Job Discussion Forums

[arioch36]

WHat is most important for the new teacher to know? In regards to teaching, not to contracts.

Adapt to China. You need to learn to work with their system

Class Leaders

The most important thing to me is learning to properly use the class leaders, especially in the university setting, often in the high school setting, sometimes in the private language school settings.

Each class has a class leader and a study leader. The system is designed that they have a crucial role. Have problems with a student? Tell the class leader to kick him in the butt. Need something from the department? Have the class leader to take care of it (with your guidance. I also teach them to desinate). Ask the class leader for the class roster, not the department. The class leader should present a list of who is absent (you double check the numbers and DON"T ACCEPT ANY EXCUSES FOR MISSED CLASSES)

Sometimes the class leader is the problem. Have a talk with the leader, suggest if they can't do their job, you'll talk with the department about having him replaced.

A class leader that does a good jobwill get rewarded. A department that doesn't care and a class leader that doesn't take the job seriously results in a bad class. A department and class leader that take their work seriously means a class that will be fun to teach.

[arioch36]

CHANGING THE CHINESE SYSTEM

Please wait more then two days before you go into the leaders office and spend three hours telling the leader all the wonderful changes they should make. Oh, the leader will sit politely, smile, and say hmm hmm, thank you. How would you feel if you were the leader of a school, 20 years experience, and the first month some newbie to your country starts telling you all the things you are doing wrong

MAKING CHANGES- Do it yourself

Don't like the classroom? During breaktime, look for a better one. Ask the class leader to look. The class time sucks? Ask the clas when they don't have class. DO NOT ASK THE DEPARTMENT TO DO THIS. As in any institution, they will CYA and tell you "bu keyi" can't do it.

Last year I had no textbooks. So I and the students searched the multi-media building to find which rooms were free, then we contacted the building manager to officially ask for the rooms, then asked the department to sign for the room, no leg work on their part.

Last year I was given one class at 2:00 and one at 6:00.
I asked the International Department why they gave me such a bad schedule, that I want to eat dinner to. "Oh, we can't change it, you have to understand, this is Chins, we have so many students blah blah blah"
Asked my 6:00 students. They had no class at 4:00 Easy change
Another similar class had free time every even week so at least every even week we could have class time at a reasonable time

[arioch36]

FORGET UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS
BUT
DEMAND YOUR STUDENTS WORK

(YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO TEACH THEM SHAKESPEARE)

Most people tend to live up to your expectations, good or bad. I have found that most students prefer to be challanged in class. The problem is that they have developed the habit of sleeping, playing games in class. The Chinese idea is that "cream rises to the top", students that want to excel will sit in front and pay attention, thus you would see on a recommdation letter "I was my teacher's favourite student"

We tend to expect every student to come to class and pay attention and take notes. This is possibly new to them, and they have to understand that youreally expect this, and that you are not just saying the proper words that you will not follow up on.

On the other hand, some situations you have to lower your expectations, especially when it is obvious the school doesn't care. One IELTS class, students parents' pay 20,000 or 30,000 a year. Students came when they felt like itI soon gave up trying to make the school better. I had my classroom rules, I did what I could, and vowed never to do such a class again. One language school I did on the side, constant new students coming, students leaving, different language levels, and managements "just make them happy". Dumb down the class. Take them for a picnic (culture class) What can you really do? Try to hold everyone to a high standard that wiil just frustrate and confuse them and you?

DON"T TRY TO DO MORE THEN YOU ARE PAID TO DO

[arioch36]

YES, it was raining today, so the above posts were made with too much time on my hands. Hope they don't sound to pompous

[Leon Purvis]

The best advice so far: remember the words, "This is China."

You're not in Kansas anymore. Administrators do things that defy explanation by western logic. I once taught a class way over on the south side of campus. All of my students came from way over from the north side of campus. I had to walk ten minutes to my classroom. The students had to walk at least twenty minutes to class from their previous class on the north side. Students were always late for class. The solution to the problem would have been to schedule the class in a largely-unused building on the north side of campus so nobody would have to walk so far to class. Did that make sense to anybody except to me or the students? Nope.

Another time, one of my classes of 40+ students was assigned to a really tiny room on the sixth floor of the building. There weren't enough seats for everyone. It was really hot. I moved the class to another larger, unused room next door. In ten minutes some old grump came to my door with the FT liaison and the department head and routed us out of the room.

Great.

I realized that there were no other classes being taught anywhere else in the building except on the first floor, and that there were two unused classrooms there. The next day, I moved the class downstairs among all of the Chinese teachers who were reading from their books in loud voices. The monitor got a call on his cell phone.

The monitor recognized the number on his phone and said that he knew that it was the guy who got all upset the day before. He was sure that he was checking to see if the class was in its assigned room. I told the monitor to tell him that the dean's office changed the room assignment to the first floor. I said that I was angry about it because it made no sense for me to be teaching on the first floor when all of my other classes were on the sixth floor of every other building. Furthermore, I told the monitor, I specifically requested (and got) an apartment on the sixth floor of the apartment building because I needed the exercise. I demanded a reason for the sudden break in uniformity.

The monitor's face turned red while he was repeating all this. When the call ended, I asked the monitor what the guy said.

-- Dr. Chen says 'okay.'

On the last day of the term, there was some sort of evaluation in progress, and some other old guy came to my class room with a clip board and a puzzled expression on his face. He asked a student why we were on the first floor instead of on the sixth floor. No class was scheduled for this room.

