Job Discussion Forums

[chinesearmy]

How many hours do you work? Is there a breaK? When do you start work and finish work? How many days off?

If you are doing part time jobs, what is your work schedule for your part-time work?

[getbehindthemule]

The below is me at the moment:

A. 15 x 35mins (teaching hours)
B. Lunch break (11:15 - 12:50)
C. 08:00 - 16:15 Mon-Fri (finish 15:00 Fri)
D. 2 days off
E. Teach one small group on Friday evenings (17:00-19:00)

[Non Sequitur]

[donkeydonkey]

University level.

My school was unable to get any other Fts this semester. As a side note to the thread, the issue seems to be the new visa requirements have sent the school into desperation mode. They have found willing candidates, but can't get them the visa. It is odd because I know that the school has very, very good relations with the PSB including two long time teachers' husbands being higher ups there. I thought they could get anything through that they wanted, but here we are. I'm not complaining since I negotiated a higher overtime pay in the last contract.(I went from 100 to 200 per hr. for OT) So now that sweet, sweet Laowai gold is a flowin'. Also, truth be told, I could never tell the kids " Sorry, I need to drink Laoshan beers 3 nights a week instead of two so you can't get the classes that are important for your future."

So I have 24 hours this semester and 2 90 minute English corners. One of the English corners is for a friend's school for an extra 250rmb a week.

The Structure of the day is a little odd from my understanding of other places 20 minute break in the morning and afternoon with a 2 hour lunch. 8-8:50, 9:9:50, 10:10-11:00, 11:10-12:00. The second half of the day repeats this after a lunch break from 12-2. The classes are all 2x50.

Monday: 10-6. 3 classes
Tuesday: 8-6. off from 12-4. 3 classes
Wednesday: 8-4. 3 classes
Thursday: no classes. English corner from 4-5:30, a bus ride and another English corner from 6:30-8:00.
Friday:10-12. 1 class
Saturday:2-6. 2 classes
I'm going to see if I can move that Friday class somewhere so I can have the whole day off. Maybe to that Tuesday 2-4 slot. I hate sitting around.

Another aside(sorry op). Your requests don't really mean much so moving classes can get turned down because "Maybe, it is a little difficult. Schedules are very complicated." In my experience, don't go to the administration if you want to move a class. Go to the students. Pick a Friday class or a Monday class because the students really want to go home and the classes get in the way. See when you and the students have a time that works and tell the students that you will ask about it. Then you go to the co-teacher and say that the students want to move the class and that "I told them that I would ask you about it." I have never had a request turned down this way. In a few days, your co-teacher will find you in the hall with your new schedule and say something like "I hope this is O.K" The students basically get what they want from the admin.

[Non Sequitur]

Agreed.
I wasn't able to move my late afternoon Friday class but as a general rule if you want to look into a move ask the class monitor for options.
Even if you have a good workaround don't be too emphatic with Teaching Affairs. Tout it as a 'possible solution'.

[The bear]

Monday: 4:00 - 5:40 (1 class / 2x45 minute periods / 10 minute break)
Tuesday: 8:00 - 11:50 then 2:00 to 3:40 ( 3 classes / 4x45 minute periods / 50 minutes of break)
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: 2:00 - 3:40 (1 class / 2x45 minute periods/10 minute break)
Friday: OFF

No English corner/office hours/etc.

[lionheartuk]

Private school. Thirty primary school classes a week. Start at 8:30 finish at 12:00. Afternoon begin at 2:25 finish at 3:45 Monday and Thursday. Finish at 5:10 Tue/Wed. On Friday I finish at 10:30. The afternoon classes are shorter than the morning ones. My 7th class on Tue/Wed is only 30 minutes.

Tues/Thurs I do an acting class for a small group of kids 4:40 to 5:10 which is voluntary but I get paid.

So. Monday 6 classes, Tues 8 classes Weds and Thursday 7 classes and Fri 2 classes.
I am contracted for 16 a week so over that is extra pay.

I don't mind as I am the type of person who cannot sit at home and do nothing. I would rather be in the classroom and would do more if there was anymore room on the timetable.

We get so many classes as we are short on teachers. One left last school year and will not be replaced.

[theoriginalprankster]

Miss the uni teaching days - 8 hours/week teaching Journalism Writing.

Full uni salary of 8k/month.

Did supplement it with IELTS examining.

