Job Discussion Forums

[FreddyM]

Hi All,

I'm new in Mexico City and am looking at teaching here, either at one of the private schools, or university. I have experience teaching at elem. and jr. high in the U.S., and have a state authorized ESL teaching certificate.
I noticed an article in Chilango magazine (january '06 edition) listing the 44 best colegios in the city, and it's an interesting mixture of schools, most are bilingual, so I would assume need English teachers. They don't list salaries of their teachers of course, but they do list the tuition they charge, and they range anywhere from low $20k a school year (pesos), to over $150k. So, my question is, what has been anybody's experience working at a colegio (elem. to prepa, I would assume) and what kind of salaries should one expect? I am planning on looking to look for something for the next school year, so when would be a good time to start looking as well?

[ls650]

A co-worker taught in Pachuca (about 90-120 minutes north of DF) for a year. The take-home salary was about 7000 pesos per month. The work was okay, but he had to deal with a lot of rich spoiled teens.

[aroha]

For a full-time workload it seems like you can hope for something between $10,000 and $20,000 pesos. The pay rate in some schools may be higher for native english speakers than for local english teachers. There may be a possibility of negotiation if they really want to hire you.

I work in the secundaria, teach six classes everyday but I have a great boss and therefore a great working environment. The kids are privileged (to say the least!) and it cracks me up when a kid says that their chauffeur is arriving to drop off their assignment which they left at home...

I arrived in Mexico this time last year, and was fortunate to be given a part-time job doing substitutions and translations for the last half of the school year. I'm glad I had that time to figure out the "do's and don'ts" of the school. Maybe you can offer to do substitution work in a few schools until a full-time job comes up. You can charge at least 75 pesos per class. Good luck!

[FreddyM]

Hey all, thanks for the replies.

I know someone who works in a Caholic school affiliated with a controversial branch of the church. It's all male, and has pre-school to secondary (grade 9th). Teaching English there, the workload seems to be rather light, on some days there are only two classes of 40 minutes each, though more typical is four blocks in a day (40 minutes each). The salary is supposedly about $10.5k a month, though only $6k is take home, with another $1.3k in vales. $2k a month is deducted for "fondo de ahorro", which he will get back after six months. (The bad part, is it's not a true fondo de ahorro, he'll get back everything taken out, but nothing more). So, in total, out of a $10.5k salary, he ends up with about $9k take home, if you include all bonuses and vales averaged out. This is in the D.F.

Still, $6k seems rather low for me. The school charges nearly $70k a year for tuition and fees. I wonder if there is a correlation between tuition charged and how much schools pay their teachers. Most of the teachers there are not native speakers, even though nearly half the curriculum is in English.
As for the working environment, like I've been told, the workload is pretty light, and there doesn't seem to be much conflict among the staff or anything like that. But the coordination seems to be bad, the bosses seem to be hired on nepotism grounds and do not know much about what they are doing. The worst part of the working environment is that there is a huge discipline problem, the teachers supposedly get very little respect, students do not take their studies seriously. Most are pretty well off, though they are not the super rich of the city.

I am trying to collect information about other schools in the area. If anybody knows about the following schools, what are your impressions?

What is the atmosphere like? What are the students like, are they difficult to manage, can any actual studying get done? Is there a big difference between primaria, secundaria, and prepa? How do staff get along? Are many native speakers or not? How supportive and constructive is the person in charge of the department? How are relations with parents handled? What are the work hours, typically? What's the turnover rate at the school?
And, what is the pay like? Does one get paid more if they have more credentials or experience? Are native speakers preferred over locals? Are private classes allowed with the students at the school? How difficult would it be to average taking home about $15k a month--even if it includes a few privates to make up the difference?

Can anyone answer these kind of questions regarding some of the following schools?

Instituto Irland�s
Instituto Cumbres
Centro Escolar Cedros
Colegio Instituto Oxford
Colegio Columbia
Eton School
Queen Elizabeth School
Colegio Ciudad de Mexico
Colegio Sierra Nevada
Instituto Thomas Jefferson
Centro Educ. Jean Piaget
Alexander Bain
Colegio Williams
Franc�s Hidalgo de Mexico (does one need to know French there too?)
Justo Sierra
Greengates
The Churchill School
Westhill Institute
Escuel Moderna Americana
American School Foundation
The Edron Academy
Colegio Suizo de Mexico
Colegio Alem�n Alexander Von Humboldt
Colegio Israelita de Mexico (La IDISHE)

woo! that's a lot. I wonder if anybody will respond.

FM

[jseens]

I've heard good things about American School Foundation in Guadalajara. Not sure about the one in DF though.