Job Discussion Forums

[BethMac]

Just curious...

How many hours a week do you teach? How much time do you spend on lesson prep and correcting?

[Ludwig]

19 and 20.

[ilunga]

and that's just on this forum.

[jojo_rock]

Last year I was contracted for 25 hours a week. But that didn't mean that's what I would teach. It would usually be something between 27 hours and 32 hours a week. Which is too much. To be a good teacher you should have about 20 contact hours (maybe 25 as a maximum).

[Chris_Crossley]

My contract is quite specific - I teach 21 40-minute lessons between Monday and Friday. That's it - no more, no less, unless I volunteer to teach two more 40-minute lessons on a Sunday morning, for which I do receive extra pay.

No foreign teacher at my school is expected to substitute for another in case of illness or other reason(s) for absence - the teaching assistants will teach the lessons instead during any absence by a foreign teacher.

[moonraven]

The good news: 10 to 15 hours in class, maybe another 5 preparing. The bad news: I have to be on campus 40 hours a week.

[denise]

20 contact hours (actually 20 50-minute classes), plus five office hours. Prep time--dunno. I do a lot of it at home at random times. My contract includes up to 15 hours, I think.

d

[Guest]

I have just returned to this School for the second year. I teach around 15 - 40 minute classes which only equates to about 10 hours per week.

We are not required to put in any office hours here at this School even though they tried to encourage it initially. I think that fact that our apartments are on the School grounds and only two minutes away from the classroom - makes it difficult for them to enforce office hours. Also, our computers are in our apartments and not in the office - whereas the Chinese teachers all have computers in their office. I found in the beginning that they all tended to ignore me and speak Chinese around me, so for me to sit there and virtually be ignored was not much fun.

The idea was for them to practice their English on me, but it does not happen, so I go straight back to my apartment after each class now.

[Glenski]

At my high school, I teach 16 classes per week (45 minutes per lesson). That amounts to 6 different lesson plans per week.

Prep time varies, because some classes have pre-arranged duties every week that need no polishing or further planning on my part. On average, however, I spend several hours preparing for each lesson. It's a massive job.

Many teachers (Japanese and foreign) at my school criticize its lack of organization. We hear about our year's assignments 2 weeks before school begins. Nowhere near enough time to plan for a whole year! And, there doesn't seem to be any good record system for people to follow from previous years. On top of that, the curriculum has changed every year I have been here (3), so for the foreign teachers, that means creating a whole new system each year for every class we teach.

On top of teaching and prep time, all teachers are expected to attend 2-3 types of staff meetings per week, plus do extracurricular activities. Since I work at a private HS, we also come to work (not for classes) 3 Saturdays a month, too. Planning for lessons is usually squeezed between classes and well into the evening (at work).

[ls650]

I teach 20 hours per week, and am required to be on-campus for another 20 hours. Unfortunately, my day is from 8 AM until 7 PM, with a 3 hour break in the afternoon. It makes for a lo-o-ng day.

When I first start teaching courses I generally want about one hour of prep time for every hour of teaching. Once I start reteaching a course, of course, my prep time can drop substantially.

[hahahaha]

At the beginning of each term I have 11 hours per week. By the end of each term I have 6 hours per week. No office hours required.

[Roger]

Hoorrah! Rhonda is back! Welcome to the tribe!

Glenski noted thing new instructions/assignments 2 weeks ahead. IT's a problem we are commonly faced with in China, here to the extent that we hear about changes to our timetables, employment, holidays, new classes or changes to old classes - often on the same day as these changes go into effect!

This is particularly bad if you have a part-time job outside your school.

I was lucky on this score throughout last term, but don't expect the same to be the case this year, with a new campus going to be taken possession of and more expat teachers being hired.

Anyway, my full-time job is to put in 16 periods a week. These are spread over 4 days, usually in the mornings. Most are two-eriod lessons, meaning the break in between the two periods is like working time.
The downside is that this job involves quite a bit of commuting from one campus to another, with buses that run according to the whims of their drivers. Sometimes the university provides one bus when there ought to be 2; and those buses don't run right when the last lesson is done; you lose up to another half hour.

[mjed9]

27 55-minute lessons every week ... and occasional morning work can bring my hours up to 40. The methodology employed at the school is tailor-made to be able to walk in and walk out with no preparation (after you have been here for a few months)

[Sweetsee]

I am at school 5 days a week from 8:20 a.m.

I teach 19 lessons. There are 2 department meetings weekly and a staff meeting once a month.

The rest of the time is divided between playing sports with students, gardening, preparing lessons and research.

[basiltherat]

40 hours a week teaching. no prep
basil