Job Discussion Forums

[KateCee]

Hello,

My school will have 2 weeks off from mid to end Jan for the upcoming Spring Festival. I will not have classes from the beginning of Jan as the students will be preparing for their exams. The few ads for the Winter Camps that I have seen so far start in the middle of Jan & run well into Feb. So those are out for me.

I know there are some schools/institutes that take on teachers for a month, but they don't state it in their ads. Have any of you been to or know of such schools that I can go to next month only? I would really like to try out a new place since I have the opportunity. I do not want to travel per se; would prefer to work. Any suggestions?

Thanks.
Kate

[Roger]

Silly - who hires someone for just one month? And, to top this silliness off - in the month of spring festival holidays?

[MyTurnNow]

Not necessarily completely silly, Roger.
Some schools do run camps/intensives over that winter holiday. They'll close for a couple of days during the NYE/NYD period but otherwise they're up and running. Often these sessions are closely timed to exactly dovetail with the local public schools' schedules. These rascals are a MAJOR profit stream for a great many schools.

I'm not a big fan of these things. They basically give parents a place to park the kids during the day. The kids are being ripped out of a holiday, so you just know they're really excited about a good stiff dose of rigorous English training. Some schools will squeeze an entire course/level into just a few weeks, so they can promise parents their child will advance into a higher class...so you know the quality will be impeccable. A lot of daily classes are used so that the programs still meet classroom-hour regulations, and the teachers' schedules are pretty ugly sometimes. Some schools go for a more fun "camp" environment instead of formal classes. These may not have a high value from an educational standpoint, but IMHO they are at least a bit more humane for the kids. Since the terms are short, the less scrupulous schools often recruit a lot of short-timers with only a tourist visa.

Most of these programs run 6-8 weeks but a month is not unheard of.

MT

[gerard]

Korea also are big on this winter camp stuff. Can;t have kids on holiday now can we??? What will the world come to if people start taking holidays>>>???

To the OP I can't say I have heard of such a thing here but it wouldn't surprise me. Myself I would rather die than teach this coming January.

[KateCee]