Today I got walloped again for still lacking one more course to be re-certified. To renew my teacher certification at elementary ed level, I am required to take 2 courses chosen by the state department of education certification division. I finished the first course which occupied 6 weeks of July and August. I spent about 10 hours a week working on it and the course load was very heavy, which surprised me because of what I’ve heard about long-distance learning.
For the second course the options are: a three week course with U. of Phoenix which I know from the first course would mean at least 20 hours a week for 3 weeks; or a 4 1/2 month course finishing in mid February 2012, which is something I can do calmly. Anyway, the 25 year old witch in Taipei screwed me up one side and down the other for not having a valid teaching license. She would have considered hiring me if I could begin working for her and simultaneously complete the 3 week course. Why not just shoot me, you know? They expect miracles of others and nothing of themselves!
I was talking to a friend and he commented that Taiwanese public school teachers don’t need certification of any kind to teach in Taiwan public schools!
Does that mean that these fookers demand superhuman feats from foreigners when the truth is that their own teachers don’t even need to be certified?
It’s just an honest question. So if you want to answer or comment, please make it honest. Thanks!
I don’t think it’s an issue of not being certified. I think they don’t have enough certified teachers who want to teach. I know of at least one teacher who is not certified teaching at an elementary school. Granted she is quite good but she isn’t certified.
Each year, Taiwan’s teachers colleges produce far more graduates than there are jobs available. I used to know someone who was studying for the exams (post-graduation exams) to become a teacher. She said there are about 4,000 education graduates every year, but only about 100 positions. Also, many teachers within the system are on one year contracts and have to pass exams in order to retain their positions. One of my co-teachers last year was replaced for this reason. Oddly, she still teaches at a nearby school which she also taught at last year. Figure that one out.
Having said that, whilst you’d think there would be an abundance of qualified/certified teachers available, the MOE apparently leaves this entire examination process until August, meaning that schools don’t necessarily have all the positions filled by the beginning of the first semester.
Further to this, perhaps because of my school’s remote location (it’s actually not that remote – just off Highway 9, north of Taidong), last year, my school had three “substitute” teachers. At least one, and I think all three, were not certified teachers. There may have been others also. This year, we have about six or seven new teachers. I am not sure how many, if any, are certified.
First of all, OP, sorry, but you sound spectacularly whiney. I put myself through grad school (MAT), crazy summer courses and all, while caring for a young child alone, and while working 20 hours a week (well, as I had two summer classes, I couldn’t work that month, and had to survive without income instead!). No one said anything had to be easy. But you can handle this! And I doubt you be teaching at “home” with an expired license, right? That’s why one of my biggest problems with being here is the lack of professional development opportunities.
I know of one teacher working at my school who isn’t “certified.” She has an education degree and is a good teacher, but she’s working contract hours year to year, and still taking classes. Another is certified, but also working on a year to year contract. She just made two attempts to pass another, different, certification exam. Passing that exam would have allowed her to vie for 2 open positions she had heard of in Taipei. Two positions! And she said there were at least 4000 teachers taking that test both times she took it. And she didn’t pass.
She’s a very good teacher, but this multiple choice test asks questions like, “On page xxx of book yyy, the text about topic reads as: “A,” “B,” C,” or “D.” You have to have the book memorized word for word in order to get a question like that correct! That’s insane. It has utterly nothing to do with what good teaching might entail, or even knowledge of pedagogical theory–just whether your memory is photographic enough to remember the exact wording of a random passage of a text.
Oh, and there are lots of people who become teachers and then decide that they never want to teach! It’s a hell of a job, you know, and it’s not for everyone!
I know that they have to undergo a so-called “teaching training” course, which I believe is something like 12 x 3 credit point subjects. Beyond that, I am not sure, but I thought they just had to pass the exam to get in and accepted for a position? There are VERY few positions, and the ones people usually get are out in small towns where the majority of teachers do not want to go. Furthermore, I believe they have to attend workshops and attend “training” sessions throughout the year. From what I’ve heard, these workshops are nothing more than listening to a bunch of PhD holders talk about “theory” that wouldn’t prove the least bit useful or effective in a “real” classroom (this is what teachers who have attended the so-called training sessions told me).
My wife is definitely certified to teach at her public high school, and I believe all of her colleagues are as well. I’m fairly sure being certified is a rule for public high schools, but not for private high schools.
