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Lack
Joined: 10 Aug 2011
Posts: 252
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 Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| That's way over-doing it. How do you avoid burnout OP? I would be hard-pressed to do more than 20 contact hours a week. After a point, the teaching gets too repetitive and you're not able to give it as much effort as you should because of fatigue. |
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Cosmixed
Joined: 11 May 2014
Posts: 11
Location: Istanbul
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| Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| kirby42 wrote: |
| At the moment I'm doing 32 hours of in class teaching a week. Every hour takes near an hour to plan. |
Hey Kirby,
I'm curious why every hour of class takes you almost an hour to plan. Does your school have any resources like textbooks for you to use, or are you researching everything yourself online and putting it all together? What's your process like? I think if you could fine tune it a bit it would help you a lot.
If the planning is all you I would suggest investing a little bit of time in making some lesson plans based on level that you can reuse as appropriate. That way eventually the time you spend on your lesson planning will decrease eventually. You are spending way too much time on it, I couldn't hang with that.
~C |
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santi84
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
Posts: 1317
Location: under da sea
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Cosmixed wrote: |
| kirby42 wrote: |
| At the moment I'm doing 32 hours of in class teaching a week. Every hour takes near an hour to plan. |
Hey Kirby,
I'm curious why every hour of class takes you almost an hour to plan. Does your school have any resources like textbooks for you to use, or are you researching everything yourself online and putting it all together? What's your process like? I think if you could fine tune it a bit it would help you a lot.
If the planning is all you I would suggest investing a little bit of time in making some lesson plans based on level that you can reuse as appropriate. That way eventually the time you spend on your lesson planning will decrease eventually. You are spending way too much time on it, I couldn't hang with that.
~C |
I'll bet this poster does it all from scratch. I know I have fallen into this trap too. I started paying for lesson plans a while ago (http://www.esllibrary.com) and making modifications accordingly. As much as I wanted 100% amazing student-centred lessons, it was misguided. Students do well when their teacher isn't burned out! |
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kirby42
Joined: 14 Nov 2014
Posts: 55
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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My situation improved slightly at the beginning of this year but next week it's back to normal. Tomorrow I'll have a 12 hour day. This week will be 50-60 hours worth of teaching, planning and commuting to offsite clients.
I'm curious folks, what are your hours like? It can't be like this for everyone. |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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| kirby42 wrote: |
My situation improved slightly at the beginning of this year but next week it's back to normal. Tomorrow I'll have a 12 hour day. This week will be 50-60 hours worth of teaching, planning and commuting to offsite clients.
I'm curious folks, what are your hours like? It can't be like this for everyone. |
You've already asked this question and received responses that your hours are excessive --- not the norm.
What answer are you looking for? How does knowing the number of hours others work help your present situation?
You were also advised to either move on asap or stick it out until you get a year's worth of experience under your belt and then move on. What do you plan to do to improve your situation? |
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kirby42
Joined: 14 Nov 2014
Posts: 55
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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| I plan to stick it out for the remainder of the contract for the experience. Over half way. I was just trying to compare it to what other people do because I don't actually know what the norm is.. Maybe newer teachers get the short end of the stick or something. |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| kirby42 wrote: |
| I was just trying to compare it to what other people do because I don't actually know what the norm is.. Maybe newer teachers get the short end of the stick or something. |
You seem to think that every TEFL situation is a one-size-fits-all scenario. Plus, there's no universal rule that states that newbies should get swamped with excessive teaching hours.
You can only compare your situation to others in the same country and same type of teaching context. If you're concerned about hours at your school, why not compare yours to your teaching colleagues -- new and experienced? |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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| 4 hours a day is just right. 5 is too much. |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:01 am Post subject: |
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| I do on average 50-55 teaching hours per week. Self-employed. No commuting time and fairly minimal prep time. Been doing that for years now. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| The only way you can do 50 hours class contact a week is of you are "page-turning". More than 5 a day is a no-no. |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 2:19 am Post subject: |
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| scot47 wrote: |
| The only way you can do 50 hours class contact a week is of you are "page-turning". More than 5 a day is a no-no. |
For classroom teaching I would agree. But I tutor privately (mostly one-to-ones) which is a completely different ballgame. If you set yourself up correctly it is possible to tutor for a large number of hours per day relatively easily. In fact my hours now are down from last year, which peaked at around 60 or so teaching hours per week.
I won't divert the main discussion of this thread too much longer but if anyone wants a more detailed explanation of how it can be done I've written one here : http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=1225798&highlight=#1225798 |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:16 am Post subject: |
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| Jmbf wrote: |
I do on average 50-55 teaching hours per week. Self-employed. No commuting time and fairly minimal prep time. Been doing that for years now.
....
If you set yourself up correctly it is possible to tutor for a large number of hours per day relatively easily. In fact my hours now are down from last year, which peaked at around 60 or so teaching hours per week.
I won't divert the main discussion of this thread too much longer but if anyone wants a more detailed explanation of how it can be done I've written one here... |
No thanks.  |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| nomad soul wrote: |
No thanks. |
A common enough reaction  That's only because you don't really understand the reality of tutoring the way I do. And I understand that completely as it's quite different from the way most 'normal' tutors operate. Many years ago I used to be a regular 'travel-out' tutor, and 30 teaching hours per week was completely exhausting and didn't leave much time for a life outside work. The way I have myself setup now is infinitely better. Of the teachers and tutors who have actually been to my place and seen what I do firsthand, quite a few of them have been convinced to make some changes to the way that they operate.
To put it another way, with my current setup, if I wanted to I could reduce my working hours to 5 hours per day Mon - Fri and still earn approx USD 7K / month. As it is, I'm completely comfortable with my working hours as they afford me a decent lifestyle while still having ample spare time for hobbies, family and friends. |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 5:24 am Post subject: |
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| Jmbf wrote: |
| A common enough reaction That's only because you don't really understand the reality of tutoring the way I do. And I understand that completely as it's quite different from the way most 'normal' tutors operate. Many years ago I used to be a regular 'travel-out' tutor, and 30 teaching hours per week was completely exhausting and didn't leave much time for a life outside work. The way I have myself setup now is infinitely better. Of the teachers and tutors who have actually been to my place and seen what I do firsthand, quite a few of them have been convinced to make some changes to the way that they operate. |
Frankly, I personally wouldn't want to put in that many hours per week for any activity. Nor am I that focused on money (which is why I left my corporate job). To each their own.
Anyway, perhaps you have some useful advice for the OP and his/her particular teaching situation. |
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Jmbf
Joined: 29 Jun 2014
Posts: 663
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| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:15 am Post subject: |
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| nomad soul wrote: |
Frankly, I personally wouldn't want to put in that many hours per week for any activity. Nor am I that focused on money (which is why I left my corporate job). To each their own.
Anyway, perhaps you have some useful advice for the OP and his/her particular teaching situation. |
Well, the OP asked about other people's teaching hours and situation so I thought I'd throw mine into the mix. If anything, I think my own situation lends credence to the fact that teaching hours alone don't necessarily lead to frustration and teacher fatigue. There are plenty of other factors to consider as well. In the OP's case I'd say the combination of being a new teacher, crappy lesson scheduling combined with an excessive commute are bigger contributors to his discontent than just the teaching side.
And my advice would be similar to what's already been posted. Tough it out for the first contract, take the experience gained and move on. When considering new positions, take care to evaluate not just the teaching hours but also all these other aforementioned issues. |
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