching skills in the future.

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 11:42 am
by reisgio
idonteven wrote:

> Yes, I'm sure their researching skills are terribly inadequate; it couldn't possibly
> be that they didn't care enough to bother Googling anything.
>
> Hopefully you will have the opportunity to regale us with your high school level
> researching skills in the future.

Took me three minutes genius. Have you gotten a job yet idonteven?

Re: What's the Worst?

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:01 pm
by idonteven
What makes you think anyone else would spend 3 minutes on that? Seems like an inefficient use of time when the answer will eventually come anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2y40U2LvKY