Oh the drama!

Hey bloggers. I know this post is a little late but man have I got a story for you. So here's the background: Chinese education agents are people who charge 50-60,000 RMB per student to "assist" them in applying to foreign universities. They tell their clients to send their TOEFL and SAT scores directly to them and there are rumors that these agents photoshop their scores and submit them on behalf of the student (again the altered scores are rumors that aren't proven). These agents also write application essays for students and apply for schools with them as well. If you're interested in learning a little more about them, Click Here.
Rewind to last year in my second month working as a school counselor. A student comes to me and asks if I can look over her essay. She sits next to me while I ask her questions and she make the appropriate changes. A couple days later I get an email from my then supervisor, now coworker, that says, "I saw you working on a college application essay. This is not your job. The student has an agent to do that for her." You can imagine what uproars came from that email.
Fast forward to spring 2014. My American boss starts getting verbal for our soon to be seniors to stay away from agents because the foreign teachers are more than happy to edit essays with them FOR FREE! We are paid to be their teacher... AND we tell them the truth. Last year's seniors contacted me recently and told me about how their agents told them all kinds of lies and if they had known then what they know now, they wouldn't have paid so much money to work with an agent. So agents lie to students to keep their business alive. So anyway, editing essays appears in our contract for our second year so that when someone says it's not our job we can say, "yes it is and here's the proof."
Fast forward to Fall 2014. I have a number of students who are in and out of class (no surprise there). Yet I keep getting requests to look at application essays. The only difference between this year and last is that I'm getting these requests from my Chinese coworkers. They turn to me and say, "Chelsey I have sent you two essays." I ask, "When do you need it by?" At the start of the semester it was, "not until next week." Plenty of time for me to track down the student in class and say, "Let's work on it." In the last month, the answer became, "It's due by midnight tonight." So of course what they're basically saying is, "do it fast and don't talk to the student." A fight breaks out over this and foreign teachers start making it a policy that if they are to read an essay the student must ask, not the Chinese counselors.
Last week we discovered that my Chinese boss, Sharon, and a few other people (Chinese counselors) are being paid AS AGENTS to do the work. That's why the increase in essays has been so high. We brought this issue up to Sharon and said that we weren't given enough time to edit essays and she said, "the PS is the most important piece, it's true. So we need to support our students as best we can." I refused to edit a few essays because the counselors refused to tell me who the student was. So an American coworker did some asking and we discovered the following: Sharon charges each student 50,000RMB as a basic fee for the Chinese counselors to write essays for students and get them edited by foreign teachers. She is guaranteed a bonus of a few thousand RMB per acceptance letter the student receives. The student doesn't need to do very much work in their application process. The agency is under another name so that the school isn't associated (at least not directly). When we hinted to Sharon that we knew what was going on she told us that we are to just keep supporting the students as best we can. We aren't sure what will happen next but all foreign teachers are banning together to stop this illegal and unethical practice. I'm really nervous because it's already causing tension in the counseling office. Grace (one of the members of the agency and my Chinese coworker/previous supervisor) yelled at Sharon in Chinese and started crying. Once she left Sharon told Michael (the other American counselor at this school) that we need to start helping Grace by telling the foreign teachers to stop "complaining" about having to fix essays for students without the student being present. Grace refuses to talk to either of us and Sharon is constantly in and out of our office to make sure we're still working hard on application essays. I hope this gets settled soon. Until then... Laters.

