Job Discussion Forums

[OUT_BOUND]

I'm brand new at teaching and want to know what I should look for before signing a contract. Don't want to get stuck with somthing with no way out.
Don't have a lot of experience under my belt, so in search of some advise that may be useful to avoid pitfalls. May have an offer in China and/or Vietnam if this can help me know what to look for.

cheers
cl

[eslstudies]

China:
Airfare reimbursement, return trip after one year.
Housing [fully equiped] supplied or allowance given.
Possibly utilities supplied, or an allowance, depending. State schools generally provide a computer with internet [you pay for net]
Work visa arranged and paid for by school.
Compulsory medical paid for by school.
Standard clinic medical treatment [Aspro and Bandaid stuff]
State school hours 20 max.
Paid national holidays; possibly some others too.
State school: weekends off.

Others may be negotiable. The above are pretty standard.
Also "contract" is misleading. Most of these matters don't appear in contracts, and are negotiated prior.

[movinaround]

Make sure they are contact (class, teaching, etc) hours and NOT actual hours. For example, if you teach 20 hours and all the classes are 40 minutes, it could be a difference between 20 classes and 30 classes a week (a major difference)!

[MamaOaxaca]

[lozwich]

[rossttuedu]

I signed up for 25 classes a week for around 5000 RMB a month here in China. Its really not too many hours for me to still enjoy some free time and the 5000 will go a long way here in Tianjin. One thing I wish I would have put in my contract is a limit on the number of schools that I would be teaching at. Before today I was actually teaching 24 classes a week, but today my agency told me I would have to go teach two classes at a third school in order to fulfill my contract obligations. I am definately going to charge more money for that extra hour a week though. But you live and learn. The only reason I am being forced to take on this extra school and not my dutch coworker is because he was smart enough to limit the number of schools he would work at to two. Oh... and while I am at it... if you want to teaching in primary schools.. make sure you write that into the contract. I got thrown into a middle school when I wanted all primary. Cheers!

[thrifty]

Where you are going it won`t make any difference. What are you going to do if they don`t stick to the "contract?" Post a complaint on Dave`s?

[Jetgirly]

If your contract talks about overtime establish whether or not it is mandatory for you to accept scheduled overtime hours. If you're doing in-company work establish rates of pay for travel time and petrol/transit passes.

[mlomker]

In China they will often tell you the name of a big town that is 45 minutes away but you're actually teaching in a small town. You may wish to clarify how far your school is from a major city and how far your housing is from the places that you will be teaching.

You might want to ask about how your hours are scheduled. Language schools will often make you work split-shifts, leaving you twiddling your thumbs in the middle of the day. You're away from home for 12-13 hours per day but you're only getting paid for a fraction of that time.

[Justin Trullinger]

A good thing to try is to get in touch with current teachers at schools. Because lots of schools won't, as thrifty pointed out, stick to the contract. Current teachers will know.

If they don't want to put you in touch with current teachers, well...I wonder why not...

Justin

[Jetgirly]

I've been put in the "current teacher" position and I find it quite unsettling. If a great candidate doesn't accept an offer of employment after you tell them the truth about working somewhere, management won't be too happy with you. I would rather hear from a former teacher who no longer has ties to the school.

[Justin Trullinger]

Whoa- I honestly hadn't thought of that.

I guess that if management is much good, though, they'd have to know that in EFL a lot of people refuse offers for a thousand reasons. It wouldn't have occured to me to blame the current teacher that they talked to.

Whoa. I may have to talk this over with teachers!

Best,
justin

[Sgt Killjoy]

Yeah, Justin, it happens. Many teachers currently employed by a school may not feel they can be as forthcoming as they would like to be. Less than reputable schools may provide a phone number for the teacher, but be right with the teacher when the phone call is taken or they may ask to see the emails sent to the prospective teacher(I have been in this kind of situation myself). Even when the boss is not involved at all with the advice given, a teacher may feel uncomfortable telling the truth about a school. Self preservation sets in and the advice given is less than perfect.

It is much easier to ask for former teachers, but the problem with that is that the school will only give the names of teachers who will give it glowing marks. I find it funny that a former school of mine doesn't list me as someone to get info about the school. I really enjoyed my time there and would give it tremendously good feedback, but the feedback would be honest. They use another former teacher who just says, hey things are great. Remember, it's a marketing game.

The best way is to share both positive and negative experiences with schools and let teachers anonymously leave feedback about a school, but with the sheer numbers of schools out there, it ain't gonna happen.

When trying to avoid a hellish experience, the first thing you should do is google the name of the school. Maybe do a Dave's search as well. If someone felt compelled enough to write about a negative experience before, you will find it.

[ilaria]

[jammish]

In China, check that you won't have office hours/a curfew. IMO the average chinese salaries don't make it worth the hassle of both these things. The whole point of getting 5000 RMB a month is that you get loads of time to enjoy yourself. Stuff sitting in an office.