Job Discussion Forums

[Calypso]

For those who teach with Chinese co-teachers, how do you find it? This is the first time I've ever had co-teachers in my classroom, in South Korea and Mongolia I taught alone. Obviously at home I also have my class to myself.

I just can't decide whether or not I like it. I work with around six different CTs over the course of a week and they all, of course, have their strengths and weaknesses. I've heard from another ft that in his last job the CTs were rubbish, rarely turning up on time, talking on their phones during lessons and so on. My CTs are lovely people but I'm not sold on the co-teacher experience.

How about you?

[Silent Shadow]

I think a co-teacher is a kind of oxymoron. In the one school in which I had the experience of co-teachers, I was corrected when I tried to tell them that they were assistants, not co-teachers. They wouldn't have it, and of course management insisted that they were co-teachers.

It worked bettter with woman assistants (oops! I mean co-teachers), though, but I found that when working with men, they would want to take over the class. Trying to encourage an English environment, I would ask a question, and if nobody had answered after all of two seconds, the co-teacher, would immediately give the answer in Chinese, followed by a further ten minute speech in Chinese.

Another problem with co-teachers is that they would take the class off on a completely different tangent than I had planned for. No doubt it could work under the right circumstances, with the correctly matched people with the right chemistry and attitude.

You may call me a control freak, but I like to be in control of as much of the class as possible, so having a co-teacher does not suit me at all. If I found out in advance that the school required it, I would either try to talk them out of it, or not sign, and find another school. If you find it doesn't suit you, maybe you can talk your school around to allowing you to teach solo.

[Jayray]

If a class is assigned two teachers with the intention that the class TRULY be co-taught, then neither teacher can really teach while other is in charge. If the other is active in the class room , then it should be in a support capacity only, sort of like a teacher's aid.

I've endured such cr*p in the U.S.. There are many reasons why administrators insist upon it in the U.S.. The only possible overlap of reasons would be that

a. one teacher is deemed in need of teaching technique, so the other is there to show him how to teach.

b. The school has too many teachers under contract as well as the money to retain them, so the administration decides to double up.

c. one teacher is there to keep tabs on the other.

In China, I think C is the most likely scenario, with A coming in as a close second.

In the U.S., it has been done in underclass prerequisite courses in which students and/or other teachers complain that there are too many discrepancies in the teachers' curricula, so they have two-hour lectures during which both graduate faculty and lecturer level faculty take turns addressing an auditorium full of students who take the same course taught by different teachers. It is almost like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

I wouldn't stand for it in China. I'm not here to teach teachers. I don't need help, and there's a monitor who is supposed to keep tabs on me.

[Teatime of Soul]

Never had a co-teacher in China.

Teaching assistants, never a problem.

Co-teachers seems like"two tigers on one mountain"

[RonHex]

I have a couple co teachers and they are great... They control the class and translate some of the more difficult language(grade 1 students). They dont do a whole lot tho.. I make lesson plans and do 95% of the teaching. I would never sign a contract teaching kids without having a coteacher provided (atleast until my chinese improves)

[LongShiKong]

I've taught kids with Chinese co-teachers for years. I've seen some awesome Chinese teachers from whom I've had the honor to work with but then there are those who are obviously not suited to it.

I've had 2 CTs who've insisted on sitting in the back of the room marking workbooks when I wanted them to be at the front of the classroom with me, helping to model and explain pairwork and other activities. I've once again resorted to using Chinese in the classroom as one of my CTs seems out to lunch most of the time. But in all fairness, I feel sorry for those experienced but underpaid CTs sidelined by ill-prepared, overpaid and under-qualified FTs who've not given a second thought to how to benefit from their presence in the class.

I've even decided to add it to my list of reasons for resigning: we hire CTs like we hire FTs--based solely on their English--provide limited training and bonus only to see them leave months later and have to do it all over again. No wonder this school's marketing budget (220 students) is more than my monthly income.

Long after the course ends, it's not the translation or explanations that students will remember but the working relationship between FT and CT which may prove pivotal in motivating ss to progress in their English.

Top 10 Complaints about Chinese Co-teachers:

1. Spoonfeed - don't give ss a chance to remember nor bother to elicit the answer from other ss.
2. Rely too heavily on Chinese - translate rather than use other means
3. Know less about how to control a class than newbie FTs
4. Don't get ss attention before addressing a class.
5. Don't communicate with FTs - won't ask if they don't understand nor will they tell you something in a timely manner.
6. Think teaching is simply explaining
7. Are oblivious to what's happening in the classroom - emerging behavioral issues, the need for a Chinese explanation or translation
8. Fail to engage ss--usually resort to boring teaching techniques
9. Show limited interest in understanding and addressing student needs -- educational or otherwise.
10. Lack the essential analytical and critical thinking skills required to operate in a professional manner.

[johntpartee]

[juanisaac]

I also had Chinese co-teachers in my classes. I work at an elite Senior Middle School where the teachers had to help me in class. Half just corrected homework in class, some just sat in the back doing nothing, and some just took over my classes in explaining everything. I ended kicking every teacher out of my class, but not for the aforementioned things. I kicked them all out becuase of their attitudes. One teacher told me "What you teach does not matter." Another professional told me "We are just there to hear you talk, that is all." I said good-bye to all of them and I teach 60 Chinese kids by myself. My first year students speak so much better than the third year students here. Some teachers did help me alot, but these were few and far between. In my experience, the Chinese co-teaches need a more humble approach to actuially helping not a "what the heck am I doing listening to this foreigner who knows less English than I do."