Illness plagues my school

Hey bloggers. Well like my title suggests, illness has taken over at my school. There were three confirmed cases of chicken pox and a number of faculty members who have colds (including me) :( I got a scratchy throat on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning I was hacking up all kinds of gross stuff. My chest hurts from coughing so much. Thursday was Thanksgiving dinner and there were so many problems. The students didn't bring enough of the ingredients, some of them couldn't find what they were looking for and didn't ask for help in looking for it (they just gave up), teachers didn't really want any of the food we were making... the list goes on and on. But despite all the stress it caused me, it was successful because the students had a great time. It was a super long day and I thought I was going to die at the end of it. I couldn't stop coughing and I was pretty done after dinner. Friday was a half day, thank God! And I slept most of Saturday and Sunday. I just wanted to get over my cold.... and I'm still not over it :( The SATs are this Saturday so about 90% of my students from the AP side are gone this week to prep for them. I have my observation on Tuesday so I'm pretty nervous about that since I probably won't have many students. Also on Tuesday I have my showing of the charity concert dance I'm working on. Adeline and I will be dancing while James plays the piano. James chose Magic Waltz as our music and my boss wanted me to work with Adeline who will be dancing a traditional Chinese dance called Peacock Dance. Basically, I will be doing ballet while she does Chinese dance and James plays a waltz. This should be interesting. We're meeting tonight to see what we can put together. I'm pretty stressed about having all these things coming up. On the plus side it sounds like I got my no Christmas celebration wish. The charity concert is on the 20th of December so planning Christmas parties for the week of the 22nd was just too much to do. Not to mention all students already got Halloween and the seniors got Thanksgiving. Christmas is just one too many celebrations for the first semester when we also have to deal with classes, midterms, and finals all at the same time. My students don't even want to celebrate Christmas with me or any of their other English teachers. They said last year it was boring. Oh well. I don't mind if they don't wanna celebrate :D This week is a long week so I'll definitely be keeping my head down and trudging along. And I do mean that literally because it's windy and 8 degrees Fahrenheit today so head down is what I need to do this week. I'll try to update you next week if I remember. Until then... Laters!

Week one of craziness!

Hey bloggers! Welcome to Chelsey will go crazy: week 1. Yesterday was the start of Midterms and today and tomorrow are midterm days. Then grades are due Saturday so I have three days to grade and submit my midterm scores. I also have to teach regular classes on Thursday and Friday so I'm doing a lot in a short amount of time. Then next week is Thanksgiving week so I'm gonna be taking inventory of everything students need to bring in for dinner Thursday night. I'm pretty stressed out because I know people are gonna get really mad if I ask them to buy stuff and donate it to the dinner. The center is already donating turkeys but other teachers are going to want the center to reimburse them for the other stuff they bring. Basically I'm preparing dinner for 130 people. It's gonna suck. After Thanksgiving is open house and conferences for year 10 and 11 but I'm not really affected by that since I teach year 12. Of course shortly after that is national exams so they're not gonna wanna learn anything from me, they'll just wanna prepare for national exams. December 20th is the Charity concert and I'm working on getting selections done for that. Sharon wants me to dance again but I said that I need students who know how to dance if I'm doing that again. It was FAR too hard to create a dance for a student who hadn't ever danced before. She also wanted me to give her movements that were not in her range of motion. If you're not flexible enough to do the splits, you can't ask me to choreograph a dance with you doing the splits. It just doesn't work that way.

Speaking of choreography, my club has officially been changed. I am no longer creating a live musical because students don't come to rehearsals every week. I'm luck if they come once a month. So we're gonna film it and put it together in a short film. I'm not really sure how that'll work but I know for sure we can't do a live performance. I'll be spending a lot of time working on the editing once that's all done. I can't wait for this club to be done.

On the plus side, I'm helping Michael in creating a real counseling program for our school! It's been really fun to help with this project. Basically what it consists of is getting students to fill out surveys on university and career interests and then putting them in groups for counseling sessions. I'm doing TRUE counseling work! This is so exciting! Thursday is our first small group session. We're meeting with students who are looking for schools that have the option of post graduate studies. There's 7 students and Michael and I will be co-facilitating it. I'm pretty excited. I'll let you know how it goes! Until then... Laters!

Sick again :(

Hey bloggers! Here's the update. China blocked Viber (but only 67% what ever that means) so I have a hard time keeping in touch with my family :( Last week was Halloween and the year 10 and 11 field trip. I was planning it all month and the Halloween party even longer than that. It was stressful but that's one less activity I have to plan. I asked some of the students who went on the field trip what their favorite activity was and they all said that the party was their favorite! It was an incredible ego boost and was nice to know that I'm doing my job well. At least one of my titles >.< But like last year I'm sick again thanks to the rain and camping in the cold. I spent the rest of the weekend recovering. My body aches and my head hurts on and off. But I'm one month closer to being done here! This new director of student affairs title is killing me.... My students stopped showing up to club because mid terms is in two weeks and they're all stressed out. I get it, I really do. But they have to understand that I'm creating a musical for them and they're gonna look bad if they don't perform it! It's gonna suck if some of them put all this work into preparing for it and then they don't do anything for it... Oh well. They're choice right? This week is a long week so I'm just going through the motions right now. Next week is a short week so I'll rest a lot right before mid terms. This month's project is Thanksgiving dinner. I'm supposed to plan the Thanksgiving dinner for the seniors and faculty. This is yet another stressful event for me to plan. Last year we all gave crap to Sarah because she made us do this dinner. Our director loved it so much last year that we're doing it again this year and this time I'll get all the crap for planning it all. It's gonna suck so much. I wonder if my boss chose me for this job because his wife got mad at me last year for not making sure she got to a wedding. But that's a whole different story. This blog has been all over the place because that's how my thought process is pretty much. It's time to go.... I'll update you again soon. Until then... Laters!

