Job Discussion Forums

[Denim-Maniac]

[PistolPete]

Denim-Maniac has some great questions and is basically hitting on what i'm trying to get after. I'd like to know if you actually save time by having "prepared" lessons.

I'd also like people to clarify and list their experiences. If someone has taught in both English centers and public schools than their opinion and advice is the most valuable and accurate for me and others on this forum. Thanks everyone.

[unesco]

Its all rather subjective really. From personal experience working at public universities I have taught between 14 to 22 lessons a week and had to do all the prep from scratch as any texts provided were next to useless. I worked with a woman who was at one stage teaching 6 lessons a week. So there is quite a bit of variance.
At WEB the only real prep was for the English corners, which I would copy so I could repeat after awhile. So 25 1 hour lessons (in reality about 50 minutes). I was never made to do the office hours but as there were often breaks between classes I would spend this time preparing.
In my experience there was not a lot of difference in time spent on the job.
I just much preferred a small class of attentive students rather than 40+ classes where most were goofing off.
cheers.

[muffintop]

The office hours thing is interesting. Perhaps it varies by branch. Office hours has been the reason I turned down WEB and World English and well....anybody who says there are office hours. The salary simply works out to be peanuts when you are looking at a 40 hour week but it's reasonable for 20ish.

I like the small classes there, maybe I need to sit down and have a chat with them again. Not too keen on sitting in a fishbowl though I imagine that is a minor issue.

The...breaks between classes you talk about...can you clarify? Are we talking 10 or 15 minutes between each class or were you often scheduled for one class from (for example) 6-6:50 then sit on your butt waiting for another class from 8-8:50.

[unesco]

Well again it can vary. There are meal breaks between 12-1 and 5-6.
The last place I worked was pretty good , had 3 days of 4 classes, usually 3 or 4 to 9 and then did 6 classes on Sat and Sun. But in some centres you can have a 10am start and not finish to 6pm but only teach 5 classes. Depends on the particular centre.

[PistolPete]

[spicykimchi]

I work at Web now.

For the most part, I like it. But, hands down, the worst thing about Web are the stupid business classes. There are several levels -> Ice breaker, threshold, beginner, lower intermediate, intermediate, business intermediate, business advanced, and advanced.

Intermediate and below all have good lesson plans. Most of the business classes are just useless. There are too many horrible role play lessons. For example, there will be these 8-student board meeting scenerios where each student has his part, but your class will consist of just two college students with little job experience and even less creativity. The students always beg for free-talking time. Most of them HATE the business classes.

And the fewer social clubs / English corners you have, the better - three or fewer a week is ideal.

[KopiKopi]

Don't know about working for WEBI, but I do know that when I went to interview there, the supervisor was keener on informing me about the requirements to sign in using a thumbprint then about how the school was run. She mentioned it about four times. She also wanted to know how long I would stay because many teachers leave after two or three months and then she "has to explain to the students" why they left.

She also really questioned me about my experience with Business classes. It seems that no one at WEBI likes these classes: students or teachers. The whole atmosphere at WEBI seems a bit off.

The interviewer (the third in the process) admitted she had not completely reviewed my CV and asked if I had any experience teaching. Since I have taught since 1998, even a glance at my CV would have provided the answer to her question.

When she asked me to teach a class of students, as a 'demo', "because she wasn't sure if I understood the WEBI style of teaching", I had to leave for another meeting. She asked me to come back to teach a 'demo' that afternoon or the coming weekend, but after looking at the old 'material' there was no way that I would work there.

On a side note, the Chinese staff in the center all looked beat down and depressed. Not my kind of school.

[5h09un]

[avigoldberg]

Web is a franchise, so your mileage may vary. I have worked for SEVERAL of them. (1 full time; 1 full time abortively-- lack of license; 1 part time only.)

1. The Web centers around Nanjing/ Changzhou have a BAD reputation. I worked there part time, and the manager was a dishonest shrew. She has since quit. My coworker had some evident problems with schizophrenia/ pseudologia fantastica. The owner was also an inveterate liar. Too much to get into here. But I talked to him exactly one time and he managed to tell me a lie about something that wasn't even related to work and for no reason.

2. Another that I worked for in Hunan didn't have proper licensing and was not technically allowed to hire foreigners. One of us got arrested and all three were forced to leave the city that night. Whether the web can get the Z visa and the way in which they get it depends on whether that franchise has gone through the licensing procedures.

But! The curriculum was very uniform at all four of those Webs that I worked for.

1. Business classes were boring and had silly roleplays. The students often didn't enjoy them.
2. Prep time was minimal. This is because some of the lessons you taught over and over and over again. (I am thinking Intermediate 1-12 / Lower Intermediate 1-12.)
3. Lessons have not been updated or improved upon in many years. Some of the lessons are still about Pope John Paul. That was 3 popes ago.
4. English corners/ Social clubs can be painful. Lots of adults squeezed into a room with NOTHING to talk about and often unwilling to contribute in any way.

But the work is:

1. Easy;
2. Stable;
3. Does sometimes pay overtime;
4. Does not involve mugging and grinning for children;
5. Is one to one;
6. Is only one lesson at a time and is not dealing with setting curriculum for a whole semester;
7. Predictable (if boring).

[SledgeCleaver]