The sinking feeling began day one when we were cornered at orientation to accept different positions than we were initially offered. They wanted us to give them a response on the spot we told them we needed to think about it over night. We told them yes the next morning but learned that our original positions had already been offered and accepted by others at our orientation before we had said yes.
Honestly, the whole orientation process was a load of B.S. minus the work visa paperwork. We spent three whole days confined, being lectured, and receiving a lot of useless information. We got our contracts and that has proven to be the most useful piece of paper from orientation.
Orientation ended on a Saturday and we started teaching on Monday. We had no curriculum, no books, no class schedule, and no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
I honestly have felt like I've been trying to play catch-up since day one.
By the end of our first full week of teaching I had received an email from our human resources representation that "my teaching needed to improve or I would be put on a probationary period." Of course I freaked out. I was essentially being told that I sucked at a new job that I had never done before with absolutely no guidance. The first of many instances that I was grateful for Genie.
Our MK curriculum consultant, Trent, arrived the following week for our first observation and to help us out with any issues we were having. By this point in time we had still not received our curriculum, we had no idea if we were teaching what we were supposed to be, and I felt as if I was marching towards the gallows.
My observation was scheduled for day 1 and Genie's on day 2. I felt like it went well and got some positive feedback from Trent later that afternoon. Day 2 arrives and 3 minutes before my first class he tells us that the school wants him to observe me twice and not Genie at all. Cue me freaking out and Genie being pissed (she had planned a really cool class for this observation and had every right to be angry). Second observation went better than the first but I was still on edge because there was still the possibility that I could be let go.
Towards the end of Day 2 we sat down for a meeting with Trent to "discuss" any concerns or issues we had. At this point, we all commented on the lack of curriculum to which we got a "we're working on it" response. Genie brought up her work load, which was ridiculous for what we were being paid. For those of you who have taught, Genie had 18 preps each week and I had 15, 3 of her preps were also for 2 hour classes. Her concerns were shrugged off and she was essentially told to "deal with it."
The following week we learn that our lesson plans for the entire month of May were due by the end of that week. Now this was probably the third week of May so it wasn't a ridiculous request but our contracts stipulates that they are due every other week. So we spent our evenings busting our butts to finish lesson plans by the deadline.
We keep moving forward. Spending about 80% of our weekend in Lofter working on lesson plans. Our only reprieve was the Saturday night market. It's still my favorite part of the week.
Jump ahead to our Lao Visa Run. This was the only thing that MediaKids did accurately. They took care of the paperwork and the photos we needed. We had no issues with this one bit.
June brought another lesson plan deadline from Trent...this was for the entire semester due at the end of June. I told my mother, a recently retired teacher, about this and she was shocked by this 'mandate.' You can guess what our weeknights and weekends looked like. This was again a violation of our contract.
Towards the end of June, Genie sent an email to the HR team reaching out about our issues. In this email she made sure to reference the two contract violations (lesson plans and the fact that we got paid on a different day than what our contract said). She made sure to reference how much time she was working outside of school hours, the lack of help from our curriculum consultant, the fact that she repeatedly did not receive lab materials, and the additional competition we were required to help some of our students with. She asked that they re-evaluate pay and look into compensation for the extra work we all had to do otherwise she would resign. Four days later she received an acknowledgment email that they had received her email.
This is where we left off with MK when we went on our school's Military break and our vacation...if you haven't read the post about our vacay you should.
This vacation turned into a working vacation. We were complaining to the boys (Martin and Johan - see post about our Visa run for how we met them) about our work situation. By this point, we had already decided that we were leaving MK and would be looking for jobs in Bangkok for the next semester. It turned out that we both interviewed for new jobs on vacation.
Out MK contracts state that if we resign with a 30 day notice we won't lose our final pay check. Genie had a start day of early September for her new job which meant that we wanted to be done with MK by mid-August with enough time to move. We did the math and submitted our resignations in mid-July so that our final day of teaching would be the last day of this aforementioned competition. MK responded within 4 hours to this email.