Also, from what she’s told me, there’s a separate certification for elementary level teachers than there is for junior high or high school teachers. Like GiT said, with all of these graduates competing for only a few positions, I don’t think there should be a problem finding certified teachers.
I taught in Taoyuan for one year. During that time I was assigned a cooperating Taiwanese English teacher. 1 per grade level (2) and one per semester = 4.
Taiwanese English teachers must pass the GEPT which I’m told is the Taiwanese equivalent of IELTS. Anyway, of the 4 only one could pass it. I know because at the end of the semester they came to the teachers’ room and told us.
I am bragging when I say this: I’m also certified to teach Spanish. And during my career for various reasons, I’ve taken the exam 4 times. 3 times it was the Princeton Praxis for which I always scored around 97%. It wasn’t at all demanding. The other was a much harder test requiring examination of all four areas: listening, speaking, reading and writing. That exam was produced by a company originating from Harvard U. That one was indeed difficult, but I still scored in the 90%.
The point being I can’t see myself demanding that someone do something that I’m incapable of or unwilling to do. Also, I have written proof that I need just one more course to be re-certified. Isn’t that enough?
Also, I think the prior postings have left me confused. On the one hand there are so few jobs available, but on the other hand there are so few certified teachers. It’s that a contradiction?
Regarding the comment about being whiney, I have this to say about that. These long distance courses from the USA require a lot of bandwidth. I have that here in my room because I pay an extra 1000 NTD a month. A friend in Taipei told me to move to Taipei where she had one of her father’s rooms available for me. She would help me find a job there. So last Monday I found her father and he took me to his room. There are no electrical sockets in the room. There is a line what fishes in from outside, through the living room of this apartment and then into my room. There is no telephone socket or coax cable with which to connect to the internet. Finally, I figured out how to connect to a wireless router 2 flights up. The signal is weak and completely incapable of maintaining the connection to some ip server in the USA.
PS The 6 week course I just finished was a real nutcracker! Early Childhood: Teaching phonemic awareness and Phonics! It took me forever to learn how do all those acrobatic feats flipping from page to page! It was not all that clear cut where to go next and what to do next. It was a real brain stretcher. I can honestly say I’ve never ever worked so hard for a 3 credit course and I barely earned a B to boot!
[quote=“enn”]Also, I think the prior postings have left me confused. On the one hand there are so few jobs available, but on the other hand there are so few certified teachers.
Isn’t that a contradiction?[/quote]
No. In most places in the world it is hard to get qualified teachers to go into undesirable areas. In Taiwan that means anywhere outside major cities such as where GiT lives.
How many teachers in the US want to teach up in Koetzebue?
Yes, there is a high demand for foreign teachers but a low supply. They still need to follow the rules though. It’s all just a rubber stamp thing anyway since very little of what anyone learns in a modern Western education system will be applied here. At best, you’ll be allowed to do your own thing because they won’t take you seriously enough to worry about it (after all, the “real teachers” are the ones who administer tests here, i.e. not the foreign teachers). Still, you’ll have to contend with a system that is the polar opposite of that, and so, in a sense, you’ll have to re-train your students (and co-teachers!) in order to be able to apply Western/modern pedagogy. At worst, they’ll actively cock block you and insist on all sorts of nonsense that’s decades old. Usually, it’s somewhere in the middle.
I believe the problem is not that they can’t get people because they don’t get to go where they want (i.e. big cities). Foreign teachers are actually not really told until after they’ve accepted the position unless they apply directly to the county governments (in which case they still won’t necessarily know very much about their placement within that county), in which case those people have very particular reasons for doing that. A lot of people contact the Taidong County government directly because they want the laid back lifestyle and/or surfing, for instance, and those people tend to have already been in Taiwan for some time.
The problem is basically the package and distinct lack of professional development and promotional opportunities. As a teacher, coming to Taiwan is at best, a step sideways if one’s long term career focus is teaching in the West. In that sense, most of the people who do it do it for a year or two at the most (and so don’t really have much idea about the place they’re going to, including Taiwan itself, before they arrive). The others tend to be retirees. On the other hand, people who are really serious about pursuing EFL teaching as a career don’t really come to Taiwan either because the package is not great compared to other places. Also, in the broader EFL industry, East Asia is seen as a bit of a joke. There’s the perception (and rightly so) that it’s largely about playing games (and lacks rigour generally) and that there’s a lack of qualifications or knowledge of current methodology amongst both the foreign teachers and the local staff and administrators.
