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adaruby
Joined: 21 Apr 2014
Posts: 171
Location: has served on a hiring committee
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 Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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| psychedelicacy wrote: |
A lot of very experienced YL specialists, though they may not admit it, find teaching children depressing and demoralizing drudgery. You can tell when they come out of the classroom, and indeed by their general demeanour and disappointment with life. It's a bloody hard job. I admire those who are good at it and enjoy it.
Something the OP might consider (I would do this if I was still teaching full-time) is the CELTA YL. |
Interesting hearing you say this.
I work with a number of people that are qualified to PGCE and DELTA level and who come out of their classrooms absolutely beaming with pride after every lesson (one or two also work with very YLs between the ages of 4-6). The same goes for previous jobs where teachers who had spent 30 years in the UK school system were equally enamoured by working with kids and couldn't relate to my preference for working with adults.
The reason many people find it so difficult is because they're just not good enough (or qualified enough) to do the job properly. |
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psychedelicacy
Joined: 05 Oct 2013
Posts: 180
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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Oh dear. Beaming with pride after every lesson is a negative. A teacher who beams with pride after every lesson is, frankly, an abnormally unreflective person.
DELTA is not relevant to YL. |
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dmk1967
Joined: 19 Aug 2014
Posts: 19
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| psychedelicacy wrote: |
In my opinion, teaching children is demoralizing drudgery. Occasionally, they're great, but nothing more than occasionally. Overwhelmingly, children are not authentic learners - they'd rather be playing computer games instead of being made to study English by their parents. Only very rarely is this not the case with children. By 'children', I mean pre-teens. Teens, likewise, can be utterly dreadful. It's hard work. And I, like you, have no children and no siblings. Who knows, you might like it, but ask yourself this. Picture the scene: you'd spent a long time preparing what you thought was a brilliant lesson plan - it can't go wrong. You then get into the classroom and struggle to even begin the lesson in a civilized fashion because of unruly, immature behaviour. I find it deeply irritating.
That's what teaching kids is like every day. Mind you, it's a job. |
Wow, I'm surprised to hear this, as all I ever hear *everywhere* is how "wonderful" children are, and I always find myself feeling like an inferior human being for being so cold towards children...this sort of carries over from my personal life, ten years ago I could have easily opted for IVF w/sperm donor, but I just didn't feel I had it in me to be a mother (again, leaving me feel like a substandard woman in this world). Seeing how my life has turned out economically (no job for 2 yrs, lost my home, am living in my mom's basement), I continue to tell myself it was the right choice, but of course I have those stereotypical fears of "dying alone"...it's gotten to where any time I see a kid these days it's like I'm being slapped with a reminder of my failures in life. Facing a full classroom of those little reminders, well, I don't know if I could handle that.
Sorry for running off on another topic better suited for a psych support forum...so, yeah, I'm gonna continue to try to find something with adults. While I know adults can be difficult to deal with, at least it's familiar territory to me (in my 17 years as a designer I've had to work with my more than a few in the "difficult" category). And I'm certainly not perfect myself 
(On a side note, I came across some adult-teaching jobs in China...began to dig around for general info and came across that middlekingdomlife site. Seriously depressing stuff...) |
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adaruby
Joined: 21 Apr 2014
Posts: 171
Location: has served on a hiring committee
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| Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:31 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, "every lesson" should have read "almost every lesson", but you get my point. Some people are very good with kids and enjoy what they do.
| psychedelicacy wrote: |
DELTA is not relevant to YL. |
This is incorrect. Module 3 allows candidates to choose young learners as their focus and employers often ask for this information before or at the interview stage of any job application. |
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psychedelicacy
Joined: 05 Oct 2013
Posts: 180
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:11 am Post subject: |
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| dmk1967 wrote: |
Wow, I'm surprised to hear this, as all I ever hear *everywhere* is how "wonderful" children are, and I always find myself feeling like an inferior human being for being so cold towards children...this sort of carries over from my personal life, ten years ago I could have easily opted for IVF w/sperm donor, but I just didn't feel I had it in me to be a mother (again, leaving me feel like a substandard woman in this world). Seeing how my life has turned out economically (no job for 2 yrs, lost my home, am living in my mom's basement), I continue to tell myself it was the right choice, but of course I have those stereotypical fears of "dying alone"...it's gotten to where any time I see a kid these days it's like I'm being slapped with a reminder of my failures in life. Facing a full classroom of those little reminders, well, I don't know if I could handle that.
