The way unpaid prep was explained to me is two thirds of hourly pay was for the teaching and one third for prep. That made sense to me. I probably spend about a third of my classroom time preparing for a new lesson. There aren’t many new lessons anymore, though.
There’s also copyright issues. If you’re paid to make the materials, the materials belong to the school. If you’re not paid for it, better make sure you could prove that you’ve already used the materials somewhere. Ask a student if you could record a section of the class or maybe put some of the materials online. Maybe upload it to the cloud so the log could prove your innocence when it comes to a trial.
I just started online teaching too. That’s why it hit me. I honestly just looked up the games I play in class online. Such as hangman, spelling, and sentence unscramble. For older kids or advance kids I know you can make jeopardy and other game shows too. My work does require everyone answer questions and that definitely kills time. Boring for the kids but it has to be done.
But he isn’t in the USA. I bet those teachers get a long summer vacation and pensions, too.
People who make this comparison make me laugh. It only happens to people who teach here.
If you work at a cram school, there is no career development, no holiday pay, no pension etc but you do it because you can get a higher hourly rate and you have more freedom.
The half pay kind of sucks but making online lessons has not been as hard as I thought it would be. The two resources that I use in every class come from two websites.
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Boom Learning- great online quizes. These can even be assigned to kids with no grading if your school can get the parents to sign up. Some lessons cost money but you can also make your own (eyes roll) or find free quizes in the store.
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Online Stop-watch: These are great for games like spin the wheel and roll the dice. There is a big variety so a simple game of chance can come in many different and exciting forms.
There are also jeopardy games, hangman games, scramble games, word finds, etc. I think you will see that teaching online isn’t too difficult once you find the tools.
Where is the world do teachers not prep???That’s a standard teacher requirement including other countries cram schools. If a school doesn’t require it I question how much they care.
Edit to add: I do think Taiwanese people take prep too seriously though and can be annoying. They always want to go over every little second of the class period.
He is talking about the compensation for prep time. In cram schools in Taiwan the pay is hourly and you do not get retirement or holiday pay. In the USA school system most states offer retirement and holidays.
Exactly. This only happens with teachers. People think you should only do it out of the kindness of your heart and a love for kids. Yes, prep and hwk is part of the job. How much prep and hwk was factored into how much the guy was willing to accept. If the workload increases so should the pay. Pretty obvious!
Deepshelter, what do you do?
I want to hire you. I will pay you a flat fee. And after you say yes, I will double the work. Do you want the job?
Taiwan boss. This is why I don’t work for them.
In my past I was known to grace the buxiban steps.
These games were all the rage ages ago. 
What were you doing before ? 
I guess you mean some kind of online version of these that they click or write into ?
All my work has been online for the last year and I don’t work in education. I think it has added to my workload but it also made our team collaborate very effectively , learning curve was quite steep but now it has become second nature. Although I still prefer my old life which involved actually talking to real human beings face to face.
There are two ways to change your situation. You can either: 1) change the situation you’re in or 2) change how you feel about the situation. If 1 seems impossible then choose 2.
If you are from a country that is recovering now you might think of leaving Taiwan instead of getting half of what is already probably not a great income anyway. Plus you’ll have a better Summer most likely.
That’s the reason I work in schools when I can. There aren’t too many opps for westerners to work elsewhere. I want to be out and about. Riding the MRT and visiting schools or privates lets me get out and see life being lived. I worked a small office job for years and years and thought of working a restaurant just to be out with people.
Thats why I am happy with being an engineer. Yes i get paid less compared to teaching english but it get all welfare, bonuses, welfare also so many different things that can be learned. I get to see many people. Also future can be anything. If i just look at money, i will be very ungrateful for my job but if i consider how hard it is for a non native foreigner to find a job here that too without chinese proficiency and having a friendly work environment, i feel really grateful.
As long as you are building up your career, learning new things ,and in an industry that isn’t stagnant ,it will stand to you especially as we could be working decades and decades of our life .l
I still remember when I started out an English teacher friend of mine after hearing my rather paltry salary 'I work for money now and thats it '.
I had my doubts at the time if was an idiot but eventually my earnings outstripped basically anybody in education including Tai Da professors. So …Yeah .
I now work with professors , they get to look down on me for being an amateur , I get to look at my bank balance and perks.
SERIOUSLY?
Working at a cram school usually means you just have to take what comes and grin, wait for better days, and change when you can. It’s already not a nice job. You can’t expect it treatment to improve, or even stay the same, these days.
The boss treats you bad, so when he treats you worse, you should just take it? What a weird way to look at things.
You need to stand up for yourself. You don’t need to grin and take it. What kind of advice is that?
You need to look out for yourself. If the boss is asking too much, tell him. Refuse.
He will either change or you walk. If you can’t walk because you don’t have the funds, then I can’t help you. Save your money!
Some simple find and replace and it would be done in minutes. I hope you didn’t leave a good job just because of that.
In the restaurant business that usually includes double base pay and a free steak because the managers will need to do it themselves if they can’t get a lackey.