Kang Chiao school (康橋雙語實驗高中) in Xindian

[Feiren]

@funkymonkey

[quote=“Feiren”]Most schools ask teachers and students to clean classrooms.

I have never worked at a school that required the foreign teachers to mop the floors, take out the trash, etc. It is most certainly not common.

@Feiren

I think it is important to understand that most of the employment practices described here are very standard in Taiwan and you can expect them elsewhere.

I haven’t taught kindergarten for almost a decade, but are 24 student kindergarten classes really standard now? :ohreally:[/quote]

1. It probably isn’t at most private Buxibans. But judging from the pictures on their website. Kang Chiao is a large private institution. If they require Taiwanese teachers to clean classrooms, they will have to require their foreign teachers to do the same or face massive complaints from their Taiwanese staff.

What makes foreign teachers so special?

2. I have no idea about class size. I’m talking about employment practices such as employees only being able to take annual leave when it does not interfere with the normal operations of the business.

[asiababy]

Most schools ask teachers and students to clean classrooms. This is supposed to be character building. Obviously, if the kids are too small, the teachers are going to end up doing most of the work. That sucks, but it is an entirely accepted practice here.

In the two public schools my kids have gone to, the children need to clean the environment, with teachers supervising. If the children are young (in our case, preschool and grade one), then older children come into the classroom to help clean up. There is a set time before and after classes begin for cleaning outside, and then they need to wipe up after lunch. For extra cleaning, if there are not enough cleaning staff in the school, the teachers will ask the volunteer parents to help. Of course, I can’t imagine Kang Chiao parents happily coming in to clean the school, with their fees a “little” higher than public school.

[taipeigirl]

There seems to be quite a bit of Kang-Chiao knocking. This is from a previous post of Yamumma’s:
“why did you change my post
If you are going to edit my posts here, well I will go somewhere else. All I did was call the head of DFL at Kang Chiao a witch, and she clearly is…why can’t I say that? She makes her bed, let her llie in it. I thought this forum was about obtaining knowledge about life in Taiwan??? I think this i…”

There seems to be a fair bit of anger. I have worked for many years at this school, including a spell in the kindergarten. They’ve treated me extremely well, and I’ve loved my years there. Some teachers have been let go over the years where it just wasn’t a good fit, and I think this is where a lot of these comments are coming from.

That being said, I wish Yamumma luck in future ventures, and a good year of the rabbit!

[kryptos_99]

@xrayvision

I have worked at Kang Chiao Kindergarten (Qingshan) and it is an appalling, disorganized mess and I wouldn’t recommend that anyone works there.

Disorganized, yes. Appalling, not quite.

I agree that it is a business first and that education comes bottom of their list of priorities. They just want to make as much money as possible and nothing else really matters, with the exception of telling the parents everything they want to hear, so that they keep paying the extraordinarily high tuition fees (which they will because the kindergarten ‘looks’ good, however the education is far from good).

Definitely applies to the KG, but not necessarily the whole school. The director is hell-bent on the KG being a money maker for the school so that she looks good to the suits.

If you do work there don’t expect any guidance about what they want or expect. They constantly change the goal posts. They have no curriculum, but they will give you a very vague ‘syllabus’. They have no idea about English language acquisition for children and as such have no essential sentence patterns or words for the children to learn at each level of the kindergarten. They literally make up the curriculum on-the-go, which means it’s very disorganized and things cannot be integrated with their ‘theme’ learning.

I can’t speak for the elementary and high school, but this is definitely the biggest problem in the KG.

Their ‘theme’ learning is the only thing they seem to care about, yet instead of thinking about what children really need to know and building a solid curriculum that builds the children’s skills every year, they constantly change their curriculum, as a result it’s a big made-up mess. Children that age need to know a limited set of basic life-skills and the theme should be set to reflect their needs and build on those year-by-year (not learning about random rubbish). Additionally as a result of this disorganized mess, the children who go through the whole Kang Chiao kindergarten system have pretty poor English skills compared with other educational institutions.

Again, quite true. They didn’t seem to understand the concept of theme learning. Plus, the onerous requirement of changing the themes each semester made it difficult for returning teachers to re-tool old ideas as they are required to come up with new ideas all the time.

They are incredibly cheap when it comes to resources. They want and expect you to make a lot of things for them, they won’t provide flashcards for their poorly, made-up, on-the-fly curriculum. You cannot print anything in color for classroom resources. Paper and art supplies are very limited and you’ll be lucky if you can get them. Basically they don’t want to spend money on essential resources and then make that your problem, not theirs. They have an old style CRT TV in the classroom as a ‘resource’, but its mainly for show and they don’t want you to use it for more than 5 minutes a day (probably because of the power it uses).

