Lesson prep time, and observations

[quote=“Buttercup”]I earned 620 an hour at Shane. You don’t have to do much prep as they have a fully prepared curriculum and set of materials. They aren’t going to pay top dollar because you don’t have to do much.[/quote]Well, compared to ELT in other places, yes, but then there are lots of schools here where all you have to do is turn up a couple of minutes before class and go in and teach. I didn’t know any Shane teachers who didn’t do lesson planning, and in fact some used to do about a 1:2 planning:class time ratio for some classes.

The pay used to be more outside of Taipei, in the franchise schools, but I don’t know whether it’s still that way.

[quote=“joesax”][quote=“Buttercup”]I earned 620 an hour at Shane. You don’t have to do much prep as they have a fully prepared curriculum and set of materials. They aren’t going to pay top dollar because you don’t have to do much.[/quote]Well, compared to ELT in other places, yes, but then there are lots of schools here where all you have to do is turn up a couple of minutes before class and go in and teach. I didn’t know any Shane teachers who didn’t do lesson planning, and in fact some used to do about a 1:2 planning:class time ratio for some classes.

The pay used to be more outside of Taipei, in the franchise schools, but I don’t know whether it’s still that way.[/quote]

Hehe, I guess. 1-2 hours per contact hour in the UK…

The pay’s probably more os Taipei because it’s harder to recruit new fodder for.

[quote=“Buttercup”]1-2 hours per contact hour in the UK…[/quote]Averaged over a year? Surely the planning time should go down after a while as you get used to a particular job and you get a collection of materials you can use? I’m pretty sure the tutors on my TESOL course didn’t do that much prep for their actual regular teaching.

No, that’s normal. Done about an hour to an hour for years. Less for kids or IELTS, cos I have more experience.

Been doing ‘harder’ stuff, this year; multilingual CAE classes, and stuff like that. Ofsted peeking!

Also, year-long courses; you can’t wheel out the same shite every six weeks.

[quote=“Buttercup”]No, that’s normal. Done about an hour to an hour for years. Less for kids or IELTS, cos I have more experience.[/quote]Hmmm. I did about a 1:1 ratio for my last teaching job, but I’m not sure if anyone else did.

[quote=“Buttercup”]Ofsted peeking![/quote]I think I would hate that. I’ve always found observations very useful, and been lucky enough to be observed by some people who knew what they were doing and could give helpful feedback. But I can’t imagine the Ofsted stuff being very useful in that regard, and I’m sure there’s a load of paperwork to do.

[quote=“Buttercup”]Also, year-long courses; you can’t wheel out the same shite every six weeks.[/quote]Yeah, fair enough. Here there tend to be more short-term courses, and in any case more new courses starting. After a couple of years in one job here, when I started to teach exactly the same kind of course as I’d taught before, I’d tinker with stuff a little but there was really no point in re-designing it from scratch.

Anyway, if every foreign buxiban teacher here did half an hour’s prep for every hour in class, I think the quality of teaching would go way up.

Well, it depends. It can be helpful, and in an ideal world it would help teachers develop, but in reality, it doesn’t tend to work like that (in my experience). It tends to be an administrative thing by overworked Dos/Ados-s. They sit and scribble. I had exactly the same superficial and not very helpful comments in pretty much every observation since before I did my CELTA…

Furthermore, a ‘good’ observation means very little, when push comes to shove, because managers know how little is involved.

The funniest was a few months ago in some Chinese IELTS cramschool I was part-timing in in Manchester. Twenty mins into the class, the Fawlty-like DOS runs into my ‘Foundation IELTS’ (Chinese kids who couldn’t read). '****‘s not turned up! You have to teach his class! Go to Room 7 (in another building) They won’t all fit in here!’ It’s an advanced BEC class. An hour later at break time; ‘btw Observation after break! Is that a good time for you?’ ‘Err, no.’ ‘Well I have to do it today.’ ‘Well, you’ll have to sit on the windowsill’.

Feedback on me being observed teaching a completely made up lesson (Class were supposed to be doing feedback activities on their recent mock test) made up of upper-int/advanced business students and pre-int IELTS students who were sharing chairs; ‘The Mongolians looked angry… is there any way you could have handled that better?’

He’s working ‘on a materials development project’ now…

[quote=“Buttercup”]Well, it depends. It can be helpful, and in an ideal world it would help teachers develop[/quote]As I said, I’ve been lucky. Other people I know have been criticised for silly stuff such as being a minute or two off the timing given in the lesson plan. But in Shane, the Aussie guy we were talking about gave me some excellent feedback. I was a pretty crap teacher when I came here, but he helped me get to “adequate” level at least. And I’ve had a couple of good observations since then. Even if the person observing can only point out something quite small such as a distracting mannerism you have that you weren’t aware of, that can still be helpful. I guess they’re not supposed to point out that kind of stuff in the UK though. It would probably be seen as too personal.

[quote=“Buttercup”]Furthermore, a ‘good’ observation means very little, when push comes to shove, because managers know how little is involved[/quote]Well, surely the only really helpful kind of observation is one where they find something you can improve (and where it actually helps you improve)?

[quote]‘Foundation IELTS’ (Chinese kids who couldn’t read).[/quote] :astonished:

[quote]‘The Mongolians looked angry… is there any way you could have handled that better?’[/quote] :laughing:

By the way, I reckon I took the original thread off-topic, so I’ve split these last few posts off. The new title will make it easier for what will no doubt be hordes of people wanting to discuss lesson prep time and observations here.

Yeah, the ‘Aussie guy’ was great. I had a different manager who others seem to have a lot of run-ins with, but I got on fine with. Shane do teach you to do kids’ buxiban well, and you often see their former staff in more senior postions in other companies, which to be honest, is worth more than quibbling over pennies.

Ideally, observations should be developmental, but usually, they are supervisory, which often shows the school is not exactly on the ball anyway. Peer observation can be often a lot more helpful and supportive, and also encourages collaboration amongst teachers.

Saw it from ‘the other side’, yesterday; my kendo class teacher was quaking as she got ready to be observed by a fairly senior group of teachers. Someone should do research into how adult students behave in observations. It’s always been interesting to me; some clam up and won’t ‘perform’, others ‘overperform’ to show the ‘boss’ that the teacher is ‘good’.