Job Discussion Forums

[Frater]

[roadrunner]

Thanks for the replies.

That 2nd contract would be much better, because it clearly sets a number of hours to be worked which is broadly in line with a standard working week.

Do you think it's reasonable to say to oneself: "I have to teach 25 hours this week, so I will devote 30 minutes per lesson to preparation?". This would, after all, equate to about a standard working week, and travel to off-site teaching / administraion may also be involved.

[FGT]

Preparation time is down to the individual teacher and varies according to experience, familiarity with the class, materials used and available, and type of lesson to be taught. Also bearing in mind personal characteristics of said teacher.
I'm fundamentally lazy but also fairly conscientous. In my first year of teaching I could spend 4 hours preparing for an hour's lesson. Now, 11 years on, some lessons I can get ready for in 10 minutes, others take me an hour or so. I'm glad that I still have to/want to think about how best to teach that particular class. Otherwise I'd be brain dead.
I'm paid for hours spent in the classroom (currently about 25), I do (the minimum) necessary to make it work. This week I'll work 40-50 hours. That's the job as I see it.

[roadrunner]

Thanks for your help. All of your comments substantiate what I suspected, particulalrly the need to do at least some preparation to hold a meaningful lesson.

By way of illustration, I started to learn Italian last year. The lady who taught me on the short introductory course (2 hours a week for 10 weeks) did no preparation (I didn't realise this at the time, though), we just followed the course book / tape. I made rapid progress, but on reflection the lessons weren't at all interesting or stimulating.

I suppose the guiding factor should be whether you feel you've prepared a challenging and interesting lesson for the students. It's also the best way for a teacher to learn how to prepare quickly and effectively, I suspect.

[Dr.J]

Denise,

That's the first time I've seen "syllabi" and "pain in the wazoo" in the same post.

Thanks.

[Roger]

roadrunner,
you will need to familiarise yourself with the textbooks used by your employer. Some use tapes together with books, so you have to play and replay those tapes (I hate them, and if possible, I do not use any tapes).
One of the textbooks that gives you a good idea of how much time is needed per lesson is the quaint old but many-times reprinted New Concept English (at least here in China). Not only do the lessons have clearly-defined objectives and exercises to achieve these objectives, there is a fair amount of oral practice envisaged by the author of the series.

However, most of us have to give so-called "oral English" classes, and one major problem for us is to know where our charges stand in English; if they are adults, they will present huge skill differences among them in the class, and finding a common denominator is not easy.
If you want to succeed in such circumstances, you must have at least a couple of scenarios up your sleeve to use when you deem it's necessary to do something different.
Thus, if you are well-prepared, you may still face those dreaded moments when you don't know how to save yourself for the next half an hour! Have something ready that you can activate at a moment's notice.
Games, dictation, a lecture on a topic for students to take notes (with new vocabulary that they can check up in their dictionaries at home).