Summer camps and holidays

ESL TEACHERS: You need to plan ahead for your time off. Your contract will state how many vacation days you are given. My contract allows me 10 business days (Monday - Friday) in the winter and 10 business days in the summer. Several other teachers in the area have 20 days winter and 5 days in the summer. Personally I like my arrangement but either will work.

You need to be proactive in scheduling your vacation time. Do not assume that your school administrators are thinking about it or planning for it. They may not even be aware of it (they may be new). The first step is to know exactly what is written in your contract. You then need to bring up the subject with your co-teacher about two months in advance. Eventually, you would like to get it in writing. I hate operating this way, but there are enough horror stories about last-minute changes that it just makes sense.

In my case, for my two weeks in the summer I emailed my co-teacher and asked if any camps had been scheduled. I then emailed and said I'd like a 4-week window so that I could shop for the best airfare. My co-teacher didn't really respond, but he was more or less OK with it. I then looked online and found the airfare I wanted for my China trip. After I booked it, I gave him the dates. The school then filled in the four weeks of English camps into the other weeks. Basically, the summer session if 6.5 weeks (July 17th - September 1st). I use two for vacation, they use four for English camp.

This Youtube video pretty well highlights the frustration of last-minute changes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIeHeJ0V4LY&feature=player_embedded

NOTE: Your co-teacher is caught in a very awkward position on nearly everything you ask. He/she is supposed to give you answers and keep you happy and at the same time always defer to the principal for things that matter. So, it is not uncommon for the co-teacher to say yes to you (without ever asking the principal) and then come back and say 'sorry, no' after the principal has become involved.

I saw this on a Dave's ESL discussion board. Cut & paste this in to MS Word and print it out. Fill in the days you want to get it approved by your principal.

=============================================================

VACATION/PERSONAL TIME REQUEST FORM:

NAME: __________________________

DATES REQUESTED: FROM _____ TO _____

TOTAL NUMBER OF DAYS: _____

VACATION _____ PERSONAL _____
(Check One)

APPROVED BY: ____________________

DATE: ____________________