ADVICE PLEASE: Am I teaching 2 classes... at the same time?

[danmac]

Am I being taken for a ride?

Firstly, I apologise for posting this topic here, but I could not find a more appropriate forum and I need some advice... here goes with a quick b/g then:
I am just about to start with Concorde in Canterbury, Kent, UK. I am to be given a 'class' of 15 visiting Italian students, 3 of which are 12, the rest being 16-years of age. I have also been given the use of 2 classrooms. Hey, doesn't that make 2 classes?!

The DoS tells me that presenting this situation to the students in a positive light is the best way to ensure smooth integration and no complaints , and that is about all the help I have been given. I would find it impossible to be genuinely positive about the class's composition and I'm a hopelessly inexperienced liar! No advice, materials, text books or syllabus, just a suggestion that I use a task-based approach.

I fully agree with the suggested 'positive' approach and task-based methods, the problem is that it's going to take me hours to prepare a well-resourced syllabus for this 'class', particularly as it will probably have such a wide range of abilities, ages, interests etc. and that I am not paid a bean outside the 3 hours of teaching per day. What should I do?

As I see it I have these options:

- grin and bear it and produce a brilliant 2-week short course for teenagers, in my own time and which I can be proud of (and maybe show to future employers)?

- insist on some paid preparation time and that the DoS tells them about this so-called 'integrated class' himself? I have already been offered another contract but I hate to renege on an agreement unless I am justified.

- Stop whingeing (this is an age-old problem that I'll just have to get used to)?

This is a big company who could easily afford another teacher, but they are just maximising their profit so I do feel that they are taking the p*ss. One of the reasons I got out of (well paid) primary teaching and into (less so) ELT is that I was sick of spending my evenings preparing for school. Can you advise me please? What is the norm here?

Cheers (thanks), Dan

[revel]

Good morning, dan.

Even if there are only two people in your class, they will probably have different levels. The mixing of levels in private academies seems to be the norm everywhere, I've almost always had to face such a reality in groups. It is, as you point out, an economic question, a profit-line thing and until you open your own academy, you will find yourself in such a situation, probably often.

Where I work we are only paid for the hours we are in class. Thus, the following activities I engage in are not paid: class preparation, semester reports, meetings with parents, monthly teachers' meetings, writing of special programs and preparation of materials for same, even the academy newsletter (my own pet project), etc. I was paid in one academy, years ago, for compiling materials for "business classes", was a nice tip and I still use those materials myself. The light at the end of the tunnel is that, if you are an organized teacher, those materials that you prepare now, for free, will be useful in reducing preparation time in the future. I have seen my own preparation time reduced from hours on end to simply filling in a class schedule with activities that I am experienced with from having used them in the past.

When classes are sold, the salesperson uses all the available techniques of sales available even to the used-car salesperson. That includes exaggeration, lies, smiles, guarantees. The teacher is expected to fulfill the promises of the administrator. Soooo, best to ask the directors of your academy just what was sold, especially the objectives of the class. Include those objectives in your own personal objectives and you should have little trouble with your administrators.

As far as the particular class you have, I'll be blunt, shut up and get down to planning. You won't be in a different situation from any other teacher who has a large class with four dunces, three trouble makers and two who just don't give a rat's *ss. Use one classroom for formal sit-at-your-desk-and-take-notes-from-the-blackboard activities. Use the other classroom for on-your-feet-play-games-do-role-plays activities. Most important of all, something I learned from the Spanish water polo team (who love one another), make the class a team, a group, united we stand etc....everyone is in the same boat and it is the group effort that is important, not individual results. A person talking alone is talking to him/herself and that's usually considered a bit odd. To communicate you need at least two, teach them that they need one another to get on in English, the weak teach the strong, the strong help the weak.

I wouldn't expect any pay for preparation. It's possible that, if you prepare a nice 20hour program, grind it through your word-processor, print it out in a nice format and bind it up, you might get your bosses to consider tipping you for your work. You will at least have something to include in your repertoire. Musicians spend a lot of unpaid time in the rehearsal room and the results are good music. The better they are, the more they get paid, but they never give up the rehearsal room!

Good luck, and check out the idea cookbook here at Dave's for ideas for your class, there are dozens!

peace,
revel.

[EFLwithlittleones]

All sounds entirely consistent with ESL and EFL. Mr Revel's advice is in my view comprehensive and extremely useful (for anyone visiting this message). I might just add that if this year's 'A' Level results are anything to go by, you might see your own efforts of more value in the Far East. Certainly at any school I worked at in Thailand they loved the efforts I made.

Sallam

[Showem]

I'm with the others - you get paid for your teaching hours, nothing more. If you have to prepare something, yes, it comes out of your own time. There are bonuses though. After a while making your own material, (and when I say "own" material, I'm sure everyone would agree here that you don't have to reinvent the wheel, use material from coursebooks too) you will have a tidy collection of resources for you to use in the following years of ESL teaching.