Job Discussion Forums

[MandyF]

Hey everyone- I'm considering working in Mexico, and have been offered a job at Harmon Hall in Hidalga. Only thing is, I know nothing about it! Can anyone help??

Thanks,
Mandy

[Ben Round de Bloc]

I assume you've already checked out Harmon Hall's website. Harmon Hall is a franchise in Mexico (with some of the most obnoxious ads on national TV that I've ever seen, I might add.) There are Harmon Hall schools located all over the country.

Of course, due to location, local administration, and other factors, each Harmon Hall school has its own individuality to some degree: physical facilities, size, number of students/teachers, working conditions/atmosphere, wages per hour, etc.

Some things that most Harmon Hall schools have in common are as follows:
- require their own 1-month teacher training course prior to working for them
- teachers must wear uniforms
- each EFL course lasts for 1 month, so teaching schedules and number of teaching hours can change monthly
- tend to be on the low end for wages in most locations
- some pressure on teachers to keep their students re-enrolling
- don't require job applicants to have previous teaching experience or TEFL certificates

[MandyF]

Thanks for that! Hey I don't suppose you (or anyone) knows of any jobs going around June- ish?? Or anywhere to steer clear of??

[Ben Round de Bloc]

In the corner of Mexico where I am, a few schools try to hire in June for their terms that start in September. However, with July and August being vacation months, it's pretty hard to find something starting in June. Lots of people here who can afford English classes move to their beach houses (where it's cooler) for July and August, so language schools either close or run a minimum of classes during that time.

I don't know of any parts of the country to steer clear of in general. I think it all depends on individual preferences regarding things like climate, size of city, inland or coast, etc. If you mean "steer clear of" due to limited job prospects or particular schools with less than glowing reputations, you might try posting questions about specific cities that you have in mind.

[moonraven]

I worked for the Harmon Hall organization for 4 years--first for a year as a teacher and then 3 years as Director/Academic Coordinator. I can tell you that although the program is standard, each school is different, and that the training and overall academic levels vary widely. Hidalgo used to have a fairly bad reputation, but I am not current on them. Think of your experience as a scholarship to learn EFL teaching--if you are in one of the better schools. I never let a teacher in the classroom solo with less than 2 months of unpaid training. Other directors will shove folks in the classroom with no training atall--even though that is against the rules. It's a crapshoot. For experienced teachers--don't go there: hours are bad--and heavy--pay is miniscule.

[Guy Courchesne]

Mandy...have you been offered a teaching position with Harmon Hall or have you been invited to their training session? This is important to know as not everyone in the training session gets a job afterwards.

[moonraven]

Mandy,
The Harmon Hall training is not for everybody, either. It requires as much of your time as full time teaching does. As for not everybody getting a job, as a former HH trainer I can personally vouch for only about 30% of the trainees in the school where I was working actually making the cut and being given classes. Of the ones who made it, at least 50% were experienced teachers who only had to learn the HH method.

[Guy Courchesne]

Moonrave, can you clarify that a little? Of those that don't make the cut, do they tend to drop out, or complete the course and then find out they're not in? And of the 50% you said were experienced teachers, and that only have to leanr the HH method, do they still take the 4 week training?

[moonraven]

About half of the folks who don't make the cut drop out because they see they are in over their heads. The other half who don't make it are told to try a diferent school--before they finish the course. Other Harmon trainers may ot be as forthright as I was, but since folks were not getting paid and my time was very precious to me I didn't see any point in stringing folks along. The 50% who were experience teachers had to take the training--and it was at least 60 days in all cases--in some cases, more, but the teacher did not enter theclassroom independently until I was sure he or she was ready.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

[moonraven]

Harmon Hall has a very specific method of teaching, their own textbooks, etc. Because there are close to 100 branches around Mexico, and because one of the selling points of the program is that students who are out of the area where they live--on business or whatever--can take classes at the HH where they are visiting, all teachers have to give the same program. Theoretically, an experienced teacher can start and finish the pre-service training in 4 weeks--I did so, for example, but the less experienced guy who was in training with me had to spend 8 weeks. All the teachers I personally trained needed at least 8 weeks--please keep in mind that 4 weeks of that was team-teaching the level that we expected him/her to begin teaching. I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that HH training and subsequent teaching should be viewed as a scholarship situation--and if you are in a good institute (like the one where I was director--while I was director there) it's worth it. I personally began teaching at the university level in 1968--and was known for innovative teaching, and I still learned an enormous amount while teaching in HH.

