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Reasonable teaching hours and "northern reserve"?

 
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rockymtgrrl



Joined: 12 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Madrid
PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:59 am    Post subject: Reasonable teaching hours and "northern reserve"? Reply with quote
Hello,

I just received a job offer from a small school in Balaguer. My two big concerns are:

1. Does anyone have experience working in Balaguer/Lleida/surrounding area, and if so have you found that locals have the kind of "cold" demeanor for which Barcelona and other parts of the north are known?

2. The job stipulates 32 contact hours per week, Monday to Saturday, which seems extremely high to me based on what I've seen at other schools. As the only English teacher at the school I'd be teaching all ages, all levels, and foresee a lot of prep time. Am I just being lazy, or is this a potentially insane schedule? Is it worth turning down an otherwise great-sounding gig for this?

Any advice would be much appreciated!!!!
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Moore



Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 730
Location: Madrid
PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 7:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
It depends how much they�re paying!
As a general rule of thumb, I�ve found through bitter experience that 25 hours contact time per week is perfect, if you want to be able to teach long-term and not burn-out (which is a very real possibility). You can do more for a bit, a month or so, or even a year, but it�s very hard on you.
Money-wise, academy rates (ie not in-company, all in one place) are 10 to 12 euros an hour, so you should be getting an absolute minimum of 320 euros a week, so that�s 1300 a month. If you�re not getting that then frankly I think you�re being ripped off.
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Chris_Crossley



Joined: 26 Jun 2004
Posts: 1797
Location: Still in the centre of Furnace City, PRC, after eight years!!!
PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:12 am    Post subject: 32 teaching hours per working week are EXCESSIVE Reply with quote
rockymtgrrl wrote:
The job stipulates 32 contact hours per week, Monday to Saturday, which seems extremely high to me based on what I've seen at other schools. As the only English teacher at the school I'd be teaching all ages, all levels, and foresee a lot of prep time. Am I just being lazy, or is this a potentially insane schedule? Is it worth turning down an otherwise great-sounding gig for this?


Great sounding means just that - great sounding.

I am concerned that, if this is your first TEFL gig, you may become easy meat for an employer who may make you slave for a derisory wage, never mind the fact that Spain is in the EU. The fact that you claim you will be the only English teacher (meaning non-Spanish?) at the school also gives me pause. If the job turns out to be nothing but the equivalent of slavery, you will need to be able to turn to someone (preferably expat) to confide in rather than the management. Once you sign any contract on the dotted line, you are contractually obligated to do whatever it says there, even if 32 contact hours per week are excessive.

If you have no experience whatsoever of teaching for 32 hours per week in the classroom, then I would urge you to hold yourself back for a moment and take a deep breath. I started in the game of TEFL four years ago and, believe me, 32 hours per week in the classroom, especially for a newbie, constitute a really excessive amount of time, especially if one is expected to be at the school for 40 working hours per week.

Think about it: 40 hours per week with 32 of them teaching in the classroom? Hence, for every hour of preparation, you will be spend four hours teaching! Put another way, only 15 minutes of preparation for every hour of teaching? Shocked Confused Alarm bells should be ringing.

In order to complete preparation for all the classes you need to teach ("all levels, all ages", you mentioned), you may have to spend many, many hours preparing, and that, I can assure you, is no picnic. It is far more likely that you will spend more than 40 hours per working week in that place, I can tell you; in fact, given your reported workload, I would be surprised if you spent less than 60 hours per working week there.

Even with my experience, I would NEVER, EVER take a job that required me to teach for 32 hours per week. It sounds to me as if your boss is hoping to capitalize on inexperience and, perhaps, romantic naivety. I'm not judging you, BTW, so I don't want you to think that I think that you are inexperienced and naive. Far from it: I am saying that this is what some bosses hope that potential applicants are - inexperienced and naive.

I would say that you should THINK about this job VERY carefully before accepting it. If it were me, I'd reject it: 32 hours of teaching per week? Forget it! Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad Evil or Very Mad
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rockymtgrrl



Joined: 12 May 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Madrid
PostPosted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:40 am    Post subject: re: teaching hours Reply with quote
Hmmm, I was afraid of that.

When I say I'd be the only english teacher, I mean I'd be the only non-Spaniard at the school AND that I'd be the only teacher of EFL -- other teachers do french, chinese, german, etc. This is why I'd have to teach all ages and all levels, and why I was apprehensive about the hours.

The pay would be 850/month, plus 50/month withheld until June. While this seems fairly reasonable in general it doesn't seem to compensate for the hours....

Thanks very much for the advice, even though it's not what I'd hoped to hear!!
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abyssiniangrl



Joined: 28 Jul 2004
Posts: 29
Location: barcelona
PostPosted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
omg...850 per hour for 32 hours...that�s 6.64 euros an hour...that�s about half of what you should be making!!

there�s acutally a blog about riduculous wages here, maybe you should post yours!

good luck finding a job!
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