Sorry for running off on another topic better suited for a psych support forum...so, yeah, I'm gonna continue to try to find something with adults. While I know adults can be difficult to deal with, at least it's familiar territory to me (in my 17 years as a designer I've had to work with my more than a few in the "difficult" category). And I'm certainly not perfect myself
(On a side note, I came across some adult-teaching jobs in China...began to dig around for general info and came across that middlekingdomlife site. Seriously depressing stuff...) |
Sorry to hear about your present situation. Perhaps it might be better to remain open to teaching kids and/or teens for a year or two for your first job, just to give you more options. I did TEFL for nine years and am a bit jaded - please bear this in mind. Anyway, let's hope something turns up soon. Would be interested in hearing how you get on! |
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psychedelicacy
Joined: 05 Oct 2013
Posts: 180
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:16 am Post subject: |
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| adaruby wrote: |
| Module 3 allows candidates to choose young learners as their focus and employers often ask for this information before or at the interview stage of any job application. |
Okay, I didn't know that. I don't recall that being available when I did DELTA, otherwise I'd have chosen it, but oh well. |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:27 am Post subject: |
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| dmk1967 wrote: |
| On a side note, I came across some adult-teaching jobs in China...began to dig around for general info and came across that middlekingdomlife site. Seriously depressing stuff... |
You really need to head to the other discussion forums---I suggest the General Asia, Russia, Turkey, and General Latin America forums---and start asking about language schools that cater to teens to adults as well as hire newbie teachers. |
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dmk1967
Joined: 19 Aug 2014
Posts: 19
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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| psychedelicacy wrote: |
| Sorry to hear about your present situation. Perhaps it might be better to remain open to teaching kids and/or teens for a year or two for your first job, just to give you more options. I did TEFL for nine years and am a bit jaded - please bear this in mind. Anyway, let's hope something turns up soon. Would be interested in hearing how you get on! |
Thanks, again I don't wanna run off on a tangent here but I gotta say that things are seriously bad in this country if you're over 45 and out of work, that shrinking unemployment rate is meaningless (heck, I've never been counted in that figure as I've never qualified to collect unemployment due to having nothing but temp/contract work this past decade).
I'm getting a little jaded myself dealing with some of these recruiters who are turning out to be no better than the ones I've been dealing with here. I applied for one of the gigs on the Korean board and included scans of all my docs, last night the recruiter responded asking me to answer some questions "and please send us scans of any documents you have ready." Reminds me of when I'd apply for a design job and I'd include the link to my portfolio in my cover letter and resume, and the HR dimwit would email me back with "do you have a portfolio? can you send me the link?" Same stuff, different day --er, country...*sigh* |
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esl_prof
Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt
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| Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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A few years ago, I worked with a colleague in a situation similar to yours--a middle-aged woman, laid off due to the bad economy, no job prospects due to her age--so she did a CELTA and then spent several months on the job market with no offers whatsoever. Then she approached the DOS at my school and requested an internship. The DOS was able to arrange an unpaid internship for her to work essentially as a TA for one of our more experienced teachers for a semester and, then, following the completion of her internship, hired her on part-time for two more terms before she voluntarily left to accept a full-time offer in Eastern Europe. This was several years ago and, I believe, she's since moved on to Northern Africa.
Given the fact that you've been unemployed for quite some time, I sympathize with your sense of urgency to find a paying job ASAP. If job offers are simply not forthcoming, however, you might want to approach some colleges, adult ed programs, or private language institutes within reasonable commuting distance of your current home and inquire about unpaid internship opportunities to teach adults. Once you get your foot in the door, some experience on your resume, and a supervisor who can write you a glowing reference, you may well find that doors will more readily open for you once you return to the job market.
Good luck!
Good luck!!! |
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