I just saw my kid’s expensive private school native English teacher’s 7 minute video. He was reading a story from home apparently. He was holding a phone. The video was sideways. He doesn’t read clearly. And certainly the material is years beneath my daughter’s level. I heard the audio of the Taiwan Ren English teacher and the audio quality was horrible. I can’t see how any of these private after school companies are going to make it. If it were my business, I’d send everyone home. Seemed like a tough market for recruiters before the covid. I kept seeing the same people looking to fill a position. I think online is the future for these schools wanting to offer English.
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More on the above. The teacher for my daughter, I can’t see how the school could or would keep many of these people on the payroll. He was only reading. There is no interaction. My daughter learned a TON of English simply watching Peppa Pig, Robocar Poli, and Dinosaur Train, etc… I think there will be an exodus of the young, unsettled teachers because the immediate future here is really really not looking good at all.
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Can you have much interaction with a video?
Well of course. The different characters interacting with each other. My point was the teacher’s audio and video were worse than Peppa Pig. Zero interaction. If the school had live, 2 way video conferencing for the kids then yes there would be interaction.
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There’s a degree of caveat emptor at play here.
Unless you have no choice but to choose this expensive private school?
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It’s a status thing for the wife I guess - the reason the daughter attends this school. It’s recognized as being the best. The video put out by the teacher would never have happened if this was an organized transition to off-site learning. From a media producer’s perspective this was a really really horrible display by this “elite” school. Shameful actually. Not just the production but also the presenter.
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If it’s TES/TAS/Kang Chiao expensive then I’d make a complaint.
I’ve met teachers from a couple of those places and they’re a mixed bag.
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The wife tells me to ignore it. She doesn’t want there to be any excuse for the daughter to be disallowed from attending. These teachers with technology challenges need to have the schools shoot and record these things for them.
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I feel for you.
It is very embarrassing for me.
The problem I’m experiencing is that parents have unrealistic expectations. I had 24 hours to learn and master online teaching. Impossible. I need to prepare 32 hours of online teaching.
The preparation time in double what it is for face to face. Plus my own technical skills are lacking.
Also, some parents have been providing unrealistic fees back.
One parent said I sound travel outside and do exercise with the students. How?
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Well, this sums it up. The schools had over a year to prepare for this and did nothing. The MOE did a pretty good job with the local schools IMO, but private schools stuck their heads in the sand and English language online teaching seems to have been completely ignored.
The stories I’m hearing from guys I know who work in buxibans…
We have the portal but we are doing all the teaching. No live interaction from their teachers so far. One will do something next week.
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My daughter’s at elementary level, so that’s the only level I have experience of, but what they’ve provided suits her well. There isn’t much online teaching, for sure.
I’m teaching uni students online and I dread to think what it would be like teaching young learners.
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The teachers have a duty to do their job and connect with the kids. I don’t really care how they do it. Even a half hour a day.
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Schools are changing what they want their teachers to do all the time. They want to live stream but they don’t trust that the teachers can do it well. So they ask them to make videos. They want professional quality but tell the teachers to use their own equipment(cell phones) and record it in one shot so they can upload it easily.
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I’m one of the few mugs at my uni who’s doing it. Very few of the Taiwanese professors are bothering according to my students.
My daughter’s online with her teacher right now. It sounds like her teacher is managing the kids very well.
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Great point. The schools should probably ask teachers to do it alone but in their classrooms, so they can say they are still using the facilities of the school to the parents.
Exactly, just connect, do revision , chat about the subject. Do something to keep the connection. This isolation is very damaging for kids.
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The classes I run are mostly social right now. Not much teaching. The kids miss their friends.
Saw a new post talking about asking for a raise in this climate. Should we?