|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
thelmadatter
Joined: 31 Mar 2003
Posts: 1212
Location: in el Distrito Federal x fin!
|
 Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject: site |
 |
|
| Excellent site TinR! I put links and descriptions on both the English page and the "Good Places to Start" page for teachers. Thanks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
|
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:05 am Post subject: Re: TEFL geek |
|
|
| thelmadatter wrote: |
| Glenski wrote: |
If one is truly an IT geek, TEFL can be a good field because of all the technology that teachers are using these days, especially in CALL rooms. The major problem with the technology is that there are two camps of people in TEFL:
Those who know how to use it or can learn it easily, and those who find it difficult.
The former don't seem to have the patience to teach the latter. |
Cant say I agree with you, Glenski. I guess you can classify me in the "learn it easily" group, but I still get very overwhelmed by it all. |
Well, then, you do agree with me.
| Quote: |
| I got a job as the lab coordinator at a school in Mexico City. Basically, I am creating the job ... with all the political headaches that do with it. |
Fairly rare here in Japan. The freedom, that is. The politics are still horrendous here.
| Quote: |
| My experience is that many/most teachers do not WANT to incorporate technology into language teaching (and sheesh, my school is a technical high school/uni) with all the usual excuses... they dont have time to learn, we always did it this way so why change? we dont have the money for that/they dont pay us enough to do that etc, etc. |
Ah, now we are talking about the local teachers vs. foreign teachers? Here, the administration wants to have final say on things, and INITIAL say, too. THEY are the ones who say what you wrote above, so it is up to the foreign teachers to convince them that software can be free, that TEFL can be taught in part with computers, etc.
A major problem is indeed money, if you talk about setting up CALL rooms! Or training teachers to use them. Or getting books that students will actually use with CDs in them (higher priced than those without the CDs).
| Quote: |
| The problem is that to use them effectively, we cannot teach they way we usually do... teacher-centered/textbook centered to a bunch of little autobots who supposedly spit back what we say. |
Are you saying that you usually teach with a teacher-centered approach? There's a problem right there! It is fairly common practice here NOT to do that, but only largely with foreign teachers. The Japanese are slow to come around to that.
| Quote: |
| Computers are interactive enough and demand enough of students' attention that we must arrange tasks for them to do, then let them do them. Most teachers (and to a certain extent students) are not ready for that. |
That's because the teachers have to learn the technology first, and that is where my other post comes in. Yes, one can be proactive, but if the ability isn't there, and the time or help is nonexistent, it is an incredible struggle.
| Quote: |
| There are teachers online who would love to help those who want to learn but you got to be proactive. No one taught me... I learned by trial and error. |
I'm learning mostly by T&E, too, and it's frustrating and a lot of wasted time and lots of reinventing of wheels. Where are these online teachers you speak of that are so willing to help? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Lhenderson
Joined: 15 Dec 2008
Posts: 135
Location: Shanghai JuLu Road
|
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
I tell my students and the locals that I was a 'big shot' back home. They seem to believe it.
In reality, I had nothing going on and huge student debts that I had defaulted on. Things looked bleak.
TEFL has been a godsend and a new chance and a fresh start. I just can't go home for another seven years until the bankruptcy goes off my record. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jonniboy
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 751
Location: Panama City, Panama
|
| Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Lhenderson wrote: |
| TEFL has been a godsend and a new chance and a fresh start. I just can't go home for another seven years until the bankruptcy goes off my record. |
By that time you may well not want to go home. Seven years is a long time and by then you'll probably have lost contact with many friends from back home, adapted to life in a foreign country, learned at least some of the lingo and possibly have done complicated things like marriage, kiddies and property. Your native country will also grow more alien, you'll be out of touch with popular culture there and so many of the conversation topics if you do go back will go over your head. You often don't realise until you go abroad how much people rely on TV as a conversation filler.
One crucial difference that I notice now is that if I ever think of relocating to the UK I think of it as "moving to the UK" rather than "moving back to the UK." Having had a pre-TEFL life (in credit management ironically enough) I definitely do believe that the grass is greener on the other side. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Marcoregano
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 872
Location: Hong Kong
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
| jonniboy wrote: |
| I definitely do believe that the grass is greener on the other side. |
...and which side is that?  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Teatime of Soul
Joined: 12 Apr 2007
Posts: 905
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 11:04 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Lhenderson wrote: |
I tell my students and the locals that I was a 'big shot' back home. They seem to believe it.
In reality, I had nothing going on and huge student debts that I had defaulted on. Things looked bleak.
TEFL has been a godsend and a new chance and a fresh start. I just can't go home for another seven years until the bankruptcy goes off my record. |
I thought student loans were no longer discharged by bankruptcy.
Hope it all works out well for you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Teatime of Soul wrote: |
| Lhenderson wrote: |
In reality, I had nothing going on and huge student debts that I had defaulted on. Things looked bleak.
TEFL has been a godsend and a new chance and a fresh start. I just can't go home for another seven years until the bankruptcy goes off my record. |
I thought student loans were no longer discharged by bankruptcy.
|
I filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2004 just before the rules tightened up, and even then student loans could not be discharged. Luckily for me I had used my credit card to pay them off by then! And the administrative judge hearing my case allowed the forgiveness of all my credit card debt.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Madame J
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 239
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| jonniboy wrote: |
| you'll be out of touch with popular culture there and so many of the conversation topics if you do go back will go over your head. You often don't realise until you go abroad how much people rely on TV as a conversation filler. |
I've never been out of the UK for more than four months, yet the above has always applied to me. Especially when it's footy/Big Brother season! I don't understand how so many people here rely on television to simply fill in so much of their time.
