Job Discussion Forums

Lack · Joined: 10 Aug 2011 Posts: 252

Not enough room in the title. Where are the best places to teach for 1. having full creative control, and 2. non-interference by coworkers or teaching assistants.

I'm hoping to be in my next job within 2 or 3 months and last time I had such a bad experience. One single coworker made me dread my job (on the days I worked with that beast anyway.) She was incompetent, her English was terrible (she would often teach the kids wrong things and/or leaves things out), and she was an insecure control freak. Didn't even learn my name properly until we had worked together for 10 months.....

It got so bad at points - because of this one [rhymes with "hunt"] that I often contemplated leaving on a weekend. Even packed my bags for that at one point.

Anyway, it left such a sour imprint on me that I am paranoid about getting into such a situation again.

Obviously, a job teaching adults will help a lot in these regards. But are there other aspects to it? For example, cultures in which this kind of behavior would be considered completely unacceptable? (Unlike in [rhymes with "ducking"] Zhong Guo, where it is apparently considered a GOOD thing?)

Just trying to do my due homework about this. Thought it would be prudent to ask for advice.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 11:00 am Post subject:

Come to Russia.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

Are you asking about employers in China or in other countries? If the latter, it can depend on your qualifications. However, if you want to stay in China, this isn't the best forum for your question.

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

North America! Surprised

As long as my students achieve their CLB goals, I can do whatever I want. I have never seen my co-workers and my employer is elusive. It isn't all great though. If I need advice or wisdom, I have nobody to ask until the next business day.

So, are you willing to leave China?

Lack · Joined: 10 Aug 2011 Posts: 252

I meant generally; anywhere in the world. I would consider going to any country if I had such conditions at my job.

OK, not in North America though! (Unless you meant Mexico. I'd be open to it.)

Sashadroogie, so the culture frowns upon that kind of behavior? I'm assuming you've lived/taught there? Did you teach kids or otherwise teach with a TA though?

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 10:08 pm Post subject:

TA? Pah! Here teachers are expected to be able to teach single-handed.

Lack · Joined: 10 Aug 2011 Posts: 252

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 10:20 pm Post subject:

Not sure what you mean by full creative control, though. It's not like shooting a film. A course needs to be more or less followed, parents' concerns addressed, and all the rest.

Lack · Joined: 10 Aug 2011 Posts: 252

water rat · Joined: 30 Aug 2014 Posts: 1098 Location: North Antarctica

You don't say what kind of school you worked at, but I don't think it was a Chinese high or junior high school. Of course, it's just a matter of luck - the precise situation you get, but the two jobs I have had in China were at public and private schools with students anywhere between 13 and 17. I am always given the 'elite', 'international' high schoolers who hope to either spend their last year of high school abroad, or their college years abroad.

This situation is not luck, I ask for it, and seek work elsewhere if it isn't available. I have been lucky in that I don't assist or get assisted by anyone, and as seems to often be the case in such situations in China, I do not take attendance, give tests (unless I wish to) and am pretty much left to do as I please. If anything then, I have the opposite problem. I am given no materials except maybe a silly-ass book that is either way below the class' level or way beyond it, and entirely without value. My problem is finding stuff on the internet that is appropriate to the students' level(s), then getting the hundreds of photocopies I need. All too often I am reduced to playing a song and writing the lyrics on the board for the students to copy out, and maybe sing. So I can present songs, poems, teach them an ESL game and divide them into groups to play it, hold group discussions, but sometimes we really do need a few pages of printed text, and that's hard.

As for your 'sour imprints' and interpersonal relations, you just need to be more assertive. Teach your colleague your name on day one and get him to say it correctly, and call you by your name (or 'sir'); make it clear that you know more than he does, and that you and he will be doing things your way. Being assertive doesn't mean being a hardass or fierce, it just means being insistent and authoritative. Anyway, with little luck you may have no assistant.

Remember too that college students in China just want to hang back and chill and have no motivation to learn, while final year HS students work like mad, for the most part, to get into the right university. So even though they're a year or two younger than uni students, they are a lot more cooperative. Then I suppose junior high school kids, while still actual children with the behavior that's natural to them, at least have not become so jaded yet that they might think it's cool to disrespect or be aloof around any and all adults. I don't find Chinese teenagers very aloof, but I suppose they have a much greater tendency toward it than their younger counterparts.

suphanburi · Joined: 20 Mar 2014 Posts: 916

OP:

If you have the credentials, licensure and experience to match the attitude then look for what you seek and take nothing less. It is certainly out there and not that hard to find.

If you have a generic BA (unrelated to teaching and/or TEFL) and an unheard of generic TEFL cert then you are pretty much where you are and not much will change over the next few years regardless of where you go (at least in Asia).

Start applying everywhere and determine at the interview stage whether you will be the "talking machine" in an "English teacher's class" or have your own class(es) that you will be directly responsible for.

Always be aware that (in K-12 schools) you still need to follow the required curriculum with their prescribed learning outcomes and learning indicators.

If you want more freedom then look at language schools that cater to older students (but you will then have other issues to deal with).

.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 6:28 am Post subject:

Language schools in Russia don't usually have teaching assistants in the classroom, even for YL lessons. Maybe for VYLs, not sure. Never did that. International schools are the same, though this is just what my colleagues tell me -it's not my bag.

So, if you have a basic cert like a Celta, and a degree, get yourself over to Russia. You'll have all the control you can shake a stick at. It is expected that you will manage without much hand-holding. Just be advised, some teens in EFL classes in Moscow can display a lot of...attitude.

Good luck!

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

The TA thing is generally limited to Asia, I believe. You can go anywhere else in the world, basically, and be expected to do the job on your own. As pointed out you'll need a CELTA or equivalent to land a starter job most places.

If you decide to make the leap, and you don't already have the right cert, consider taking the cert course in your 'new' country. There, your students will be really representative of those you'll work with when you start, and the training centre can usually connect you with reputable local schools.