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Summer School Advice needed

 
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t-dog



Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 8

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:01 pm    Post subject: Summer School Advice needed Reply with quote

Hello all,

I'm a newbie to teaching in the UK and was wondering if anyone could give me some much needed advice.
Could anyone tell me if the schools below are worth applying to?
Ardmore centres
Stafford House
Embassy CES
Thames Valley Cultural Centre
Language Link
Select English
TWIN UK group

If they are all bad, can anyone recommend any good schools to apply to? It will be for my first real teaching post.

Thank you very much,
T-dog
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TheLongWayHome



Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Posts: 1016
Location: San Luis Piojosi

PostPosted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Haven't worked for any of them myself but check out Sandy's blacklist and website and a couple of the other threads on this forum. They have some good information.
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Will.



Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some are, from personal experience, ok.
Summer school is a "suck it and see" situation.
Each year is different.
The staff turnover is sometimes 100% from year to year There are different sites and different students, some return, some teachers do too. this affects the input and the experience of siummer school.

Key points.

Does the "School", at its summer site, have:

Make your list here.
...
....
...
...
...
..

You are bound to find something missing when you get there.

You will need something they do not have or it will be broken or someone else will also want it and claim seniority.
The tapes are in the cassette cases or they have been erased at the exact point you want to use it.

There will be an absolute pratt, running around in circles, complaining about head office holding a sandwich that never gets eaten, and shouting 'it is not my fault' while telling you how to teach your lessons and finding a new room for a student who wants to be with their friends...and carrying a full teaching load, precariously placing another coffee next to the previous three cold cups of coffee balanced on an unsteady pile of books on an already overflowing desk next to a topheavy and wobbly pile of sports equipment waiting to fall over in the darkest corner of the smallest room in the school with no chair just at the moment you need help with planning your "Gerunds and Infinitives in 5 minutes" lesson for Upper Int that is just about to start.

Is there:

Make your list here.

You wil not have...the comforts of home in a residential school
You will not have enough time for yourself.
Have you ever experienced sleep deprivation?
The swimming pool is out of bounds.
There are only two stumps.
This is a DRY school

On the other hand you could hit lucky and someone is organised and you get a DoS who can run a centre and demonstrate chandelier trapezology
Please do inform us all on your progress.
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There goes the voice of experience again!

My first experience was actually very positive; made a very good friend who I met up with at summer school the following year and with whom I'm still in contact. It's always helpful to have someone to wander off with to the nearest country pub - check with the local OS map - or rely on instinct like we did: across the playing fields in a suitable direction and there it was! It also helps to have someone to laugh with about the absurdities and help chase the rat across the staffroom floor.

I also had a good DoS that first year who knew it was my first teaching experience and was very helpful. Apart from that they don't normally give much teaching input. It was fun at one school going through the box of resources trying to find the oldest publication date. A couple of years ago I found 1964! If you have your own Reward or Penguin photocopiable books take them but guard them.

Then there is always the lush, the pervert with the camera who doesn't wear underwear (and short shorts) and is found in the girls block, the teacher who sits at their desk unmoving whilst their students fall asleep, the social cripple with the old and smelly homemade jumper, the head of the company who sprays food all over you when they come to visit... I could go on...
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Will.



Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another voice of experience,

We must be careful Sue,

I have images of teachers arriving in summer schools with a trunkload of tinnies and stacks of one off lessons

There may be some perusing here who might actually believe that it is not all chocolate and roses. We do not wish them to believe we are holding up ALL summer schools to the ridicule THAT ONLY SOME of them so justly deserve. At least in The US, Canada too? they are honest enough to call them summer camps.

Let's see:

Three hours of teaching a day is 12.5% of a day not including breaks.
If I marketed Orange juice and water in that ratio as "Orange juice" I would get done under the Trade Description Act.
Activities in English? Eating in English? going for a walk in English. Snogging in English?
I guess there must be something else in there that makes up for the extra 87.5 per cent. Oh yeah,
sleeping in English
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Will.



Joined: 02 May 2003
Posts: 783
Location: London Uk

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry t-dog, to the point apply to them all they may not all be looking for you so apply to the lot.

The one thing to be said about summer school is: you get "summer school experience" and that is better than no experience when looking for a job in September.
It will be useful for you and you will learn a lot from any old hands there. They are not all as cynical as I am, and others are. In general most of us will help out a newbie because we were newbies once and you will find that often you don't need to ask for help.. it is offered.
Summer school allows you to spread your wings and meet learners from all over. This influences the choice of places you would like to visit and work. You get to learn the eflese slang and how to recognise ..etc
Go for the good money or the school with the best food or social programme, one that is near a beach where you can escape the trials and tribulations of the day with a few craftily hidden tinnies from the afternoon.
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I too should also point out that my stories are told with a degree of amusement and affection. How, for example, could my friend Amanda sleep through that fire-alarm whilst the rest of us stood out shivering on the lawn and variously admired the firemen/women who arrived. through the local country lanes.

I'd never say 'don't do it', but a sense of humour, a laid back nature balanced by the strength not to take any crap are probably the prerequisites.
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Will. wrote:
Activities in English? Eating in English? going for a walk in English. Snogging in English?


Oh yes, you forgot 'sha**ing' - but those teachers are soooo much more conscientious than i am..
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t-dog



Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 8

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for all your input Will & SueH. I love Dave's forum because everyone is always so helpful and informative. I will give the schools a shot. It should be fun, rite? Gotta try anything at least once is my motto =)
I'll let you know if I survive the sleep deprivation and the coffee balancing on boundless books and sleeping students!
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SueH



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Posts: 1022
Location: Northern Italy

PostPosted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

We _will_ be interested! You too will have stories to tell... Smile)))
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teflexpert



Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 21
Location: Rochester, UK

PostPosted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 3:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I worked for Language Link in South Kensington as a summer teacher a few years ago, and they were really good.

I also worked as a Course Director for Select English in Cambridge, and I found them excellent as well.

I've been sent info from Thames Valley before, and my impression was that the pay seems lower than at other organisations.
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Frontline



Joined: 17 Jul 2006
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jesus God, summer schools. Didn't I just say I was worried about t-dog?

OK: I've worked on two summer schools, and been in charge of three, so I can kinda see all sides. I had the massive good luck of running those three at a school which actually wanted to give its students some quality so I had a bit of support; the others were a bit more dubious.

Let's put it this way: at summer school you have nothing but work, burger, beer, and bed. You do not have a life. If you are very lucky you will get a pen, whiteboard and coursebook. If not, you are the monkey. Here are your peanuts.

I am 26 years old and people who meet me generally assume I have ten years on that. Blame summer schools. They are a necessary evil - they are to EFL what Christmas is to Woolworths. But they are soul-destroying, and no good for students.

On the other hand, as I said above, it's like Christmas. We - the EFL industry as a whole - needs summer to survive.
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