Sat pretty on 20k/month, with three free days/weeks minimum.

Now I'm a 9-6 office slave.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

University

Number of students: forty two for each class

Three forty-five minute classes per day before noon.

Fridays off except for one day per month when I am shipped off to a middle school to tell stories and have the kids tell stories. Some of these kids are incredibly talented speakers for their age. This is actually fun. It's quite an experience seeing some kids actually shine when they stand before an auditorium full of other kids and tell their own stories about their lives and hearing the other kids laugh at their jokes. One kid talked about escaping from "a subversive group" and how she tricked her guards to get away. When I asked her if the story was true she admitted that she saw it on TV. (It was still amazing to listen to her speak). The school is a very large one, apparently. They file into the auditorium 150 students at a time from 2:00 to 5:00 for four sessions at a stretch. I wonder if the host school is inviting other schools in and charging them to defray the cost of my appearance there.

Four classes are oral English with freshman English majors. I have asked for argumentation texts for these kids because they're REALLY good speakers.

I also have them for Western History.

Three classes I still haven't figured out what to do with. They aren't English majors. They're a mishmash of several majors, most of whom can check the correct boxes on a written test but can't or won't speak English. I've always wondered about kids like this. Many years ago, I had a class of kids like this. I found that when we went to lunch together in small groups, most could speak English pretty well, but when they went to class they froze up. I may make my criterion simple: Everyone passes as long as he says something in English in class.

One class is Written English with English Majors. (Only one class. Thank the Man Upstairs for that).

No English corners yet. I was told that FTs aren't allowed to do English corners. I've seen that before. I was invited to do one or two at one school.

I've been asked to head a study hall once per week for pay. I've been there too. I'm not sure about that one. It usually turns into an English corner. That attracts students from other study halls which gets some of the "work leaders" annoyed.

Easy gig. I am recycling all of the stuff that I have created through the years.

I'll teach in China any day. I couldn't work in an American school again.

If this were my first gig and I had to plan my lessons and design new lessons from scratch, I couldn't handle it.

[Non Sequitur]

Three classes I still haven't figured out what to do with. They aren't English majors. They're a mishmash of several majors, most of whom can check the correct boxes on a written test but can't or won't speak English. I've always wondered about kids like this. Many years ago, I had a class of kids like this. I found that when we went to lunch together in small groups, most could speak English pretty well, but when they went to class they froze up. I may make my criterion simple: Everyone passes as long as he says something in English in class.

Get them singing. That'll loosen them up.

[Jmbf]

Private tutor so a different ball game from the above posters.

Hours vary but I'm currently on about 40 hours per week. This is down from 50 hours + last year and I hope to continue the trend down to around the mid 30s through consolidation of some of my 1-1's into small group classes.

Usually I have 2-3 classes in the morning, followed by 4-5 in the afternoon / evening on weekdays. Then I have a couple of classes on Saturday. Most classes are at home so zero commuting time. Good mix of students from Pre Nursery up to adult, keeps things interesting.

My usual weekday looks something like 9:30-11:30am, lunch then 1:30-6:30pm. My schedule is flexible so if I need to adjust some lesson times I will do so. I will usually take long holidays during CNY, at some point over the summer holidays and again at Christmas. These are interspersed with short getaways when I feel the need.

[Non Sequitur]

jmbf
Would it be out of line to ask what kind of visa you are on?

[Jmbf]

No worries NS. I have Permanent Residency (PR) which allows me to work without restriction. I've also registered myself as a Sole Proprietorship for tax purposes. Others in my line of work sometimes have PR, are on a dependency visa or have ROA / RTL (basically all confer the right to work freely). Note this is for Hong Kong.

And of course there are plenty of others who tutor illegally and thus naturally keep a low profile. I'm above board so I'm happy to talk in detail about what I do.

[Non Sequitur]

Good ol Hongkong!

[thechangling]

Third/Fourth Tier Uni/college near Wuhan.
I've got 18 periods of 45 mins or 9 classes a week. Each class is 2 periods= 90 mins with a 5 minute break half way through.
All of my morning classes don't start (as requested) before 10-05am.
Monday to Thursday: 10-05am to 11.40am and afternoon classes are 2-10pm to 3-45pm each day with the addition of 4-15pm to 5-50pm on Thursday. More freshman classes pencilled in starting next Friday.