As for the student debt thing, how exactly does one default on repayments? I have no idea how it works in the US, but in the UK it comes out of your account automatically as soon as you're earning above a certain threshold. The only way you can default here is to leave the country without telling the loans people. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MO39
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Posts: 1970
Location: El ombligo de la Rep�blica Mexicana
|
| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Madame J wrote: |
As for the student debt thing, how exactly does one default on repayments? I have no idea how it works in the US, but in the UK it comes out of your account automatically as soon as you're earning above a certain threshold. The only way you can default here is to leave the country without telling the loans people. |
When I was paying off student loans in the US, it was up to me to send in monthly payments to the bank that had loaned me the money to pay for graduate school. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jonniboy
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 751
Location: Panama City, Panama
|
| Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Madame J wrote: |
| As for the student debt thing, how exactly does one default on repayments? I have no idea how it works in the US, but in the UK it comes out of your account automatically as soon as you're earning above a certain threshold. The only way you can default here is to leave the country without telling the loans people. |
No that's if your course started September 1998 or later .  For those of us who started before that, it isn't deducted automatically through the tax system, instead you had to set up a direct debit. The thing is, that can easily be cancelled later. Also you can defer it each year if you earn less than �26,000. You therefore default if you don't make the payment due to cancelling the DD and/or not getting your deferment form in on time.
After 1998, the repayment threshold becomes a very stingy �15,000 or �1,250 a month and with the collapse in the pound against the euro in recent months I'd suspect that even teachers in Spain and Italy are within that threshold now. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Madame J
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 239
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
26 grand?! How on earth were the government so softy softy before? Most people never start earning that amount!
15 grand sounds stingy, but I suspect that if it weren't set at that level then many people wouldn't start repaying their loans until they were pushing thirty. Amongst my graduate friends, earning enough to actually have started repaying is a bit of a status symbol. 
I forget that some of ye olde school of students had to take out loans in the first place, mind you... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jonniboy
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Posts: 751
Location: Panama City, Panama
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yeah read and weep
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/RepayingStudentLoansCoursesStartingBefore1998/DG_10034847
It's all relative. Back then (I started in 1995) we had all our fees paid by the government, the optional loan plus a grant of �2,000 yet we still sat around complaining about how hard done by we were. Loans were then a relatively new thing (introduced 1992.) The 1994 grant was �2200 and the 1993 grant �2500 so we were worse off than the people who came before. (I believe they are now reintroducing grants which were abolished at the end of the 1990s?)
If you live abroad, have income from more than one language centre plus cash from privates (more often than not under the table) then it's very easy to produce evidence that you're earning less than 26k and defer.
I like the unintentional black humour on their website
http://www.slc.co.uk/about%20student%20finance/products%20and%20services/loan_cancellation.html
"the Student Loans Company would usually cancel any outstanding loan if the repayer dies." Nice to know that if I'm run over by a truck tomorrow I can die happy, secure in the knowledge that the SLC are off my back! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Madame J
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 239
Location: Oxford, United Kingdom
|
| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yep, any pre 1998 students that have the gall to whinge about their circumstances are likely to be given very short shrift by people of my generation. As I'm sure you're well aware. 
Reintroducing grants? On which planet?! Unless there's been some significant item in the news which I really need to read, they've in fact abolished them across all tiers of students. Until 2006, students from less well off backgrounds had their fees paid by the LEA, but now they simply have a bigger loan to cover the additional fees.
All this despite the fact that less well off A level students are given "maintenance allowances" despite the fact that they still live with their parents (who are still claiming child benefit for them). Brilliant logic there.
However, all debt cancelled 25 years later under the new system? Sweet! This is intriguing to know, coming from someone considering returning to university in another couple of years. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mike_2007
Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 349
Location: Bucharest, Romania
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Yep, any pre 1998 students that have the gall to whinge about their circumstances are likely to be given very short shrift by people of my generation |
It wasn't that great pre-1998, trust me.
I was at Bath Uni just at the beginning of the student loan period. As I had nowhere to go in the school holidays my grant/loan had to last a bit longer than most people, who only needed it to stretch out over the 30 weeks of term time. The government grant gave me 2200 GBP and after rent (Bath isn't a cheap town, Madame J will testify to that) I would have about 70-80 GBP to last me the 10-week term plus the holiday (usually about 3-4 weeks).
In the first year of Student Loans I could only get about 500 GBP, and then about 700 GBP in the second year. This meant that in Year 1 I had a budget of about 13 quid per week after rent, from which I had to pay bills and buy food and books. Still had a great time though!
Anyway, I had been a teenage runaway and had been living on my wits for some time previously, so I knew a lot of tricks and at least I only came away from the situation with a couple of grand in debt.
So far I've been able to avoid repaying anything. All I have to do is to send the loan company a form once a year and a letter from my employer (i.e. my mate who has a company here ) saying I earn less than the limit. The slate is wiped clean when I reach 60 so that's my target
I feel sorry for the students of today, I have six nephews and nieces, all who have/will have 15-20K in debt by the time they graduate. Things are harder on them now and they need a lot more than students in the 90s - cars, mobile phones, laptops, net connections, fashionable clothing, etc. etc. The UK has become a debt culture sadly.
Mike |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Teacher in Rome
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 1286
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
15-20K in debt??? That is a huge amount of debt before you even get started in working life.
I graduated in 1987, back in the days when we all got student grants, though they were being squeezed even then. Your LEA paid all your tuition, and some of your living expenses, depending on how rich your parents were. The grants were not lavish, by any means, but with careful planning you could make them stretch. I was not a careful planner, and ended up with an overdraft, as did practically everyone I knew. But if I had known that I would end up with such massive debt, I don't think I would have bothered going to university. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
