Job Discussion Forums

[lennon146]

This is going to be my first summer working at one of these summer school deals in the UK (I'm currently working in Spain but will get a long summer holiday). I've just noticed a lot of negative opinions about these summer courses and am wondering what the deal is, since I already work with teens and kids in my current job in Spain. Are the kids rowdier because it's a "summer camp"? Do they go crazy because they're in England? Is the mixed nationality thing a problem? The job I've taken specifies "teaching only" so I don't believe I'm going to be responsible for dorm and meal duty, if that's what people hate about it.

Thoughts?

[Northern Sol]

The mixed nationality is the best bit. Teaching a group of kids with the same mother tongue is no fun at all.

IMO there is nothing wrong with summer schools at all. It's just that there tends to be a holiday atmosphere which the more seriously minded teachers probably don't care for.

[SueH]

[Northern Sol]

[BrownSauce]

You'll find some convincing reasons to avoid committing yourself to working a long stretch on summer schools in the UK here...

UK Summer Schools - A Masochist Writes...
http://tefltradesman.blogspot.com/2009/05/summer-schools-masochist-writes.html

Rockin' with Rodent Language Holidays...
http://tefltradesman.blogspot.com/2009/05/rockin-with-rodent-language-holidays.html

Enjoy!!

[Northern Sol]

Most of those criticism are just true of TEFL in the UK generally rather than summer schools

[oxi]

Why do people knock summer schools?

'cos - the pay is poor
'cos - it's not serious work, minimum tefl, maximum babysitting
'cos - of split shifts
'cos - lack of materials and focus, poor materials

That's just off the top of my head from memory. I've avoided doing them for a long time now. Obviously there are exceptions and some schools are good. Obviously some schools are bad all year round too.

I even worked one good summer school - but in my view it was good because I was newly qualified then - no-one checked on me to see how badly I was doing and I got to experiment lots. Did a dance performance at the end of course party, unpaid, but great fun.

For me, summer school's fine, just not to be taken seriously.

[SueH]

That sounds familiar oxi. My first DOS was very helpful though, and gave me some useful ideas. As for materials... I went through a box to find the oldest bit of tat there and emerged triumphant with a publication date of 1965. Not quite "my postillion has been hit by lightening" but near enough!

[BrownSauce]

Anyone interested in doubling their summer school income should look here:

http://tefltradesman.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-double-your-money-at-summer.html

Seriously though, summer-schools have been ripping off teachers for decades, getting them to work extra hours either unpaid or underpaid.

Now it seems that, with the current minimum wage legislation, they can no longer do so - but it's up to each teacher to keep a record of all hours worked.

This should have a few dodgey owners of summer language school worried - now they'll have to cough up the full rate!

[roywebcafe]

My summer school now is like that when you divide the salary by all the hours we get just above min wage �6.27 hour. Means we can't use the min wage unit. Many of these hours a are a bit of a doss though.

[Will.]

Why?
Because complaining is all you can do after a summer school. Most of these are 'survivors' some of them returnees.
Most of the complainees are justifiably unhappy at the level of scatalogical precipitation they found themselves under.
Please just go and enjoy it. Allow us all the benefit of your wisdom next summer for those in your position now....as we are for you.
consider the following mottos from some of the schools I have worked for over the years....

"Abandon hope all who enter here"
"morituri te salutant"
"go forth and conk out"
"Now, I have given you a mixed class...that is in nationality, age and ability. You have done differentiation haven't you? No? oh do the bus stop game then. Use the Push Pull and Prod approach or the Twist, Torture and Torment method might be better for those Italians might be better to do a treasure hunt instead

[SueH]

Differentiation.... ah how management like that, especially in an FE context where you are meant to agree the ILP with a student who doesn't speak a word of English....

In a summer school context... ah, well Luigi and Marco can go and gas in Italian in that corner. The student with the look of a frightened rabbit can sit in that corner with an electronic dictionary. The kid who looks about 9 can go and hack into the school server and downlaod porn. The Norwegian and Swede can discuss the accuracy of the latest translation of Ibsen into English and ask you akward questions about the difference between "manky" and "grotty"....

[Trevor Wadlow]

If your job specifies 'teaching only' then it sounds OK. But beware. I have just returned from a one month summer school. Never again. I should have guessed it would be awful - mainly teaching with two 'activity' duties. Things suddenly changed in the first week and we all had to pull together as a 'team'. In one week I totalled 50 hours. This included 36 hours teaching plus prep plus activities. We had one day off a week (and you usually spent part of that preparing). We had one dvd player between 8 teachers so all our teaching was text-based. Two female teachers were so run down they became ill, another left halfway through. The company charged the earth and provided a third-world service.

The only good thing was the kids, mainly Italians. Such good fun and a delight to teach.

[spiral78]

Whilst every effort will be made to give teachers some free time each teaching day for lesson preparation and some free leisure time throughout the working week, the needs of the students both in and out of class must come first."


Most definitely NOT my game

[redeyes]

Summer schools are an absolute nightmare, unless you get lucky.

The management treat you like a cheap workhorse, the kids are often surly and rude and treat you like a loser, you often have to take the little bu***s out in their/your freetime ( unpaid ), then they run away in the town centre, get drunk,get robbed, get in a fight or lose all their money(and you get blamed for it ).

The other EFL teachers you work with are usually dysfunctional, shellshocked from returning from some crummy overseas posting, divorcees, weirdos, nut cases, depressives, dissatisfied, angry with the job, or conversely, annoying brown noses, sucking up to the patronising rip off TEFL work house managers , trying to get a tenner over time to buy cheap roll ups, and pretending they are "having the time of their lives".

Besides that, you have to put up with some annoying TEFL summer school manager with a beard, leather elbowed tweed jacket and a clip board coming in to observe your classes and then criticise you in whining condescending tones -- even though your pay is so crap you feel like shoving him out of the room with the cry, "get lost you bearded a****ole" as he creepily asks you why you didn't use Critical Discourse Analysis or Task based learning with a class of degenerate 18 year olds who stare inanely at you, trying to remember who and where they are after a night at the school disco ( which you had to be a "chaperone" at incidentally, whilst they threw peanuts at you)

And the pay is peanuts too.

Summer courses are one of the main reasons TEFL teachers decide to ( a ) become a hermit monk in a forest in Thailand ( b ) Give up the will to live ( c ) develop personality disorders and depression or ( d ) become one of the nasty , scheming , creepy TEFL work house bosses themselves one day or, ( e ) Decide to never return to TEFL scene in the UK ever again.

There -- that's about it.