Job Discussion Forums

[lowes13]

Having worked solely at university since arriving I�m now considering a move to primary schools. I�m sure many of you have made the transition before and it�s to those individuals I address this post.
So tell me if you will:

The joys of primary school are?
How control is best maintained?
What to expect in general?
The things to do are?
The things not to do are?

Of course any and all info that could be of value will be appreciated.

Cheers

[Roger]

Take a leaf out of the Chinese teachers' book. OBserve several of their classes, and you will notice a few remarkable differences. One is that they have far less noise to contend with, and in general, their classes are smoother.
Then again, we are here to introduce some changes, to make classrooms activites more lively. Combine some of the CHinese teachers' know-how with some of your know-how. Adopt from them the idea that the teacher always knows everything and the student is a vessel that is filling slowly up but never getting full of your wisdom.
Don't expect students to be active, initiative or easy to handle! They can be good pupils if they feel they have the right kind of teacher, a role-model.

[lowes13]

Thank you Roger for your input I appreciate it.
I had expected, hoped, for more of a response from this posting but it seems that there aren�t so many FT�s out there who�ve done what I�m contemplating. Oh well!

[JimmyJam]

ive done a part time job 4 hours per day, 3 days a week teaching primary school children, grades 1 to 6...

joys - children will be so active and really volunteer if they like what you ask them to do like role-play the dialogues in the book while wearing special cut-out costumes... when they see you along the corridor, they usually give you a flower or candy or anything out of their own fondness of you...

public school and private ones differ in number of students per class.. ive done with a semi-private one and there were about 45 kids. i heard from some friends that the public ones have more than 65 students in one class.

2 chinese teachers were assigned as my assistant. one teacher for grades 1 to 3 and another for 4 to 6. they were my translator at the same time, they planned the lesson and all i did was to put some activities to it. i asked them to make some teaching aids too. good thing they were good at drawing. my assistants were, at the same time, the one's telling the kids to behave and keep quiet.. at some point, i saw a kid being pinched.. hahaha

i was paid 100rmb per hour for this teaching job which after two weeks they raised to 150rmb (as a gift or as an incentive to stay.. who knows..)

things to do.. well, just try to get children's attention.. if they are way past their attention span, they will really be unruly but if you've got that attention, they will be really with you until the class is over...

goodluck!!!