As to the question of whether I accepted everybody for training, knowing that 70% wouldn't make it--NO: I accepted only folks I thought would make it--usually about 60% were HH students who had finished the program with high TOEFL scores and who had passed the Michigan exam--folks I had had my eye on for some time. Even being good students of the HH program did not mean that they would automatically become good teachers.

As to why someone would spend 2 months of unpaid training--probably each person had his/her own reasons. But let me give you one example: one of our students was a teacher in the public school system here--elementary school level--whose dream was to learn English well enough to go to the US and teach in a bilingual program in California. When he finished our program I began training him to teach in HH. He was not very secure of his skills in English, so was repassing levels while in training. While I helped him to prepare for the interviews with the school districts, he was teaching an intermediate level in our Saturday program. He was hired and went to the States, realizing his dream.

All that being said, I still do not recommend HH as a place to spend much time working--mainly because it's just a business, and most of the owners of the different schools are not well-educated people. They squeeze their staff--teaching and administrative--as much as they can.

[saraswati]

I must say that I have to object to Moonraven's parting comment about directors or owners squeezing teachers for all they've got. I have worked in Harmon Hall for years and still do. As was mentioned earlier, each HH is a bit different and that is determined by the people who work there. (As it does with any school.) Where I work, we don't have a 70% failure rate. We make sure that teachers who train actually want to be there and are fully aware of the commitment, time or otherwise. As a result, very few teachers do not finish the training. As for it only be a business, well, again, that depends. In our institute, teachers personal needs and schedules are always taken into consideration. As it should be. We can never lose sight of the fact that we are people teaching people.

[moonraven]

I admire your stamina! Are you sure you aren't a shill for Harmon Hall?

All the HHs may be different, but certain things are standard: by organization parameters, a full time teacher is contracted for 45 hours per week--and in a busy school you will be in the classroom 8 hours a day M through F and 5 hours on Saturday. That's very heavy--and schedules allow for very little individualization in response to teachers' needs. I don't know what salaries are like these days, as I left the HH circuit 5 years ago, but I can say that the only reason I was able to make it financially there is because I received a very tiny percentage (1.5%) of the school's income in addition to my base salary and benefits--and because I always earned bonuses for student evaluations and re-enrollment.

I stand by what I said earlier--for a very short time, consider HH a scholarship experience. I had a LOT of contact all the time with other directors and teachers in other HH schools around Mexico and would have to say that saraswati's experience is simply not typical. When I left HH to teach in private junior high schools and then as chairperson of languages at 2 universities I worked much less and made eough money to be able to save at least half of my salary--something impossible when I was working at HH.

As a post data: the owner screwed me on my liquidation when I left, and bribed the local attorney at the Junta de Conciliacion. That's also typical of HH owners-- from what I have heard from at least 100 former directors, coordinators and teachers.

As we say here in Mexico: "MUCHO OJO".

[saraswati]

Moonraven,
Your terms of departure are truly regretable. I'm sorry that happened to you. My experience has been different and contrary to your school, if one doesn't want to work 45 hours a week, one doesn't have to...
Yes, other schools pay more, other schools pay less too.

What's important is that we continue to love what we do...or we get out. It's that simple.

Good luck to you.

[moonraven]

Don't be too trusting--I had no problems either until I wanted to leave....Then it became a different ballgame, and other directors who chose to leave had similar negative experiences. Most HH schools' owners will also blackball you--teacher, director or coordinator-- when you leave, so be prepared for that.

I don't believe I indicated that teachers were forced to work 45 hours a week; those are the hours of a fulltime teacher at any HH. Teachers can work less, but they usually can't make it financially. I worked 35 hours a week for a year before becoming director, but could barely make ends meet.

I agree that we must continue to love what we do--but that doesn't mean we must let ourselves be exploited when there are other options out there.