Job Discussion Forums

[Miajiayou]

This is mainly directed towards uni teachers, but all are welcome to reply.

If you are assigned writing classes, are you expected to mark their papers? If you are assigned speaking classes, are you expected to engage each student? Do you ever show films in class and, if you do, are you reprimanded for it?

I mark papers, I try to engage each student, I don't show films. I feel as if I'm being punished for it, at this point. Ugh.

[roadwalker]

[MisterButtkins]

I teach at a crappy college now. I can do pretty much whatever I want in class as long as I am in the room most of the time. Grades are optional. Obviously, I can show movies whenever I want and do not have to grade papers (I don't have to teach writing classes anyways). I am basically here so that the school can market itself as having foreign teachers and charge the English majors higher tuition.

Now, I AM a responsible teacher, and I do try to engage the students, and I only show movies at the end of the semester and sometimes not even then. I feel that my students respect me more because of this. I am not here to play games.

When I taught at a first tier university last year, things were different. I was told not to show movies but when I did so (twice) my boss didn't say anything. I taught writing classes and would not mark all the papers. I would basically only mark tests (3 per semester), and outside of that I would just read over some of the papers (4-5 per class) looking for common mistakes, which I would go over on the chalk board in the next class.

IMO if you have a writing class, marking all their papers every class is too much work. I mean this is a part time job, if they wanted you to mark all the papers every class they would only have you teach a couple of classes, since marking that many papers well requires a huge amount of time. My sister teaches calculus at a University in the US, and she has to grade all the homework for each class. You know how many classes she teaches? Two or three. In my writing class, I would only mark and correct the tests, and I would go over them with each student individually. My classes had about 15-20 students.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Private school, not a college:


- My students have exams every day.

- I mark papers every day.

- I engage the students every day; no movies at all.

- Q&A on passages from the text are daily.

- If there are less than 3 students who fail per class, I earn a bonus at the end of the month so there is a policy of "no kid left behind".

- I am expected to punish lazy students and praise hard-working ones.

- I work long hours however and the pay is decent.

- We watch students' grades at public school and review their exams. We challenge any marking mistakes they have received.


I can see the appeal of colleges now. If I were single and had no kids nor responsibilities... I would do it in a flash.

[Ariadne]

I'm at a university. When I have writing classes I mark most of the papers. If I don't mark them I pull out sentences to put on the board for everyone to see and correct. I also do that when I mark them individually. Students seem to pay more attention to the changes/corrections on the board than they do to the ones on their own papers. I give actual grades to only a few papers each term, in addition to midterm and final exams. The other homework and in class assignments get a check mark for completion and a grade for the total.

In speaking classes my goal is to have at least one interaction with each student in each class. That can be tough in a class of 50 non English majors. In groups of 15 English majors, there's plenty of time for several interactions. They don't have to be long, but to actually look directly at a student and hear their response seems very important to me, even if the student is just making a short sentence. I follow up with a question or two and move on. I usually have groups/pairs working while I move around talking with individuals.

Just as others have said, I too will occasionally show a movie at the end of term as a reward. Movies must have spot on English subtitles. I don't choose complicated storylines.

In all of my classes I include some games throughout the term. The games are usually at the end of the class period and last 10 or 15 minutes. The games involve the use of English.

.

[DosEquisX]

With my uni, so long as I show up on time and none of the students complain to my boss, I'm fine.

Of course, that doesn't mean I slack on the job. I:

1. Create my own lessons (I refuse to use the textbooks they give me)
2. Take attendance
3. Grade assignments
4. Create and give a mid-term and final exam

Since all I have access to is a blackboard + chalk, it's hard for me to do anything like you guys do. I can print worksheets, but that's basically it. My Oral classes are around 30 students for English majors, but my non-English major Oral classes each have more than 60 students in them and the classes last 90 minutes.

[Guerciotti]

In what way are you punished? I guess I agree with you. I try to do a good job, but it seems that I suffer for it.

My uni apparently expects little from me, but on the other hand they expect a lot. I have four writing classes, and they write. I complained about the workload - I have the maximum eight classes with four writing classes and four oral classes. In contrast, One other FT has four oral English classes and yet another has only three.