Busy busy busy!

Hey bloggers! I managed to find some time to update you all about this past week/weekend :D Last weekend I went with 7 of my friends to EuroPark! It was pretty fun but I got a massive headache from the day :( So here's how it went... The previous week Chinese Michael helps us rent a van and a driver for the day. Saturday morning 7:30am we all get picked up. We ride for an hour out to the park and get dropped off. The driver leaves and goes TROPO in the (extremely dry) Yellow River. We enjoy the park, which has carnival rides like sizzler, group sized zipper, parachute drop, etc. (of course none of them are called these names) as well as big roller coasters that go incredibly fast and feel incredibly unsafe. But we still went on them and it was still fun! It was no Disneyland though ;P Around 5 we get picked up and the driver has two still flopping around fish in plastic bags. He gives Chinese Michael one as a thank you for hiring him and he keeps the other one in front by him. Every now and then the fish would flop around and fall off the seat! It was entertaining. It was a lot of fun :) 3 Chinese colleagues and 4 other foreigners all enjoying each others' company.

This week has been crazy busy. I've been reading through application essays, meeting with students to talk about college options, and helping students figure out whether the ACT or SAT is right for them. It's been productive but not the most fun.

Monday night I had club night. I had two lead roles quit my musical so now I'm working to replace them. I don't have enough students to have understudies so it's been an interesting process. Next week I won't have club because it's the year 10 and 11 field trip. Despite all the changes and the stress that this field trip/Halloween party has put on me, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the final plans. Assuming all the supplies make it to the party, it should be fun. I just hope BDed doesn't take credit for the whole thing like he always does. Ugh!


I'm not doing anything special this weekend since it's a long week. I'll go pick up Halloween party supplies but that's it. Having a long week into a week where I can't sleep in is gonna suck! I know my colleagues are gonna blame me for the school not giving us our half day because we're pulling an extra long day for the field trip. I just hope they go easy on me.  I hope they realize it's not my fault. I can't wait until this year is done! This is way too stressful. I'll definitely keep you up dated. Until then... Laters!

Sorry for this update being so late!

Hey bloggers! I know it’s been way to long since I updated you but here’s the story as to what’s been keeping me from getting on here. First I got back mid August and my boss announced to everyone (including me) that I’ve been promoted to co-director of student affairs. I was excited at first but then realized that I wasn’t getting a pay raise. So I’m doing five jobs with the same pay as everyone else who’s only doing one job. For the last two months it’s been non-stop running from office to office doing one thing after the other. I’ve basically become the messenger of news to the foreign teacher about everything that is extra- and co-curricular related. Don’t get me wrong, I love having this title but when I’m being stretched over three floors of our building, I start to feel a bit under appreciated. So this is what’s been going on at the school. Well that and the fact that our semester just went from being 23 weeks to being 24 weeks. That made me swear really loudly and then want to cry. This means that our Spring Festival holiday is a week shorter than they promised us it would be. I’m pretty upset about it.

A couple weeks ago was National Holiday and due to the stress of my new title, I decided to use my week and go home to see my wonderful family and the love of my life. Shout out to Brendan for helping me get home! Shout out to Troy for being the most supportive boyfriend I could ask for in my time of need. Shout out to Mom and Dad for always standing by my side and helping me see everything in perspective. It felt like the end of the world when I was going through the stress of the new responsibilities but after talking to them, they made me realize that I could get through it and I shouldn’t quit. Yea, I wanted to quit because my boss wanted to take away my counseling title so that I could be a full time English teacher. But I fought it and showed that my students saw me as more of a counselor than an English teacher so he let me keep my title.