I told the the student to tell him that there had been a dead horse in my class room on the sixth floor for the entire term, and that now the horse is about the size of a city bus, and that there is no room for anyone to sit, and despite my complaints, no one has removed the horse. CAN'T YOU SMELL IT?

The guy checked off a few things on the paper on his clipboard, then scampered off in the opposite direction from the administration building.

[Shan-Shan]

And why is it like this? Men from day one always having someone yank out their little wang whenever they feel the urge to take a piss. Habituated helplessness. Welcome to China.

[lostinasia]

While I understand the argument here ...

No textbooks - I don't teach

School can't assign a room, can't provide a list of enrolled students - I don't teach

Once taught a "Film, Cinema in American Culture" class and classroom had no computer to actually display a film - I don't (didn't) teach

It's simple ... the assigned class monitor has his/her uses, however, the ultimate responsibility lies in the school itself. Anyone who stands by while the school is too inept to assist you in normal functions should simply leave China and see how such behavior would be tolerated in an American setting.

I use the monitor for some things, but I demand the school provide actual leadership - I am an employee of the school and the student himself is not my direct superior.

[Brian Caulfield]

I basically agree with everything said here . I find that you must work around problems here . My biggest problem has been poor texts so I create alot of my own materials . I don't use class room monitors . I basically hated these people when I was a student , so why should I use them now .
I am trying something different this term . I will use a seating plan . The plan is based on taichi . In tai chi the weak person usually is put in the middle so they can see the good taichi people practicing in the front sides and back of the class . You can spot the poor students on the first day they sit in the very back . They will be moved to the center . The people who are shy are always in the front corners . This is the best place to hide . They will be moved to the center also . I don't know if it will work or not . I'll let you know .
I try to use the circle or horseshoe style classroom seating plan but I find the classrooms too small for this . I have my students move around a lot in my classes because I do much information gap activities . It is basi cally TPR but it improves their listening .

[Leon Purvis]

My monitors have been great! I know their limitations, and the older ones know their own limitations and they work around them.

I used to get really PO'd at the FT liaison until I understood how he, too, was pretty much stuck in the mire of bureaucracy and ineptitude of his superiors. He was educated abroad, so he had an idea of the workings of the west and the unrealistic expectations of the FTs in China.

Even HE would say, "Hey. This is China." In fact, when a teacher was scheduled to teach a course but assigned no room, he just said, call the monitor and tell her to assemble everyone in the building. Then go take a class that isn't in use.

Which reminds me: I was once assigned to teach a classroom in the men's lavatory. When I showed up outside the men's room, all I could do was hope that the students were assigned the same room.

Sure enough. They showed up and stood outside the men's lavatory and just kind of looked around with "WTF?" looks on their faces. If you get to know your students well enough, they'll even open up and tell you that what they experience sometimes defies explanation, but they accept it.

I must say, however, that the FAO doesn't put up with BS. If an FT has a legitimate concern, it is immediately investigated, and if there really IS a problem, it is fixed pronto. I could see this FAO in charge of a large, profitable company. She doesn't work around the bureaucracy. She takes it on and makes things happen. This seems to be the exception than the rule.

The new teacher MUST be able to accept the fact that it really IS a different world, and that Chinese culture works much differently from western cultures.

[Shan-Shan]

[james s]

The country and its system are spinning out of control. Go there not expecting to change it. It is too large and not free enough for 1 person to change.

Expect to use others materials and be told on and potentially fired, fined, or reprimanded for using your own stuff.

Working within the system was my key to survival within that country. I tried to make it with my own materials but found the hard way that one must do as one is told, without thinking, in order to survive.

Expect cheaters. This is how the people survive in country. It starts with the parents cheating, to store clerks cheating, to principals cheating their teachers, to classmates cheating. It is a part of life. Understand that.

Do not teach them how to think-it will leave you heartless and hopeless. They merely want your English, not anything else. The feds have them brainwashed into believing they are superior in education.

Chinese students crushed me after my second year because the vast majority would not think and preferrred to copy and mock me by faking assignments and interviews and tasks (in a university), and they to this day believe that I never suspected a thing.

In summary, dont expect to change them, they dont want it. They want your English, give it to them really slowly.

Overall, the ESL LIVING experience, on a scale of 1-10 was a 10 for life experience.

The in classroom experience was a 3. I say this low with respect to above half of the students in my last school (who were great, except a few racist mocking students, whom I will never forget).

It was a 3 because the kids never really cared or had passion. They learned because their parents ordered them to. A void filled the eyes of the youth, and I merely spoke to myself for the majority of classes in the last 2 years.

My regards to the good students (and there were a few). You were memorable and a pleasure to work with.

[lostinasia]

[Worldly]

[Anda]

I teach using my own material and my own way of teaching at a teacher�s college but my college is not really interested in pushing their students to learn. Allow my college is a government college students parents pay like a private college. So the college runs like a private one for money.

I have problems with students to start with to get them to put some effort into their study. Even after holidays they tend to want to continue their holiday. After a time however they do work with me and I'm popular overall! I think however that anyone who comes here to China expecting to find students that are wanting to study to the max is in for a disappointment. Something like twenty percent if you are lucky are out to pass the exams and get top marks.

The other problem is that students here see everything with exam eyes only. If they think that it is exam related then you will have better attention from them. Oral English tests are too easy and essay writing skills / communication skills are not seen by most students as being important due to the fact that they are not tested on these skills like in the West. So you are stuck with teaching them about the real world and what it is like to turn up for an interview with no speaking ability or ability to write an essay like is required for a party member's position here in China.

[Leon Purvis]