Here I gotta disagree. Yes, per the director’s obsession with making the KG look good as per the bottom line, they do scrutinize resource requests. But it’s not like you have to beg for resources or never get them. There’s a request process that needs to be followed, but I never had a request turned down. The KG did get screwed in relation to the elementary and high school, which got smart boards and nice HP laptops for all teachers. Again, it’s probably Maggie’s fault. And they should invest in new books for the library.

[quote]You will be expected to give up your free time, often on weekends, which they won’t pay you for. In the contract you have to ‘give’ the school 15 hours of your time for free, but if they want to hold an event on a weekend and you’ve already given them your free time, they’ll expect you to do it, or face financial penalties (and they do hold quite a few events at weekends).

The school itself is hard to get to, so unless you have a scooter you’ll have a job getting there and it will be expensive taxi rides every day (at least $130NT each way). If you have a car or scooter the school will charge you for parking your car or scooter at your own workplace, the fee for a car is $1000NT and I think a scooter is $500NT per month. Also you have to be there before 8AM ‘every’ day to get your measly attendance bonus.[/quote]

Those 15 hours are in the contract, so stop whining. Yea, they’re a bloody waste of time, and sometimes they schedule events back to back. It’s also a Taiwan thing; what school doesn’t require something similar? As for transportation, it is a little better. The elementary and KG are now at the bottom of the hill, 5 min drive from Xindian MRT. Plus, they now give a 2500NT/ month transportation allowance. For the high school, car pooling is done, and there is a (shitty) shuttle bus, so nobody actually taxis everyday. It’s 8:30, not 8. Attendance bonus is a measly 1000, but that is a BONUS. I don’t expect extra pay from my employer for showing up on time. If I’m the boss, I’d expect my employees to show up on time.

The paperwork you’ll be required to do is a lot in comparison to other kindergartens. Most of this paperwork is completely pointless and superficial (e.g. just to look good). The parents receive daily communication from the Chinese teachers via telephone and by the children’s communication books. They also make the Chinese teachers write a blog on the internet about what we’ve been doing in the class. Then on top of ‘all’ that communication the English teacher is expected to write individual and general comments every week and make a bi-weekly report in the form of a stylized 2 page newsletter. All this communication is a huge waste of both of the teacher’s time, which could be better spent doing things for the children’s learning.

Ya, in the KG it is all about appearance. The KG does require an excessive amount of communication. How many ways are there to say: “your child is good, your child hasn’t changed in the last week?” Ya, children develop over a year, but when you have to write about them every fucking week it’s hard to elucidate the progress and not repeat yourself. And it’s definitely harder for the Taiwanese teacher (I very much pity them), who have an extraordinary amount of required bullshit. The job market for them is much tighter and many of them are thankful they have a job, so they don’t stand up to Queen Bitch Maggie and are petrified of offending her. On the other hand, good teachers regularly communicate with parents, and it’s not asking too much to make something. Yet, the school is very anal about this communication and is never satisfied with your effort. They always want it better, better, better, while ignoring the fact that 90% of the parents are too busy (or don’t / can’t read English) to read your brilliant newsletter that you spent 2 hours making. Or if they actually did read it, are pissed off that there’s only one picture of precious little Sally, epically failing to appreciate that there are 24 kids in Sally’s class and the school will criticize you if you fill up your newsletter with pictures and it’s physically impossible to have a pic of every kid 2X+ and have words about the AMAZING progress the kids made in their reading, writing, math, and social skills while also pooping out an even more amazing piece of art!

Rant aside, that’s the KG. From what I hear, the communication in other departments is not excessive, but they’ve got other burdens. Like real prep, not like those lazy bums in the KG.

They will expect you to clean their school for them. They have two cleaning ladies whose job it is to clean a 5 story building, empty all the bins, clean up ‘all’ the breakfast, lunch and snack bowls and waste and escort children on buses. They have inadequate cleaning tools (mops and cheap brushes) for a building that size and they don’t have time to clean the classrooms and bathrooms, hence the teachers have to do it. The school also has a lot of highly infectious diseases being passed to the children because (I assume) of the poor hygiene and cleanliness standards. If anything, a kindergarten should be cleaner because you have young children putting their hands on the floor and then in their mouths all day.

Asian thing. Teachers clean classrooms, so get over it. But an excellent point is raised about the 2 cleaning ladies. They are wonderful, hard-working ladies who are over-burdened. Somebody should punch Maggie in her gunt until she hires more cleaning ladies for the KG.

