Job Discussion Forums

[The Steakinator]

Just arrived in China and started with a at a place I had signed a contract with and arranged my Z-visa with. They (the recruiter I signed with) set me up with a school that teaches the American IB (International Bacchelaureate) curriculum and suddenly...

1) Having the impression (though not in the contract) that I would be teaching "Oral English" like most Lao Wei here, I'm propelled into teaching English, Maths, Science, and "Culture" (i.e. American history and culture).

2) I had signed for up to 18 teaching hours a week and then 150 RMB for teach hour after that, but now I'm told I have to prepare a detailed lesson plan for each class I'm about to teach (all 27 "lectures" per week) and e-mail it to the recruiting company at least one week ahead of teaching the class. Let it be known, I'm all for lesson plans, but creating a detailed one for each of 27 "lectures" each week is a bit intense - 20 minutes plus for the lesson plan and then at least that much gathering all the other materials (handouts, video clips, songs, art supplies, etc.). Gone are the days when preparing for a two hour class is five minutes of paging through the next several pages of the text book, jotting down a handful of notes on a piece of scratch paper, and then using it as a bookmark. Some of the worst lessons I've ever given were meticulously planned out, they just broke down in the face of the reality. Hands down, the most brilliant lessons I've ever given weren't planned, they were just lessons on topics I had taught a half-a dozen or more times.

3) I was informed that when I'm not teaching, at least in the morning, I have to sit in the class and watch the other teacher teach. They assured me I could work on lesson plans during that time, but that I had to remain in the class. Is this standard?

Has anyone else had an experience like this? What did you do? Should I just nod and smile but do as I like later?

[7969]

You're not teaching 27 different lessons per week are you? Most of us teach one lesson per week to all classes, which means one lesson plan per week. Most employers will ask you to submit some kind of teaching plan at the beginning of the term. If what they're asking of you is too much (or too much too quickly) just make up a stock teaching plan and email it in. Cut and paste from somewhere else if you have to. There's a good chance no-one's going to look at it anyway, or if they do they'll approve it regardless of what it says.

[rogerwilco]

Someone got really "clever" in the wording of your contract, at your expense.
My contract states 14 classes a week, and that is what I teach, 14 forty minute classes a week.

Anyway, in your situation I would make it as easy as possible, and just copy and paste like crazy.

Do you work at a uni or training center, or what ?

[Lobster]

Why would a recruiter require a lesson plan, let alone a detailed one? Unless they are going to appropriate your work for their own use. You don't work for the recruiter, you work for the school that pays you. Having a recruiter making demands of your time is not fair to the school. Lesson plans are for absolute newbs. Send them the following:

Lesson 1: text
Lesson 2: text
Lesson 3: text

etc.

If you signed on for 18 teaching hours and and are being asked to sit in on another teacher's class, surely you must have agreed to some office hours that they want you to burn up in this way. If not, just bill them 150/hr for every class you sit in on.

As roger says, someone got "clever" in your contract wording at your expense. We don't have the details of your contract, but it sounds remarkably inane. Next time read the contract more thoroughly and with a jaundiced eye.

RED

[GeminiTiger]

[Lobster]

People in, International schools, IB and EAP programs may have to teach English and core subjects as well. I've done it myself. Of course, you are no longer simply an oral English teacher and should be making serious coin for doing that job, and I mean well above 15k/month with nice benefits. As Gemini pointed out, it seems you have gotten into an "exploit the newbie" situation. Don't stand for it. If you are not facilitating a class, learning the ropes or acting as an observer with an eye to evaluation, there is no reason for you to be in another teacher's classroom.

RED

[twilothunder]

[johntpartee]

Unless the contract is so ambiguously worded that this stuff is permissible, you're getting a pretty raw deal.

[kungfuman]

Ask to see the lesson plans of the previous teachers and just copy them.

or make a standard lesson plan and copy it 27 times.

BUT if your contract says 18 classes a week WHY are you doing 27?

Typically the contract says overtime is OPTIONAL.

[kev7161]

I think his contract states 18 HOURS a week. 18 x 60 = 1080 minutes/40 = 27 classes.

[kungfuman]

[Miajiayou]

Whoa. If Kev is right and you're getting paid by the actual hour rather than the teaching hour, plus all that other BS, I think this is probably the worst job I've ever heard of in China. I don't really care how much the pay is.

Tell the recruiting company you will submit a syllabus for each class for each semester. Since you're teaching at least four different subjects, you will have your work cut out for you just with that.

I would refuse to sit in on classes, personally. You can be diplomatic about it, there are a million legitimate reasons why a teacher wouldn't spend their time in the classroom of another teacher. Even if you have office hours, ask for an actual freaking office in which to do your lesson planning.

[The Steakinator]

Okay, so here is the situation. It's a first grade with 18-20 kids per class and I teach 14 40 minute sections each week and my "office" is a desk (that I also share with the Chinese co-teacher...) at the back of the classroom. I'm contracted for 18 hours per week, but each hour after that, I get 150 RMB per hour (decent for sitting around doing lesson plans).

Nine of the lessons are ESL/Phonics (pretty easy: we sing the alphabet a few times with flashcards, then I write a few letters on the board showing them the "strokes", then I give them tracing paper with the letters on it, then, if they finish that, I let them color in a picture that's along the lines of "Aa is for Apple"). I teach one math class, that, so far, has consisted of showing Sesame Street clips of the Count rattling off numbers, then I teach four "interdisciplinary" classes. Those are actually hard because I don't have a common language with the kids and, the last time, I chose "family" as the topic and taught them "mother", "father", "brother", etc., showed them some Sesame Street clips about families around the world (in which they mistook a 55 year old Latina grandmother with a gut for "father").

I realized the recruiter signed a contract with me stipulating one thing and then signed a contract with the school stipulating another because the principal was shocked to find out that I was not going to stay from 8:15-5:15 every day. But, that being said, I get free accommodation in a fairly nice "gated community" next to the school and then, including overtime, I get 9,300 RMB (Am I being reemed? Yes, do I mind? Yes. Do I more or less walk into this situation via not having experience in China to know better? Absolutely). Then again, I only teach nine hours a week and spend a lot of time surfing the net. I've realized the "IB" aspect of the school isn't so "IB", namely in that they confine IB to a course verses an entire way of teaching, and after the Chinese teachers starting hitting the kids, their behavior improved dramatically (the first week, they were monsters...)

It's definitely panning out to be an interesting experience, especially the all Chinese copy machine, morning alphabet song with calisthenics, and internet that regularly drops out.

[kungfuman]

^ Sounds like an ok and easy gig. At least you can use your down time as leisure and still get paid for it.

So many schools try that bs of come at 8 and stay to 5 - it works well onthe Chinese teachers as they are typically obedient sheep.

[chinatimes]