I got back to work after a week of rest and rejuvenation in Hawaii. I figured out that now that the school year was back to a regular schedule, my workload was cut in half. I only have one student affairs project each month, instead of three! This month, of course, I’m helping the seniors plan the Halloween party. Next month will be Thanksgiving. Then the following month will be crazy because we have both Christmas and the charity concert. But that’s nothing compared to tenth grade military training, college recommendations, and sports day planning from September. I officially hate the start of new school years. I got so tired from my days that I didn’t even go to the gym for three weeks! It was brutal.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on for the last month and a half. I’ve been crazy and Troy has been SUPER understanding of my bitter attitudes. I’ve actually picked a few fights with him and we’ve had our disagreements but we always go to sleep with dry eyes and smiles on our faces. It’s amazing how stressed a relationship can get when distance and time is put between an otherwise loving couple. Something to keep in mind when counseling students who will be in long distance relationships in college. I hope next week I’ll be able to update you about drama club. So far we haven’t had anything super exciting happen. Until then… Laterz!

Back to Work!

Hey everyone! I know I told you I’d keep you updated while I was home, but let’s be honest… If you know anything about me, you know that I keep EXTREMELY busy. I got home and stayed off my computer almost the entire time. When I did go on the computer, I either wasn’t on my own or I was only on for 5-10 minutes. So long story short, home was amazing! I missed my family way more than I thought I did and seeing them a lot was so nice. The twins got to know me a little better and Ryden told me I was his best friend (gotta love 3-year-olds). I also got to see some old friends and hang out with new ones :) How did I meet those new friends you ask? Well lemme tell you about my new boyfriend :D Yes everyone, I am currently dating an amazing guy named Troy and so far we’ve found that we’re perfect for each other. We spent a lot of time together while I was home and we decided to do the distance :( It’s been hard so far but we both want it to work so we’re gonna make it work. Aside from being home I went to Cali with my fam to go to a Thomas the train engine event. It was actually a lot of fun. The kids definitely loved it! We went shopping and just hung out as a family. After that I took a solo trip up to Seattle to visit Tiger and Jeremy. Troy wasn’t overly excited about me going and neither were his friends but Troy said that if it was important to me to go, he wasn’t gonna stop me no matter how uncomfortable he was (I told you he’s amazing). I got the closure I needed and confirmed that I wanted to keep Jeremy as a friend but that was it. I also got to see (and say good bye) to my beloved kitty, who btw was bitter about me leaving him :’( He definitely remembered me for better and for worse. I’m not sure if/when I’ll ever see him again. But moving away from the sad and on to the happy…. I’m back in China and I started working from the day after I got back into Jinan. I met the new teachers the day I got back and they’re super nice. Kevin and Sean are from Ireland so sometimes they have to speak slower for me to understand them >.< Colin is from Cali and he’s expecting a new born sometime within the next month. He also has a 2 year old so it’s like being back home only without twins! Haha. Work has been boring because all we’re doing is the same thing we’ve been doing the last two months of work: planning. Planning schedules, planning lessons, planning meetings, etc. I have A LOT of meetings to attend each month so I’m not looking forward to this year in terms of meetings. I’m still teaching grade 12 and counseling everyone who needs it. I’m also the TAG chair, that hasn’t changed since last year. This year, I got more resume bling! I’m the co-director of student affairs (my boss wants me to be titled assistant director because that’s his title but the director of student affairs wants me to be the director while he’s the assistant so we compromised… I’m co-director). I’m also an assistant homeroom teacher, which means I have the same responsibilities as the homeroom teacher when I’m at school but I don’t have to spend any nights with the kids like the actual homeroom teacher has to. I’m also a part of the leadership team (leadership is the same level as administration). So I have a few new titles and it’s making me realize that I might just get experience in being an admin this year. Maybe it’ll inspire me to find a new career path? I’m not sure what life has in store for me because I still really wanna dance for Disney. But realistically is being a Disney dancer practical for a 26-year-old? I’m not sure. It’s hard to be potentially too old for your dream but too young for your career. For now, I’m just waiting for signs to point me in the right direction. I have no doubt that the universe has my back and will tell me what I’m meant for when I’m ready to hear it. I’ll just have to be patient (that’s Troy’s and my mantra >.<). So now that I’m back on a schedule and in a pattern, I’ll be updating you as I used to… Once a week :) Until then… Laters!