Job Discussion Forums

[Twizman]

I'm interested in working in a public school. I had a few interviews for work in Sichuan but the classes for each were 40-60 students, so I had to decline the offers.

Is there much public school work around 20 hours per week that has classes under 30 students? This would be my ideal class.

[joe30]

40-60 is standard. If you want less it's either private language schools or international schools (or the international department of a chinese high school)

[Non Sequitur]

Former student who attended a foreign language high school in Wuhan (state sector not private) tells me that her normal class size was 60 students but for Oral English with the FTs the class was cut in half to 30.
Maybe FAO doesn't know this and it may pay to probe a bit further.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

Some of the trade colleges might offer that. I was at a college where I worked 10 hours per week (which was greatly reduced when the second year students graduated) and had a maximum of 30 students on my roster, only twenty of which showed up for class until that last day. One class had only ten students who worked their butts off for me for two years.

To save yourself some grief, try to find out if the two-year college has a strong foreign language program and if there is a large university nearby. Sometimes, local students will take their English requirements at the local two-year college to bolster their grades so that can enter the four-year university.

My experience with public universities is also that the "oral English" classes are huge. If you talk to your class liaison (usually the best English speaker in the department), sometimes you can work it so that a two hour class requires only half of the class to come for one hour. If you can arrange that, be sure that someone will check on your class to make sure that progress is being made and that everyone is actually attending class.

If you work for a university that has an English program or an overall strong foreign languages program, try to make a strong impression on the faculty by presenting something on a regular basis that is interesting, fresh, and challenging (but doable). You'll be assigned the better students in time. **

Probably smaller classes too.

Really.


** Students DO talk about you to their teachers and word gets back to the department chair. Really.

[Timer]

Why does it have to be under 30? I know 40-60 is quite a lot but it's not impossible. Maybe a bit more difficult but not terrible like 100+.

The programs can dictate how large the classes are and so can the amount of foreign teachers. My current school has a lot of them and class sizes for my course are fairly low (~25) simply because of the amount of teachers doing the course.

That being said, I've been in schools where I am one of 2 foreign teachers and the classes were small as well. Its hard to predict and not something I worry about much.

[getbehindthemule]

I started a job in 2014 in a new public primary school (in it's second year) and this was my workload:

2014 - 2 grades / 7 classes
2015 - 3 grades / 11 classes
2016 - 4 grades / 15 classes
2017 - 5 grades / 19 classes (if I re-sign that is)

I teach one 35 minute period to each class every week (40-43 students per class). The workload and class size is very managable, albeit I teach Science, not English (so no homework to correct).

[backtochina2017]

I try to get school offers which have 2 types of classes, one being the 40+ classes (never taught more than 45) and the other being a more advanced class of 15 or less students.

This allows you to do both and you aren't worn out. You can do some easier stuff with the larger classes, and the more advanced students won't complain because they can go to the advanced classes.

As far as dealing with large classes (beyond 30), divide the class into 6 groups (in blocks, not rows or columns so they can work together and hear each other). This allows for games. You can pair teams up and repeat whatever you are doing 5 times.

When you are pressed for time, have the winner of team 1/2 (first match) play the winner of 3/4 (second match), that winner plays the winner of 5/6 (third match), and if the winner of 5/6 wins and you still have time you can have them play the loser of the second match. Any classes that need to end before you finish the sequence will still have a sense the class ended.

And there are always those classes who know the concept of Team A playing Team B (like in basketball) but will refuse to play against someone in their class. So, just treat it like an activity then instead of a game with points.

If I have time, I will get a notebook and note down the higher level students. They would be group leaders during non-game parts of the class. This could be for reading or answering listening questions.

Noise is your big enemy, so having group leaders will help you police the noisier students. Teachers sometimes put points on the board for each group and remove them from noisy groups and add points for good groups. You then give the winning group something at the end of the week.