The class sizes have increased and increased over the years and now have a limit of 24 students per class (to make more money), not only is this harder to manage, but the children do not get the one-on-one time they need at that age, which is also what the parents expect because they pay so much money. Kang Chiao kindergarten is now more of a factory kindergarten than a real educational institute that cares about students needs.

Ongoing problem. The school needs to set a limit and stick to it.

If you want to take holiday days, forget it. You have to take all your holiday days outside of term time and if you do manage to get a day off, they will put it down as a personal day, hence you will lose money.

whine whine whine. The school has set dates. Take your vacation during the schools vacation. As an employer, I’m not gonna pay you money to masturbate in Canada while I pay some other guy to teach your class.

Overall, I think there are better options out there that are more convenient, less hassle and more money. Don’t get sucked in by the way the place looks. It’s actually not a great place to work. There is more that I could say about the place, but I think you get the idea.

It is about image, but what place in Taiwan isn’t? This guy’s experience is for the KG. Elementary and SH have their own pros and cons. Maggie’s a grade-A bitch, but you won’t deal with her much. Most of the teachers are good people. If you can get there easy enough, don’t mind actually waking up in the morning, and have a knack for ignoring incessant parents, the KG just might work for you.

[funkymonkey]

@kryptos_99

[quote]The class sizes have increased and increased over the years and now have a limit of 24 students per class (to make more money), not only is this harder to manage, but the children do not get the one-on-one time they need at that age, which is also what the parents expect because they pay so much money. Kang Chiao kindergarten is now more of a factory kindergarten than a real educational institute that cares about students needs.

Ongoing problem. The school needs to set a limit and stick to it.[/quote]
A 24 student English kindergarten class is, at best, ridiculous. Having that kind of class size definitely proves that the school couldn’t give a crap about education. Why anyone would sign a contract like that is beyond me.

[Chuanzao_El_Ale_Dest]

@funkymonkey

[quote=“kryptos_99”][quote]The class sizes have increased and increased over the years and now have a limit of 24 students per class (to make more money), not only is this harder to manage, but the children do not get the one-on-one time they need at that age, which is also what the parents expect because they pay so much money. Kang Chiao kindergarten is now more of a factory kindergarten than a real educational institute that cares about students needs.

Ongoing problem. The school needs to set a limit and stick to it.[/quote]
A 24 student English kindergarten class is, at best, ridiculous. Having that kind of class size definitely proves that the school couldn’t give a crap about education. Why anyone would sign a contract like that is beyond me. [/quote]

Seems to be about the standard in a lot of kindys.

[kryptos_99]

when I taught there, I had 18, 20, and 21 in my various classes. Small and middle classes are smaller and they do vary in size. The gripe is that the school makes promises about maximums, and then arbitrarily changes them when - lo and behold - new parents show up with cash in hand. Somebody who still works there can maybe answer what the average in big classes is now, but I’d guess it’s 20, with some classes a little less and some a little more. But if the school really wanted to earn a real reputation they’d set a low maximum - 18 say - and stick to it. Unfortunately, the school is not run by ppl with an understanding or priority in education.

[NickinTaiwan]

Deleted.

[billoncho]

I worked at Kang Chiao in their elementary school. It was a very good place to work. Had 20 kids to a class most of the time, but during summer and winter camps it would sometimes get up to 27 or so. They have a decent syllabus and professional staff. Had to clean the classroom, but it only took a few minutes to sweep and mop. Kids were pretty well behaved. Don’t know about the kindergarten. I would recommend it as a place to work. You’ll do a Saturday now and again, but you’'re off at 4:30 and you have a steady salary!

[Kh_cincy]

@billoncho

I worked at Kang Chiao in their elementary school. It was a very good place to work. Had 20 kids to a class most of the time, but during summer and winter camps it would sometimes get up to 27 or so. They have a decent syllabus and professional staff. Had to clean the classroom, but it only took a few minutes to sweep and mop. Kids were pretty well behaved. Don’t know about the kindergarten. I would recommend it as a place to work. You’ll do a Saturday now and again, but you’'re off at 4:30 and you have a steady salary!

How decent was the salary (if you don’t mind sharing)?? Any other concerns? What specifically were you responsible for teaching? I have an interview there next week. Thanks!

[Mr_Chen]

@billoncho

I worked at Kang Chiao in their elementary school. It was a very good place to work. Had 20 kids to a class most of the time, but during summer and winter camps it would sometimes get up to 27 or so. They have a decent syllabus and professional staff. Had to clean the classroom, but it only took a few minutes to sweep and mop. Kids were pretty well behaved. Don’t know about the kindergarten. I would recommend it as a place to work. You’ll do a Saturday now and again, but you’'re off at 4:30 and you have a steady salary!

