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erinyes
Joined: 02 Oct 2005
Posts: 272
Location: GuangDong, GaoZhou
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 Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject: Ever heard of CHEER - China - Europe Education and Research |
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Have you ever heard of CHEER? or worked for them?
I am taking over a class at my school teaching 11 lessons per week and there is NO guide as to what I shuld do apart from 2 university level text books (one about computer networks and networking) that I am supposed to use with Senior Grade one (below average) students.
ARG! |
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kubulka
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:32 am Post subject: CHEER |
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| Quote: |
| I am taking over a class at my school teaching 11 lessons per week and there is NO guide as to what I shuld do apart from 2 university level text books (one about computer networks and networking) |
Didn't you get a Teacher Manual incl. a CD with that text book? That should, theoretically, help you in carrying out your lessons.
I teach the same (beside Speech and Communication) and find it quite bizarre. The students in my classes (I teach two classes of this supposedly prestigious prep programme) know very little about IT /computer terminology since they never've had a computer science before and now here they are to take on "carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance"!!
Just go through the text book, do a semester plan (the text book is designed for 2 semesters which's simply insane/impossible) and plan your lessons acording to your semester plan. Simplify, simplify, review, review!
Since they're not graded on these subjects, they'll tend to do very little. Pre-empt it by testing them regardless what they think otherwise they'd just sit there and stare at you.
I have great kids in my classes but Networking and Networks is a hard nut to crack.
It's going to be tough, good luck! |
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erinyes
Joined: 02 Oct 2005
Posts: 272
Location: GuangDong, GaoZhou
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:16 pm Post subject: being a winy foreigner |
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Oh Hey,
I have since been upgraded to 'teacher for the rest of the year.� It would have been teacher for the next three years if my contract wasn't up, and I wasn't planning to get the hell out of this place for a year or so.
But I have (happily) been giving absolute hell to the company (hey - I would for Wenzhou Middle School technically, not Cheer - so I have been getting right up them.)
In fact, the whole teem who put those books into the classroom has actually been fired (I don�t think I was the course of that however, but I like to think that I may have helped in some little way.
I refused to use the textbooks in the classroom and went with my own plan. I love being the only good teacher they can find in China (amazing � they tried and failed to get another teacher because I had to stop my other teaching duties to take this one � but I am the only good teacher they can find. the general level of people to be found around here is SHOCKING!! I wouldn�t consider myself a top teacher, merely a friendly caring one with an ounce of professionalism and they can�t replace me, gosh!)
But anyway - being a winy foreigner really paid off this time.  |
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prof
Joined: 25 Jun 2004
Posts: 741
Location: Boston/China
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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Cheer is a total scam.
It's, IMO, criminal. Defrauding the parents of students.
All reputable teachers with any type of qualifications (a BA!) should avoid it.
Of course, the low-lifes will sign on...but anyone with any self-respect will avoid it. |
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foreignDevil
Joined: 23 Jun 2003
Posts: 580
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| Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:34 pm Post subject: Re: CHEER |
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| kubulka wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I am taking over a class at my school teaching 11 lessons per week and there is NO guide as to what I shuld do apart from 2 university level text books (one about computer networks and networking) |
Didn't you get a Teacher Manual incl. a CD with that text book? That should, theoretically, help you in carrying out your lessons.
I teach the same (beside Speech and Communication) and find it quite bizarre. The students in my classes (I teach two classes of this supposedly prestigious prep programme) know very little about IT /computer terminology since they never've had a computer science before and now here they are to take on "carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance"!!
Just go through the text book, do a semester plan (the text book is designed for 2 semesters which's simply insane/impossible) and plan your lessons acording to your semester plan. Simplify, simplify, review, review!
Since they're not graded on these subjects, they'll tend to do very little. Pre-empt it by testing them regardless what they think otherwise they'd just sit there and stare at you.
I have great kids in my classes but Networking and Networks is a hard nut to crack.
It's going to be tough, good luck! |
"Just go through the textbook"??? I am sorry but this is not good advice. And then the OP actually responded with a better plan of action. The OP basically threw out the textbook and designed a new curriculum. I would have done the same. |
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kubulka
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:02 am Post subject: |
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| "Just go through the textbook"??? I am sorry but this is not good advice. And then the OP actually responded with a better plan of action. The OP basically threw out the textbook and designed a new curriculum. I would have done the same. |
Well, I didn�t throw out the books, on the contrary, as loaded as the textbooks are, I actually like the challenge of using them.
Granted, I have some students who can�t even read but that doesn�t bother me either since I�ve a plenty of time teaching only 14 classes per week and thus can easily fit in tutorials for those slow or less motivated ones.
Of course I supplement my teaching with additional material, but am still able to work with my semester plan that I put together after going through the textbooks. We push forward at a pace I set up for my students. After two months of my determination to teach them what are clearly university level courses, the kids are getting where I want them to be. Good for them! And that�s all that matters to me.
Oh, have I mentioned that I�m being paid very handsomely for my work? |
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erinyes
Joined: 02 Oct 2005
Posts: 272
Location: GuangDong, GaoZhou
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| Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| kubulka wrote: |
Well, I didn�t throw out the books, on the contrary, as loaded as the textbooks are, I actually like the challenge of using them.
Granted, I have some students who can�t even read but that doesn�t bother me either since I�ve a plenty of time teaching only 14 classes per week and thus can easily fit in tutorials for those slow or less motivated ones.
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Oh the joy of having only 14 lessons a week. I have taken over the job of the fired person (as I said before) so, do you think the school gave to job I was doing to anyone? NO. 17 lessons per week wouldn�t be bad if I hadn't decided to start my masters this semester (2 subjects) because I simply had too little work to do previously (20 lessons of the same thing over and over is SO much easier than the Cheer class)
2 subjects at uni, Cheer lessons and 8 other lessons in senior grade one. *u*k that text book!
Anyway - if the text book at whatever level had useful content, NP, but it's not even any good for them topic wise.
For my students, (with 10 lessons a week � 7 -full and 3 - � and �) there simply isn�t enough time to get them to try and plough through those books with all of the speaking games, essay writing, listening to stories, and critical conversations that we have.
Krashen tells us that reading (or indeed linguistic input of any kind) should be L+1 (one level above their current level). If it is the best language acquisition will take place. If it isn�t, it causes the students to either become bored (too easy) or become disheartened (too difficult). So research by linguists is on my side!
I think you also need to understand that the person who taught them for the first month was truly terrible. Not just bad, but SHOCKING. He did not speak at a level the students could understand, his lesson planning was almost non-existent and his treatment and attitude towards the students was reprehensible. Going into this class, a class with many strong personalities (good and bad and delicate and everything that you don�t imagine to find in an average class) I couldn�t in all good faith sit them down to a book with a list of new words �sympathetic, diverse, distal, proximal, timbre, suppress, anthropologist, comparative, intimacy, stoic� when most don�t know the meaning of �summarise�.
I hate to be meen, but if you are using the book, you must be making some of the students in you class secretly cry. |
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prof
Joined: 25 Jun 2004
Posts: 741
Location: Boston/China
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 9:47 am Post subject: |
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| erinyes wrote: |
I hate to be meen, but if you are using the book, you must be making some of the students in you class secretly cry. |
Yes, using a book in an EFL class is meen.
Meen teachers shouldn't work at "Cheer" English. |
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