Lacey:
After 3 weeks of working for Maplebear, we decided enough was enough. There were too many things that we found them to be dishonest about and not willing to help us out on. For starters, we both thought (because we were told) that we were teaching kindergarten. As you already know, that was not true because I ended up "teaching" 2-4 year olds. We were also unhappy about our super long school day, when all the other teachers days' were almost an hour and a half shorter. There were also some monetary issues that we were frustrated with.
It was on Sunday, August 26 that we decided we can't do this and need to start looking for other options. We were happy and excited about the possibilities we had started to find and wanted to feel more comfortable in our positions. The next day at school we had parent meetings. We had to make presentations for the parents telling them a little bit about who we were, what we are currently doing in the classroom, what things we will cover and our goals. I had a nice little power point with some pictures of places I had been in Vietnam and explained my goals, etc. This was all very hard, beings we had made the decision to not continue to work there! Unfortunately, the parents loved my presentation and wanted to know how long my contract was for, how they could get me to stay longer and that if I needed anything to just ask them!
The head Vietnamese lady from our school and the Canadian principal were also there for my presentation and were telling me they needed to find ways to get me to stay as well. Take the knife out of my back! I felt terrible!!!
The next day, we had set up a Skype interview with another school, Morningstar, over our lunch break. We talked to the director, the head teacher and another lady from Administration. We felt very good about the interview and about the school. Miss Trieu, the director, really wanted us to come see the school before next week when we would start. We told her that we were employed currently and didn't know if that would work. We thought about it more and decided to both take a sick day on Wednesday! This was a very wise choice because it was imperative to get a feel for the school. That day we discussed salary, holidays and the works and ended up signing a contract that day!
When we reflected on that, we felt that was a pretty bold move beings that we had been at Maplebear for almost a month and still hadn't signed a contract (because there were things we needed changed and they wouldn't do it!)! It was actually a HUGE blessing that we didn't sign a contract because it made our parting of paths immensely smoother! We weren't legally obligated to x, y, z because we never signed.
After signing our contracts we went and looked for new apartments because this was in a different part of town. When we were finished there we came back to the school for a parent night, where we got to meet some potential parents. Morningstar has been operating as a kindergarten since 1995 and has a great reputation and they are now opening an elementary school, starting with 1st grade and adding on every year after that.
We decided that it was probably time to tell Maplebear that we were quitting (since we had new jobs that were starting the following week!). Being good Mennonites, we were NOT exciting about the confrontation that needed to happen! We waited outside the school Thursday morning for the principal. We were all supposed to get on the van to go to our school, but we told her we had to talk. We basically told her that we weren't happy and could not continue to work at Maplebear. We told her we had a resignation letter to send her. To say the least she was shocked, but took it like a champ! There was no yelling or hard feelings. She seemed to be very understanding. She told us that we should finish out the week, to make things look better. I said there was no way I could go to school after this. Long story short, we did not finish out the week, but instead looked at more apartments!
The one unfortunate thing about this situation, which we accepted beforehand, was that we didn't get paid 1 single DONG for our 3 and a half weeks of work at Maplebear!
Lance: The word freedom comes to mind when I think about our choice to switch jobs. All jobs have some aspects that are annoying or require a little gumption to complete job requirements. However, I feel it was our lack of control and the fact that our concerns went unheard, that made our existing at MB impossible. It is part of a large corporation and it really treats its teachers that way, it felt very controlling. I do not want to say purely negative things as there are so many friendly, helpful and genuinely concerned people at Maplebear. But, it is in the end, a corporation and does not have the ability to meet the needs of different teachers with different needs. After 3 weeks of long days in which we really didn't enjoy our day, we decided we needed to look around. We are finding that less stressful, shorter days sure make us happier and a lot easier to see each other after the schooll day!! The fact that Morningstar has one person in charge and she gives plenty of creative freedom makes this new job very exciting. Expectations are high, so we will have to work hard and keep thinking of ways to improve our new school. Which isn't hard when you are enjoying yourself.
Lance: The word freedom comes to mind when I think about our choice to switch jobs. All jobs have some aspects that are annoying or require a little gumption to complete job requirements. However, I feel it was our lack of control and the fact that our concerns went unheard, that made our existing at MB impossible. It is part of a large corporation and it really treats its teachers that way, it felt very controlling. I do not want to say purely negative things as there are so many friendly, helpful and genuinely concerned people at Maplebear. But, it is in the end, a corporation and does not have the ability to meet the needs of different teachers with different needs. After 3 weeks of long days in which we really didn't enjoy our day, we decided we needed to look around. We are finding that less stressful, shorter days sure make us happier and a lot easier to see each other after the schooll day!! The fact that Morningstar has one person in charge and she gives plenty of creative freedom makes this new job very exciting. Expectations are high, so we will have to work hard and keep thinking of ways to improve our new school. Which isn't hard when you are enjoying yourself.
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