Job Discussion Forums

[NickH]

Here's my situation: I just started teaching in a small city in central China. I am one of two foreigners in the whole city, so you can imagine what that's like for those of you who have been in this situation. I don't like that, but I can deal with it.

The town is...a dump, to say the least. There is very little of interest, it is just ugly buildings, noise and pollution, with a small park that has fading grass. I could maybe even learn to deal with this.

Now, I am at a very large public school. ~6,000 students. I have never seen a schedule like the one I was given. I am supposed to teach grade 1 and grade 2, and for the next two weeks I am teaching 23 separate groups of students, all in different rooms.

And that's just grade 1.

This is not really what I envisioned. It seems to me that it is totally absurd that anyone can learn or teach anything when the teacher (me) only sees a given students once or twice a month. I am trying to talk with people in the school about reducing the number of different classes--even offering to teach MORE total classes, so that those less classes will be learning more, but I am not sure they are going for it yet. It is hellish to imagine myself as this kind of autonomic robot-novelty for the next few months that will never be progressing or forming any real connection with a group of students because it is just some thing they do for 40 minutes a month. I am not sure I want to stay here.

What do you all think?

[mike w]

Sounds a little bit like they are not really interested in the quality of teaching. More like you are there for two reasons only. Firstly to play 'the white monkey', so they can parade you around and tell everyone they have foreign teachers (improves their image?). Secondly to give the Chinese teachers a break.

[NickH]

[stil]

You can still help them if you look at your role differently. Help them with pronunciation of course but mostly try to give them some confidence to speak. Many if not most Chinese students are quite shy about speaking. They may be able to read and write a little but cannot speak at all. Instilling enthusiasm and confidence really can help them improve. many senior middle schools have schedules like this. You really won't have to worry about lesson plans much though. 1 per week ought to do

[hengyangdave]

you joined to teach the classes assigned to you.....thus....you must teach the classes that are being assigned to you.....

unless your contract has some clause about the amount of individual classes and so on....

[KarenB]

My very good friend here in Hainan is also going through the same situation at a high school just outside of Haikou.

Her contract was for teaching 14 hours a week. Yet they have given her 26 different classes, most of which meet only once every two weeks. She has over 1400 students in total.

Obviously, the headmaster is only interested in maximum coverage of the (one) foreign teacher they have -- rather than education.

Well, there's one perk to this situation -- she only has to do one prep every two weeks. But the big question is (and this you really need to clarify at your own school) whether she is expected to do evaluations? How can one possibly evaluate the spoken English of this many students? (They've told her at this point that she can give "A's" to the top 10%, a D or F to the lowest students and a "C" to everyone else. But even that isn't realistic when you only see the students twice a month, (with 60 in the classroom) and you don't even remember their names or have a class list.

Well, we wrote a letter to her headmaster explaining all the reasons why this is really not a good idea educationally and why it would be impossible for her to evaluate 1400 students. We also reminded him that the Chinese teachers usually are only responsible for 3 or 4 classes, and asked him if there's any Chinese teachers with 26 classes. We're asking that they knock her class load in half, or if not, that she not be required to give any grade at all.

I also put the headmaster in touch with my own Asst. Principal, so he can discuss this with someone with more experience and who's running a very successful school (in terms of Spoken English at least). (Her FAO is a graduate of our school, so there's a link there). I also had our FAO call her FAO to let them know the usual procedure. (Peer pressure works great in China)

Anyway, the headmaster is taking it up with the school board, and we're expecting a decision soon, and hoping it would be favorable.

If the decision isn't favorable, there isn't a lot she can do at this time, since technically she's still teaching only 14 hours a week, as per contract. But we've told the headmaster that most of the other foreign teachers in Hainan know about the bad reputation of his school (which is true), and that my friend will also post a review of his school on the internet, and if he wants to have any hope of hiring foreign teachers in the future, he will provide her with a more reasonable schedule.

So, I'll keep you posted on how it goes here.

[amandabarrick]

I think we can see from your experience the importance of knowing what your schedule is going to be like before you sign a contract with a school.
That is usually the first thing I ask a school when looking at jobs. How many classes, the size of the classes, the number of different classes and the frequency, etc...

What 'people' in the school are you trying to talk with? I would suggest sharing your concerns with the headmaster, FAO, and the Chair of the English Department. If this does not work, you can threaten to leave if you don't get a change in the schedule, and that might get things done. But if you leave you would be in breach of contract and pay whatever penalty that would involve.

AB

[Drizzt]

Hello Nick,

I can totally relate to your situation. My first gig in China was in Shanxi, in a small town called Linfen. It gained the reputation of having the worst air pollution in all of China (it's surrounded by coal mines). There were only 6 foreigners in the entire city, and I, like yourself had a simlar teaching schedule at at a high school there.

