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Post by burlives on Apr 20, 2005 12:41:00 GMT 7
Where do you find small classes?
As far as I know it happens only in moderately well-run language mills. The trade-off is longer hours, shared housing and (even more) unstable management.
Are there other ways?
In the past I've made deals with schools to split large classes, but that's a compromise too.
Chinese public school students are pitiful to watch. They shoot my lessons in their feet, and then they get up from sleeping to come back for more. They exhaust themselves trying to learn in the most difficult way possible, trying to rote learn the whole language system.
None of which is especially bad. Put a Chinese teacher in front of them and the lot of them will be being Chinese in China. They all have a surprising amount of energy and generosity, at least when they're young. Games and puzzles bring them alive. I suppose I could keep plugging away looking for some system to support that.
But currently I cannot enjoy my lack of effect.
I want to find small classes of beginner or intermediate level students who want to get some basic learning. When I get some real work done with them, I'll have some good will to spare on the university students. (And when I'm burnt out I'll have my nice comfy uni job to grow old in, assuming I can die before someone decides I'm out.)
Is there anywhere in China that happens?
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Post by con's fly is open on Apr 26, 2005 8:27:00 GMT 7
What are your geographical criteria? My classes at my last school averaged less than a dozen students per. ... but you have to live in Dashiqiao. If you're young, or married, you could build a nice life there, but if you're a single, bald 37 year-old, not so much. Maybe it is the private mills that have the smallest class sizes. Just sift through 30, and you'll find a couple of good ones.
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woza17
SuperDuperBarfly!
Posts: 2,203
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Post by woza17 on Apr 26, 2005 10:59:33 GMT 7
Burl, I just saw a job on the internet for a live in tutor for a 2 year old in GZ. Pays around 5000 to 6000. Oh and you have your own bedroom. I wonder if they give you a Z.
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Post by ilunga on Apr 27, 2005 11:26:41 GMT 7
Woza, do you have the link for that? If they throw in a computer with high speed internet access and cable TV I'll be there in a shot I have some really small classes. They have no interest in learning anything but it's great to be able to stuff lesson plans and just go with the flow.
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Post by MK on Apr 27, 2005 15:00:41 GMT 7
I once met someone in Korea who had worked as live in tutor for some rich, over-privileged little brat - she had to eat with the family and wasn't allowed to leave the table until the kid said so...she was also locked in her room at night...needless to say, when i met her she was in the process of doin' the old 'midnight run' from that gig.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Apr 27, 2005 15:06:38 GMT 7
I saw one in Shenzhen recently, for 5 year old, family in USA. six month gig, not bad pay. Basically babysitter as far as I could tell.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Apr 27, 2005 16:59:25 GMT 7
Can't get much smaller than one 2 year old. Small in stature and number. (Sorry couldn't resist!) Shoot me in Suzhou.
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woza17
SuperDuperBarfly!
Posts: 2,203
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Post by woza17 on Apr 28, 2005 4:52:37 GMT 7
I can look around for the the link and get back to you. It may have been eslemployment and so on. Ilunga I can't believe that you are seriously interested in the job. Two year olds bite.
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Post by Mr Nobody on Apr 28, 2005 6:35:11 GMT 7
. . . and you can't fit much beer in a small glass. Small glasses are only good for .... oh, what was that? Classes? Oh, gotcha. Sorry.
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Wolf
Charter Member and Old Chum
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
Posts: 1,150
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Post by Wolf on Apr 28, 2005 6:39:29 GMT 7
Governess jobs? Wow. The last time I saw a newspaper ad for a governess job was in a Charlotte Bronte novel. And, according to Bronte (a sometime governess herself) that sort of work bites the big one; to employ the Victorian idiom.
I myself have said before that EFL teachers often get treated like the hired help; but having to follow orders from a 5 year old spoiled brat takes the cake.
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Ruth
SuperDuperMegaBarfly
God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
Posts: 3,915
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Post by Ruth on Apr 28, 2005 12:27:07 GMT 7
I'd love to get my hands on work with a 2-year old full time. If the parents would BACK OFF and let the tutor teach, imagine the English skills that kid would have.
I teach a 5 year old and two 4 year olds twice a week. Their English is better than a group of 5th graders I just started working with.
Burl - my classes at school are 70ish. My classes at home range from 1-5 kids. Can you supplement your uni lessons with private ones - size dictated by you?
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Post by burlives on Apr 28, 2005 13:55:09 GMT 7
Burl - my classes at school are 70ish. My classes at home range from 1-5 kids. Can you supplement your uni lessons with private ones - size dictated by you? And to think I was considering middle school work! Yep, I can supplement. I've gone fishing for some training centre work, but I might have missed out by not answering my mobile phone. At 8:30pm. On Friday night. The thing is, class size seems really to work against CELTA methods. I bet they can be adapted, but I haven't even got around to practicing them as they should be! All I know is large classes let me be very lazy as far as CELTA teaching discipline goes. So I'm hunting around for ways to practice what I paid for -- teaching basic English. What I've started thinking is university jobs are much more about relationships than about teaching. It's kinda what the schools hire you for, and kinda what the students keep trying to get, and basically it's what the bulk of foreign teachers in unis seem to mean when they say, "the kids are great!" These days I think it's a job not worth doing. It ain't bad, it's just dull. Setting up a CELTA lesson is like solving a puzzle. It's great fun and it works. Even if the kids have little motivation, a small class still works -- they get sucked into solving the puzzle from their side. Or so I hope. I assume middle schools are much more about teaching, but with that size disadvantage. As it happens, I was waylaid by a middle school kid yesterday. I was chatting with a continuing ed guy -- studies at my uni, and teaches at a training centre on the side -- and he was explaining his name -- born in the Cultural Revolution, he has the salubrious name of Shining Protector of Mao --, when this 16-year-old Dunkin Donut with a great fondness for "maybe" rolled into conversation with us. Well, with me. He more or less physically herded me away from the other guy. I ocassionally interupted his "conversation" to include the other guy, and at one point actually got an interesting tidbit out of him, whereupon the Hindenburg started spinning on the spot and huffing his impatience! He might even have stamped his foot. And that was the end of the conversation. Mao's protector would have hung on longer too but at least he is polite about it and interesting to boot.
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