Job Discussion Forums

[amandabarrick]

What is your ideal schedule?

I like the schedule I have now at my High School. Monday thru Friday, 4-5 classes per day.

9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
two hour break for lunch
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (Office hours)
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Each class is a little less than one hour. I usually have my third class at 2:00 p.m., but come into the office at 1:00 for an hour to prepare lessons. I also occasionally come in to the office at 8:00 a.m. to prepare lessons, but it is not required. I finish at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday I have a fifth class at 4:00 p.m., in which case I finish at 5:00 p.m.

The class sizes are large, 40-50 students. I wish they were smaller, but I can handle it. I teach the same classes every week, same students in each class, so every class gets to see me once a week. I also love having weekends off, and get lots of holidays as I teach at a public school. The best thing is the schedule never changes, so I can plan my life around it very easily.
What is your ideal schedule?

AB

[kev7161]

I teach Mon.-Fri. I sometimes start as early as 8:00am or as late as 10:00am. I usually show up about an hour before my first class to do some preparation for the day. I then teach 2 hours in the afternoon after my two-hour lunch break. I'm contracted for 25 contact hours a week with my one class of 24 students - - that includes 4 lessons a day plus "hanging out" with them during breaks between classes and lunchtime. Thankfully, I get enough time away from them that I don't go too crazy. (I hate to hear "Mr. Kevin, Mr. Kevin!" anymore!)

So:

7am (or 8am or 9am) to 11:30
Lunch from 11:30 to 1:30
1:30 to 3:10
(and then I leave around 3:30 unless I've had a busy, busy week, then maybe 4pm)

2 classes in the morning and 2 in the afternoon and plenty of free time to make copies, prepare lessons, grade papers, etc.

[no_exit]

I like my schedule a lot too, the only drawback is that while I work 12 hours a week (actual teaching hours), I am at a private language center, so all the hours are weekends. My schedule looks like this:

Saturday and Sunday:
Class 9:30-11:45
Lunch 11:45-1:30
Class 1:30-3:45
Class 4:00-6:15

During the week I am entirely free, and I can do prep-work/office hours whenever I feel like it, or even do all of my planning at home if I want to. I miss out on a lot of weekend fun because I'm too beat, but I have plenty of time to take trips, do freelance translation, hang out with friends, read, etc ... Getting all of my classes out of the way at once is kind of nice.

[clomper]

I like my schedule as well though I would love to have a smaller class size. I have half-day classes everyday all in the morning except on Wednesday which is in the afternoon.

Weekends off so I'm free to go anywhere. I wouldn't say that the schedule is fixed in terms the start and end of classes but otherwise this will be my schedule for the rest of the year bar someone is sick or anything.

Claudine

[tw]

My schedule is good except for the fact that most of my afternoon classes don't finish until 6:10pm thanks to the fact that afternoon classes here begin at 2:30pm instead of 1:30pm. But I do get three-day weekends and I don't have to teach Friday mornings.

[voodikon]

when i first started, i had only two classes a day, mondays through thursdays, from 2:30 until 4:10. that was for a month while the freshmen were going through military training. as september was coming to a close, however, the school hired two more foreign teachers and started preparing for the freshmen.

i had an epiphany one night as i was falling asleep that told me to ask the chinese staff for what the schedules would be after the october holiday, once the freshmen were taking classes. they showed it to me, and as i suspected, the classes were all over the place. since i have to commute at least an hour each way to school (the drawback of being able to live in the city), having a class at 8:30 in the morning and then another not until 2:30 every day wasn't exactly the 16-hour workweek specified in the contract. so i suggested the other FTs ask for their schedules as well and we had a swapping session so that all our classes would be blocked. as our classes had not yet started, i presented our suggested changes to the chinese staff and argued that there was no reason they couldn't accommodate our request. since they'd already screwed up dealing with our visas, i think they were trying to be on their toes a little bit, so the next day they said it'd be all right. so now i have four classes monday through wednesday, 2:30-6:10, and one on thursdays at 2:30. then they throw in an english corner on tuesdays from 6:30-8 and another at 12:30 on thursdays. those rather annoy me, but whatever. anyway, the schedule's not bad but now i can't stop staying up until 4 in the morning and waking up at 10 or 11.

[KarenB]

I teach 2 hours a day, from 7:45 to 9:30, and then the rest of the day is mine to spend however I like. (I only have to teach 10 hours because I teach writing).

I had to get used to getting up earlier (in the past, my classes usually started at 9:45) but I'm really liking this schedule.

[therock]

I like my schedule because I get Friday's off. It's a great feeling on Thursday afternoon knowing that there is no work for the next 3 days. The only downside to my schedule would be that on Monday morning I have a morning class then the second morning class I have free. In the afternoon I have to one more class. That said I am not complaining.

My schedule

Mon 8.00am to 9.50am, 2.00pm to 3.50pm
Tues 2.00pm to 3.50pm
Wed 8.00am to 9.50am, 10.00am to 11.50am
Thurs 2.00pm to 3.50pm

[Pericles77]

My ideal schedule is one that doesn't have two schools in one day and/or long breaks between classes.

[Roger]

My 'full-time job':
4 afternoons from 2:20 to 5:55 (or is it 6 p.m.?).
The four days are Mo -through Friday MINUS Wednesday.
They have added a new class to my timetable on Wednesday,
but I will still manage to sneak off on Friday evening for a weekend away in the lush greenery of the Li Valley and return on Monday just in time for lunch and the ensuing afternoon classes.