It's true, at least the lesson planning is easy, but omg, after you've taught the same lesson over 10 times you start to go nuts! In my situation all my classes (21 total, 10 were grade 1, and 11 were grade 2) had regular Chinese teachers during the week, and I would pop in once a week for oral English.

The biggest drawback is you can't really get to know any of the students ( I had almost 1,300 myself) and with classes the size mine were it's impossible to make much progress teaching oral English.

My advice to you is to give them plenty of group work with sizes this large. Focus on being a classroom facilitator so you can maximize the student's talking time. When you monitor group work spend more time on students that actually try rather than the goof-offs in that seem to congregate in the back of the class. Maybe you can make a difference. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Good luck!

[kev7161]

Thanks amandabarrick for your post. Does NOBODY ask questions before signing on? Yes, of course, hindsight truly is 20/20 but, geez . . . !!

Of course, the first job is where you will learn from your mistakes. I don't advise you to break (breach) your contract and just do your best with the situation. Know, however, that there are other much better schools in this country. I was at a dismal school last year and this year, after asking a bunch of questions and visiting the school before signing a contract, am in a much better situation.

[erinyes]

Nick,

I teach 30 different classes of over 80 students each class per week.

But I do get to see them once a week, not once a month. But my BF works in the junior school and has just the same problem as you. He teaches grade 1, 2 and 3.

The key here is you don't need to teach them a thing, don't worry about that! They are not expecting that you should really change them... but don't worry - they don't think you are a monkey... you are their connection to real life English...

You most important job is to get the students to open their mouths, to have a practice speaking to a foreign person, to learn something about your culture, to kill some of the Chinglish that they no doubt use and to motivate them in their other English classes taught by the Chinese English teachers.

Believe it or not, you'll be a HUGE source of motivation to the students. If it is anything like my city, you probably find that people are surprised to see you, stare at you and basically find you a thing of interest.

There are a few things that are great about this. Eg. People are not used to ripping off white people, so they might not try to rip you off.
If you go back to the same place a few times it gets very easy to place an order, as they will remember what you had last time.
People sometimes will be extremely nice to you just because your not Chinese.

About the job - maybe by the end of the week, you'll feel like you have taught the same lesson too many times, but think about it - one lesson worth of planning, HOW GREAT. If you make a lesson where you get the students to answer questions or think for themselves, then it won�t be too boring because they do the talking and in every class different students will say something different.

And by the end of the week, you know all about what they will an wont know, and it�s really easy to know what they will go for or not.

I think - some schools really just want to open the eyes of the students but in these small towns one FT is all they can afford. I know that it does seem crazy, but don't worry so much about teaching them... you wont, but be nice, friendly, get them to talk to each other and tell them some of the interesting things about the 'outside world' most of them will know VERY little about it.

[carken]

People who think it's great to have to do only one prep every week or two need to have to teach the same thing over and over and over and over . . . .

All I can say is, it had better be a darn good lesson! I don't like to be bored, so I did my best to make it a quality lesson, assessing and re-assessing after that first class or two. Too bad they were my guinea pigs!

I had the same situation where I taught 16 classes of Senior 1 students each week, but there were only 40 in each class. Not ideal, but doable. No, you absolutely shouldn't leave. Just remember, TIC!

[KarenB]

I do the same prep each week for all of my 5 writing classes, and I'm going looney by the end of the week. I can't imagine how boring it would be to do it 15 or 26 or 30 times every week or two.

However, the biggest issue in this situation is whether the school is expecting you to give some sort of score. If they're not, well, fine, just make the classes as fun as possible, and don't expect any real progress. But if they do expect you to do some sort of testing and give some sort of grade, then I would raise cain.

[shenyanggerry]

Assessment, no problem. Tell them that it'll take you a minimum of 4 minutes per student for an oral assessment. You'll do it in regular class. Fourteen hours per week equals just over 200 Ss tested per week. With 1400 Ss it'll take up the last seven weeks of the schedule to test them.

If they're stupid enough to go for that, do it.

[erinyes]

They can't ask you to do assessment. I know sometimes Chinese people don't seem bright, but MY GOD, they are not stupid.

If my school asked me, they would have to wait until I got up off the floor from laughing at them.

Do the Chinese teachers watch your lessons by any chance?

[7969]

i have a decent schedule at my current school, but four of my classes i see only every two weeks. as a result, i'll see them five times this term, maybe six. not a lot.....

last year, i had to give assessments to more than 650 students. i let them assess themselves, and gave them a quota for As Bs and Cs. they were honest enough to do it right. you can't possibly assess several hundred students that you only see weekely or bi-weekly.

i think this school where i am now is trying to spread the foreign teacher around as much as they can. of course there are two of us here and most of the students have never even spoken to a foreigner let alone be taught by one. so they're eager to see me if even only every two weeks.