Job Discussion Forums

[Samantha]

Greg, maybe it's a "girl thing" and male teachers may not experience it. I knew exactly what Dragonlady was referring to, because I've experienced it myself, often times being the only foreign teacher. In my area, Mexican teachers are the norm in language schools, and there are relatively few foreign teachers.

I have worked with a male British teacher, albeit briefly. The students rebelled against his teaching style and he got fired for being too strict. They asked me to speak to him first and explain some of the cultural differences....like it's not cool to accuse the students of cheating on exams, throw their cell phones in the garbage can, and stuff like that.

[Dragonlady]

[Tretyakovskii]

Have we exhausted our ideas about how teachers can get their income up?

I suppose what I've suggested is to concentrate on establishing groups, which allows you to aggregate what each student, individually, pays, so as to produce a higher hourly rate for the teacher; to think in terms of what you'd like to earn for your time, rather than what others may think their time is worth, and to push your hourly/student rate higher, over time, if possible, always looking for those who are comfortable paying more, rather than reducing your rates to appeal to a wider audience.

One of the teachers I knew in Vietnam had done very well for himself offering studies for modest hourly sums, but running groups of twenty, or more. This meant that people of modest means would have a chance to study, but at affordable (for them) rates. I didn't find that necessary, and was able to run groups of ten, making my targets for income, but I thought what he did had a place in the scheme of things.

[Guy Courchesne]

[Tretyakovskii]

Guy, consistent with his desire to serve those of lesser means, he rented a very modest place in the most centrally located place he could find: for some it must have cost more in transportation to get to his classes, than his classes cost.

[Isla Guapa]

Trying to rent a place in Mexico City to give classes of that size could get complicated, I think, especially anything centrally-located. Anyway, teaching a group that large is more work than I'd care to take on at this stage in my career.

[Tretyakovskii]

Tell me about it. This semester, I had a total of 50 students, in two groups; others were not so lucky and had as many as 37 students to a class.

Classes this large are a handful, but seem to come with the territory (state universities). Now and then, because of the vagaries of enrollment at university, a teacher will end up with a group of less than 15, but that's not the norm, here.
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[the peanut gallery]

Some good concepts here guys and gals! Can someone smarter than me nutshell the conclusions and maybe even the practical applications of whats been presented as feasible in this thread?

[Dragonlady]

[Phil_K]

[Dragonlady]

[Samantha]

[Dragonlady]

[Enchilada Potosina]

[Phil_K]