The whole GEPIK Orientation thing is really weird and confusing, because I had assumed that mine was next week. However, apparently the elementary school teachers from GEPIK have been backlogged, so they did not have any room for any of the teachers that started this March.
This completely does not make sense to me, because this orientation that starts tomorrow is going to be filled with teachers that started in September, which are people that already halfway done with their contract. Apparently the next orientation might not be until October. Having an orientation when you already done months and months of work already?! Absolutely weird.
Of course for the secondary orientation, they have enough room, so Aaron's going to his in two weeks, but I have to wait until later. Blah.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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I’m not sure it matters a whole lot when the orientation is. Most of what you learn from teaching you learn by doing.
ReplyDeleteIn many respects, it can be helpful to have gotten your feet wet first rather than being bombarded with teaching ideas when you first arrive before you’ve even set foot in a classroom.
I know I’m glossing over the silliness you’re talking about. That does sound disorganized to have orientation that late. But I don’t know. When I did the JET Program in Japan, I thought the mid-year seminars were more helpful than the orientations at the beginning of the year simply because by then I knew my students and what classes I was teaching.
It sounds backwards, but there’s a lot of building your wings on the way down kind of stuff with teaching.
By the way, thank you for blogging about GEPIK. It’s been really informative. I’m currently getting my materials together for my application.