Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

Such mixing of private lessons and a social life resulted in my marrying one of my students. Turned out to be a really bad business idea because I can't charge her for all these years of free lessons.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[cgage]

[/quote]
If a teacher has an independent work visa, this shouldn't be an issue.[/quote]

[Phil_K]

I can add to the above a little:

Do everything legally - go to immigration to augment your activities and then to Hacienda to get your c�dula - serious students/companies need invoices.

Be super-professional in everything you do

If you are lucky enough to get too many students - great!!! Employ good teachers on good salaries to do them for honorarios, (take your cut!) and Hey presto, you are the owner of a fledgling language school.

That what I did...and do.

[Samantha]

Can you tell us a little about the process of the FM3 Independiente and how it went in your INAMI office. Things such as cost, length of time valid, documents required, etc. would be useful. Also, I would think that starting your own school would involve a little more red tape (business license, etc.) than just the FM3 for teaching.

[Phil_K]

Documents (ampliaci�n de actividad con diferente empleador)
Application form
FM3
Letter (in Spanish) outlining the new activity
ID + full copy of FM3
SAT form for payment
Proof of address
Current cost $1850
Time: about a month in my case but this can vary widely)

The point is, you are not getting a different a different FM3, just getting permission to increase you activities, and Hacienda requires this to get your C�dula. (In fact Hacienda told me they could give me the c�dula without permission, but I ran the risk of being deported). Once again, whatever the atitude in Mexico, it is always better not to take short cuts: do everything legally.

[MamaOaxaca]

[cangringo]

We are teaching privately as well and also find the cancellations and disappearances frustrating as well as the "I'm going to be late" but it seems to be the norm here. It took us a few months to get the hang of it but we are doing fairly well now.

We ask our students to pay a week in advance but we do have one that is having money troubles due to a broken foot, but he has established that he will come to classes regulary and we let them pay by class. We don't ask them to buy books - we make copies from our books and they keep them. We used American Streamline for absolute beginners by Oxford Press and American Inside Out by McMillan Press. Great books. We also use discover in the classroom and books/movies for more advanced students. We also charge by class not by hour and the classes usually run long. If there is something special like a speech we will give more extra time as well.

I have to agree about the friendship idea, pretty much all of our friends here are students. Some of our neighbors are students as well. We tried advertising in the paper but it didn't get us much work - mostly it's word of mouth and flyers now. Our roommate is a student now as well

[corporatehuman]

Where did you get those books to begin with? I'm stuck in Chiapas and am about to start teaching, but only have an English grammar book to work with. Can I order them online?

- Chris

[cangringo]

You can order the American Inside Out online I believe but it will probably be expensive. Your best bet is to drop into a bookstore and find out if they can order them for you. You will get a better deal, although they may take a month or more to arrive. These books are good for teaching grammar without bombarding the students with a lot of rules.

We got the Streamline books through our school - well we got the others that way as well. It's a small school and they let us order through them. It's hard when you don't bring them with you as we found out. These ones are very good for conversation but there aren't many practice exercises that the students can do at home.

You don't need the books necessarily - your grammar book is a good one to have. You could look online for lessons, there are tons of sites although I'm not sure what the best ones are.

Try this site for Macmillan

http://www.macmillaneducation.com/catalogue/american/insideout.htm

and this for Streamline

http://www.us.oup.com/us/corporate/publishingprograms/esl/titles/seriesforyaandadults/new.amer.streamline/?view=usa

I believe you can order both online.

[TEFL anonymous]

There's a lot of info about teaching private classes to adults here, but little about teaching kids... As far as I can tell (at least where I am) there are loads of parents wanting their kids to learn English, but they either don't live in a city where there are language schools or they're a bit too broke to use them anyway...
I've been asked to do private classes for a few of such children out in the sticks, and I have no idea what to charge them... Any ideas???

[MELEE]

Actually kids is the only kind of private class I've done in Mexico. In my opinion it is the only kind worth the time and money--IF you enjoy teaching kids. I taught kids in Japan and did a 40 hour add on kids training there. (not a TEFYL) I think kids classes are a lot of fun. And you can get all your materials off the internet these days.

I charged 50 pesos a kid for a 90 minute--loads of crafts in the lesson--group class that had 8 kids in it. All the parents were my coworkers at the university, and the class was held in a playroom at one of the families homes. This room already had a white board and a low table in it, each kid brought a cushion and we could either sit around the table, for the craft activities, or push it off to the side for movement activities.

Before deciding on what to charge, I took a trip around town and asked how much various other classes for kids cost--art, dance, music, etc. I set my fee on the low end, but not the lowest, of those other classes.

[El Gallo]

MELEE - any tips on handling hyperactive kids. I teach a family now and the two boys are very well mannered and intelligent but one is so hyper that his attention span is about five minutes. Any advice?
Thanks in advance.

[geaaronson]

corporatehuman
I am surprised that you have not asked Joanna about where to get ESL books. There is a bookstore in Tuxtla that has a complete wall of ESL textbooks. It�s on the street with several other bookstores, halfway between the bus station and the zocala. I don�t recall the exact name but it�s something like Abedutucera Libreria. It�s on a corner and is one of the largest bookstores in Tuxtla. The English section is in the very back of the store. Good luck!

[MELEE]