The uni told me I should only grade four or five papers from each class, only the best student's papers. WTF? That's not a solution, that's lazy. I won't grade just a few papers and I won't just make red marks on papers without explanation. Like you said, students appreciate explained corrections. I also largely ignore the weak oral books and make my own lessons. Or should I say I cruise eslcafe and other sites and rip the lessons I find?

I expect to grade every student's paper with explanations of their mistakes and sentence rewrites; and at least attempt to engage every student in an oral class. I think that's my job.

I don't know if I'm being punished or rewarded, but it sure seems like punishment. I asked about the schedule and they said I will have less classes next semester, but needless to say I simply don't believe them.
Our monthly salaries differ by not more than 500 yuan. I'm confused. I want to GTFO.
G

[Non Sequitur]

I cannot engage with each student each class. There are around 50 per class and all are Oral English. This is a vocational college, so no English majors.
Over 2 weeks I will engage with each student, although often it's not more that a couple of sentences. Longer if I feel good progress has been made - attitude as well as skill counts.
We always have a class song at class start and end so even if I can't hear each student we start and finish on a positive English-related note.
In addition to the song we'll have a word race game if there is 10 mins to fill at the end.
I find if a class ends in a positive way then the next class the following week is better and you can build that feeling over the semester.
I formally assess progress in pairs or trios mid semester and of course at the end.
I am expected to assign about 70 percent of final mark to end of semester assessment and the remaining 30 is class and mid semester work plus attendance.
I have a progress slip for each student which tracks them each class exercise.
Happy to let OP (or anyone) have this. I've been meaning to put it up on an ESL website but you know how it is..

[Miles Smiles]

In truth, I have NO IDEA what is expected of me other than to show up for class on time and teach the subject that the school-provided book purports to be about. I suspect that my personally-set goals far exceed those of the school's.

I don't hear from administrators. They don't return emails, and I have been told not to even visit the FAO without prior permission (the FAO's word, not mine). My contact with the languages department gives me a schedule at the beginning of the term (which may or may not be accurate--- I quit blaming her for inaccuracies because things change quickly and without notice for her).This term, I'm not going to turn in a syllabus to see if anyone even notices. In the past, I have turned in a detailed syllabus (really a lesson plan) for every class and for every subject, but their receipt hahave never been acknowledged.

I provide self-produced handouts for my classes on a regular basis because the school-provided book often does not address student weaknesses adequately. (Sometimes, the book content diverges from the subject so far that I wonder if the editors included unrelated chapters just to fill it out).

I give frequent quizzes so that my students know how well (or how poorly) they are doing. The quizzes are for their benefit, and a failing grade on a small test does not count against them unless they don't come to class.

I take roll twice per class: before and after the break.

I counsel the kids who care about their progress. I talk to those kids between breaks who want to talk. I try to engage every student equally, and everyone gets a shot at answering a question.

I try to maintain the students' self-esteem when they fail a test. I will sometimes give the same test again to the kids who blow it. I tell the class the point of being in my class is to learn, not to pass tests. I tell them that I enjoy giving A's so anything that a student does to show me that he has learned something gets credit. I've had kids who were so frightened of speaking in class and taking written tests that the only way that I could assess their abilities was to talk to them during lunch break, and give them an opportunity to write things that they say. Some of these kids would not have passed ANY course had I not shown them that they actually had a brain.

This is what I do. Does the school care? I don't know.

Am I doing a good job? I hope so. MOST of the students are making progress as far as I can tell.

Oh, wait. The school expects me not to smoke in class. I haven't let the school down yet.

[Non Sequitur]

Miles Smiles is so right.
It is almost invariably in my experience over 3 public unis/colleges that my expectations of what I want to achieve, far exceed the school's.
That is even if they require a course outline or lesson plan. Because they never read it and do not understand it.
They poll the students to see what they think and that is the extent of quality control.

[MisterButtkins]

[GMark]

[Opiate]

[Non Sequitur]

Two most recent posters.
Anytime

[LongShiKong]