Silly question…maybe, but do the Math teachers just teach Math? They are looking for Math teachers, but I am worried that you end up teaching a few hours of Math and then 20 hours of English.

[WaltzingMatilda]

I’m not sure about the elementary school / kindergarten, but in the high school if you are a certified teacher, you will be assigned the classes that your are licensed to teach. Maths teachers teach maths, science teachers teach science, etc.

[tonyp747]

Hope some of you guys don’t mind me asking this here…

I am about to enroll my 3 year old son in the Qingshin KG, 360k a year is what I came up with after two 70k payment and a 15kish+ monthly payment plus book, snack fees etc…

Personally in KG I am not expecting much of a super education, I mean kids suppose to play at the age of 3 SAFELY. But after reading some of the post here, I am now a little worried… should I be?

And are there any other schools I should check out before its too late for me and my son?

Any where in the greater Taipei city or county I am okay with, price is not much of a concern, all I am looking for is a safe and clean place with good teachers that treat kids good.

[Ermintrude]

[quote=“tonyp747”]Hope some of you guys don’t mind me asking this here…

I am about to enroll my 3 year old son in the Qingshin KG, 360k a year is what I came up with after two 70k payment and a 15kish+ monthly payment plus book, snack fees etc…

Personally in KG I am not expecting much of a super education, I mean kids suppose to play at the age of 3 SAFELY. But after reading some of the post here, I am now a little worried… should I be?

And are there any other schools I should check out before its too late for me and my son?

Any where in the greater Taipei city or county I am okay with, price is not much of a concern, all I am looking for is a safe and clean place with good teachers that treat kids good.[/quote]

Look for somewhere small, where the teachers have early education qualifications. ‘Qualified teachers’ means ‘have a bit of paper to show the authorities’, is all. One teacher that I knew flew to Thailand to get a crappy TEFL cert in the summer before he started there.

I worked there more than ten years ago and and one of the posters early in this thread -I changed my posting name. Although it will certainly have ironed out issues such as mice and hanging wires since my my days, there were fundamental issues with the culture of how they run the place.

It’s kind of a byword for hiring cheap, barely qualified teachers with a lot of people with only a year or two’s experience. They too are drawn in by the facilities. They are bullying and controlling because they don’t have a curriculum or an administrative system that supports teacher development or effective autonomy. Your kid suffers. You may well be very lucky and get a nice, experienced teacher for your child but that’s all it is: luck. They spend their time and money on the facilities.

Bear in mind also that your child will be getting a bilingual education in an environment where most of the children are not bilingual. When he/she’s older, this won’t be good.

[Okami]

[quote=“tonyp747”]Hope some of you guys don’t mind me asking this here…

I am about to enroll my 3 year old son in the Qingshin KG, 360k a year is what I came up with after two 70k payment and a 15kish+ monthly payment plus book, snack fees etc…

Personally in KG I am not expecting much of a super education, I mean kids suppose to play at the age of 3 SAFELY. But after reading some of the post here, I am now a little worried… should I be?

And are there any other schools I should check out before its too late for me and my son?

Any where in the greater Taipei city or county I am okay with, price is not much of a concern, all I am looking for is a safe and clean place with good teachers that treat kids good.[/quote]
Your kid will be fine. I’d just check up on his homeroom Taiwanese and foreign teacher. There’s always a lot of Chinese at that age in the beginning because most of the class has had no prior experience with English, but they usually all get into the act in 2-4 months. In middle and big class, he’ll be in with all the other kids who’ve been there for English class and those are pretty good classes depending on the teachers.

[tonyp747]

Thanks everyone! Son been going there for 2 months now, guess nothing to complaint about so all is good.

[gavmasterflash]

I’m thinking of applying to the high school next year. I’ve heard that it’s actually decent. Does anyone here work at the high school? What do you think, how is it?

[wudjamahuh]

Does anyone else have experience teaching at the elementary school? Positive, negative, both welcome. For a balanced view, ideally it would be nice to hear from someone who is currently teaching there. It’s understandable that people may have bad blood after leaving a job, for whatever reason. It’s often based on emotions though, hurt feelings and such.

[anonymous123]

Anyone know how much is the tuition fee here?

[wudjamahuh]

Including registration, books, food, school bus, uniforms, and everything else it comes out to around $30,000 a month for the elementary school. Try the website for more details. kcbs.ntpc.edu.tw/en/