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CNexpatesl
Joined: 27 May 2015
Posts: 194
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 Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:42 pm Post subject: Kindergartens - How bad are they to teach in? |
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Hi, this is my first post.
I was offered a teaching job in a kindergarten in a 1st tier city for 15,000 RMB "before tax". 20 kids a class, it was the type of job where you stay with the kids all day, eat lunch with them, and basically never leave the school until the work day is over. The hours were typical 8:00am - 4:00pm kindergarten schedule.
I've never taught in a kindergarten before, I've only worked in training centers, and decided to pass on the job because I had heard too many bad things.
Now I'm wondering if this was the right decision? How bad or stressful do they typically get?
I asked a few other teachers I know, and they said it was just very tiring. Another person told me that they can get pretty bad. Both were kind of vague and didn't elaborate much. |
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3701 W.119th
Joined: 26 Feb 2014
Posts: 386
Location: Central China
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| Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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Hi,
It's not teaching. In Britain we don't say Kindergarten. We call it 'playschool'.
If you aren't qualified to teach English as a second language, have lots of energy, and aren't afraid to make a fool of yourself, then go for it. There's money to be made there. |
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mandu
Joined: 29 Jul 2004
Posts: 794
Location: china
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| Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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I love teaching kindergarten children,I would love a job where I have just one class for the whole day.
I used to teach in Childcare centres in New Zealand and Australia.I find teaching kindergarten very rewarding.
if you have the right mind for the job you should go for it. |
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GreatApe
Joined: 11 Apr 2012
Posts: 582
Location: South of Heaven and East of Nowhere
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 12:34 am Post subject: |
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I did it for a year when I first came to China in 2010. I taught at 3 different kindergartens. One was excellent; one was so-so, and the last one was an absolute nightmare. A lot depends on how much "assistance" you get from a Chinese native speaker / teaching assistant or head teacher.
I thought about teaching kindergarten for longer because the money is so good and, while it may be physically and emotionally draining, it's not like you have to prepare a ton of lessons.
In the end, I decided one year was enough. I'm not cut out for it. Give me the unmotivated, jaded International high school students any day! It was fun teaching kindergarten for a year, but I wouldn't want to do it full-time semester after semester, year after year.
--GA |
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doogsville
Joined: 17 Nov 2011
Posts: 924
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 6:35 am Post subject: |
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| 3701 W.119th wrote: |
Hi,
It's not teaching. In Britain we don't say Kindergarten. We call it 'playschool'.
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In the Britain I come from it's called preschool or nursery. It is teaching, you have to have a qualification in early years education these days to do it. Playschool was a TV show from the seventies.
Aside from that, I only ever did one 'kindergarten class and pretty much hated it. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances however, here in Zhuhai, who have been doing it for years. They don't have lunch with the kids mind, and the afternoons is either spent doing office work or other non teaching activities such as artwork with the kids. The pay is pretty good, though hour for hour it's about the same as my uni gig, and they don't work weekends, which they really like. They do mostly work for very, very expensive kindys where the parents are filthy rich mind you. they are also all under the age of 35, some of them considerably under, so I suspect it's a young persons gig.
The few (some older) people I know who work for poorer places usually only do one or two hours a day to supplement their other jobs. |
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Brunouno
Joined: 18 Apr 2013
Posts: 129
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 6:59 am Post subject: |
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Teaching very young learners takes a very special person to enjoy it, and I'm definitely not one of them  Most people will say that they are cute and funny sometimes, but most of the time they are very exhausting and annoying. I think you really need to have a do-gooder mentality and have a genuine desire to improve their learning to make such a job sustainable without burning yourself out.
If you don't have a genuine interest in this area, I wouldn't consider it. There are plenty of other jobs out there which pay in the same range you mentioned. |
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CNexpatesl
Joined: 27 May 2015
Posts: 194
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| Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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Well, thanks for the info, all. Much appreciated.
Sounds like I made the right decision. However, I might consider taking a kindergarten job in the future if I'm offered a high salary. |
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Timer
Joined: 24 Oct 2010
Posts: 173
Location: China
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| GreatApe wrote: |
| A lot depends on how much "assistance" you get from a Chinese native speaker / teaching assistant or head teacher. |
This makes all the difference. I also worked in a kindergarten in my first year teaching here. I had no idea what I was doing and the school didn't help much at all, despite claiming they offer training to new teachers (their "training" was one of the Chinese English teachers giving a few vague descriptions of activities and showing me some dances). Some of the assistants in class were helpful, which made their classes much more fun to be in. The assistants who weren't helpful made it hell.
The kids barely understand Chinese, they don't understand much English past a few very basic words. They often come from well off families and as such have little to no discipline (even the Chinese teachers have trouble with the little shits). Unless you're fine with just writhing on the floor making funny noises and faces all day, a good class assistant is needed.
Also, as others have noted, it's very tiring work. Even if the kids are well behaved you still need to put in a lot of energy. I'd never do it again unless I was paid a ridiculous amount of money, which will never happen here. |
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Markness
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Posts: 738
Location: Chengdu
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:28 am Post subject: |
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| Timer wrote: |
| GreatApe wrote: |
| A lot depends on how much "assistance" you get from a Chinese native speaker / teaching assistant or head teacher. |
This makes all the difference. I also worked in a kindergarten in my first year teaching here. I had no idea what I was doing and the school didn't help much at all, despite claiming they offer training to new teachers (their "training" was one of the Chinese English teachers giving a few vague descriptions of activities and showing me some dances). Some of the assistants in class were helpful, which made their classes much more fun to be in. The assistants who weren't helpful made it hell.
The kids barely understand Chinese, they don't understand much English past a few very basic words. They often come from well off families and as such have little to no discipline (even the Chinese teachers have trouble with the little shits). Unless you're fine with just writhing on the floor making funny noises and faces all day, a good class assistant is needed.
Also, as others have noted, it's very tiring work. Even if the kids are well behaved you still need to put in a lot of energy. I'd never do it again unless I was paid a ridiculous amount of money, which will never happen here. |
Seconded. At my first job ever in China I worked at a primary school, and had to do two kindergarten classes for 30 minutes per class, each week. Those two classes made me want to shoot myself. I would take advantage of the A.V. stuff (that worked half the time, every time), and blast music so they couldn't talk. Some would sing, some would throw punches at each other/wrestle (which to me is as amusing as watching chickens fighting each other). The problem was I would try to drill some simple vocabulary and they would start throwing their chairs around/peeing/farting/making noises. I know they're small and all, but the Chinese teachers seem to just want to dump them off on me for those 30 minutes and run for the hills during that time. It was very tiring even just after 30 minutes.
Doing that for a full day would be super tough. I have a good friend who loves doing kindergarten, makes okay money doing that, but you really need to be passionate about it, otherwise it is so hard. Wiping the arses off 4 year old spoiled kids is not worth the money that they give. The parents spend a fortune and you see almost nothing for it. |
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