Thus begins a months worth of emails, line messages, and phone calls from MK. MK had already had two teachers quit at PTK and having two more would be a further detriment. We were offered a measly 2,000 baht raise to start...about $65. We turned that down.
In the meantime, we noticed that our jobs had been posted and they were stating a 50,000 baht salary. This was screenshot and sent to MK. They responded with some rehearsed jargon about offering more to someone who was coming in to take over a class mid-way into the semester. An offer was made which we rejected (I don't remember what this one was for because I deleted the email).
As a last stitch effort MK offered us 50,000 baht for our last month of the contract, by this point we were both irritated and were firm in our decision to leave. We didn't respond. This resulted in me being bombarded by line messages by our HR consultant, Ejeanne, asking if I'd seen the email, when they should expect a response, etc. These messages were coming to me on the weekend. I eventually responded to one message saying that it was the weekend, that I thought it was rude to contact me this way, and that she would get a response Monday morning during business hours.
Monday morning I responded with a "thanks but no thanks" and continued along my day. I felt a wave a of relief and continued working on the last few classes I needed to prep including prepping three days for a substitute due to the upcoming competition.
One afternoon I was busy working on a power point presentation when Tum, our PTK/MK liaison and English coordinator (whose English is that of a kindergartner), interrupts me shoving his cell phone in my face. He tells me some lady is on the phone for me, I didn't recognize the name and asked him to repeat. He then responded that is was the CEO of MK. I huffed and grabbed the phone.
This resulted in a nearly 25 minute conversation of her practically begging us to stay, she asked me about 7 times to stay. She wanted to know why we were leaving to which I responded, there was an email sent back in June that outlined our reasons and she should ask her HR department to see it. The best part of this conversation was Genie writing funny things to me on notebook paper while I dealt with this woman. By the time I finally got her to hang up my day and motivation was ruined.
Genie learned one day via a conversation with one of our co-Thai teachers that MK told the school we were leaving because we were homesick and were going back to the States. This was an out right lie. MK had already lost so much face with PTK I'm not surprised that they lied.
We were pretty much left alone for awhile which I was grateful for. The next time we saw any MK people was our last weekend with PTK when we had parent/teacher conferences. We avoided them like the plague and refused to wear our MK uniform. The only thing we were told to do regarding our departure was to let our HR rep know when we were leaving the country so they could cancel our work permit as they have 15 days to do so after we leave. Noted.
We had a list of of things we needed to finish before the end of our contract; returning the ipads, leaving our current grades for the new teachers, a note for them, and leaving all of books. Pretty easy to do...of course we got multiple reminders which is annoying. I don't need you to hold my hand, MK.
We are now done with MK...or so we thought. It turns out that Genie's new school has been having some hiccups with obtaining her new work visa because MK never actually submitted our work visa's with the Thai government. Great. This is still being resolved while we wait for the all-clear.
If you are reading this post because you are wondering if MediaKids Academy is right for you here's a few things to consider:
- The non-B visa process was a good experience and they did this well
- This organization is geared toward recent college graduates
- We get informed of things before it is already too late for us to know about it
- Communication is horrid (both with expediency and English fluency)
- They claim to care about their teachers but I never felt cared for once
- They will corner you and ask for an immediate answer regarding location, pay, etc
- Sometimes they will unexpectedly show up at your apartment without warning or invite at odd hours of the day
- They state that they have a curriculum but often tell you that what you've been doing with said curriculum is wrong
- They say that you won't need a security deposit for your apartment but will most likely need 2,000 to 4,000 for this
- Stipend and reimbursement are not the same thing...though MK thinks they are
- You don't get paid right away, take more money than you think you'll need to for early expenses (see our post about budget for specifics)
Some of our orientation class got lucky and have been enjoying their semester in Thailand. Congrats to them. I truly am happy that they had the experience they signed on for. We did not.
Memes by Genie to further personify the experience.
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