Of course, it would be very easy for them to address these kinds of issues here, but aren’t/won’t, obviously for their own reasons.
Well, I keeping asking the same question. I taught at a very prestigious elementary school in Taoyuan in which 3 of 4 Taiwanese English teachers couldn’t pass the GEPT. No GEPT no English certification. This elementary school is located in a very large city. It’s not just some fly speck on the side of some mountain. The point is people keep saying that certified teachers don’t want to teach way out in the boonies. This school isn’t way out in the boonies, yet 3 out of 4 Taiwanese English teachers can’t get certification.
Are you talking about a government school or a private school of some sort? Anyway, it really depends upon the school. Everything in Taiwan is a grey area. As I have already stated, my school has (had) non-certified teachers teaching all sorts of things (not just English). Also, it may be difficult for schools to get highly proficient Taiwanese English teachers for two reasons. Firstly, the overall standard of English here is extremely low. Most of the co-teachers I’ve ever had (as well as those I encountered when I used to work at the English Village) have had great difficulty communicating in English. Secondly, and a large part of the reason for that, is that anyone who has really good English could quite possibly have a much more lucrative and exciting career than as an elementary school English teacher. Christ, I know that if I were living in the West and I spoke another language really well, the last thing I would want to do would be to listen to eight year olds bumble their way through the dog being brown all day in that foreign language. Fuck that for a joke.
Isn’t the GEPT fairly new? What about teachers who started teaching before that test even came into existence? I’m sure there are other certifications the teachers have to get besides GEPT certification. As far as I know, all public school teachers need to be certified. However, when it comes to the GEPT, I don’t know how that factors into it.
Certified to teach and certified as profficient in English are two different things. Do I think that a Taiwanese teacher of English should be able to test as profficient in English? Sure. I’m sure they can’t all pass the GEPT, but I’m not sure how much that means anyway.
But regardless, the OP may be able to pass all sorts of Spanish profficiency exams, but he wouldn’t be teaching Spanish at “home” without this required course. I don’t know what’s so unfair about having to keep his credentials current just because he’s working here and not at “home.”
I"m confused in regards to American Teacher certification, do you need to complete so many courses each few years to remain certified?
I’m Canadian certified and once you have your teaching certification you have it. Period.
There is no renewal process or anything of that sort, unless you want to apply for the masters program, and you can only do that after you have a minimum of 2 years teaching experience. (though I’m not entirely sure if this is different of different provinces)
Yes you have 2 areas you specialize in, but 99% of teachers end up having to teach courses outside of their specialities, especially when your just starting out.
In the States, licenses are granted by the state and so regulations vary from state to state. I’m from AR and we have to have x number of professional hours per year to maintain our licenses, and every five years we have to buy a new one. Lots of states have reciprocal licensing agreements, but some do not. It can get confusing if you want/need to move. If you don’t get your PD hours in, you are required to take university credits instead. AR also has a requirement that x number of hours of AR history be a part of those PD hours. And there was talk of making student loan default an offense that could cost your your license, but I don’t remember if that went through. Lord knows, a teacher really can’t afford to make a lot of student loan payments, though!
Yep. Now, enn, still wonder why someone might decide not to teach after getting certified? All this hardly seems worth it for 35,000 or less a year! (Some AR districts start out first year teachers at 26 or 27,000!)
Ya, I had heard US teachers get paid dirt low wages,
Come to Canada, the starting pay is around $50 - 60,000 depending on your prov, problem is finding a job in the first place, expect about 7 to 9 years of subbing before a school will even look at you for tenure.
I find that so odd that you can actually loose your licence simply because of PD hours, usually the schools here provide teachers with courses as part of the overall school PD program, they are required to attend them and it is considered part of the job, but you don’t loose your licence if you don’t (or can’t) attend them. jeeze, think of all the uni graduates that take 2 to 3 years to find a job, or a full time position, how the heck are they suppose to get access to professional hours (that you can only get through your individual school) if no one will bloody well hire them?
I"m sorry but whoever thought of that system wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box
[quote=“upandover”] jeeze, think of all the uni graduates that take 2 to 3 years to find a job, or a full time position, how the heck are they suppose to get access to professional hours (that you can only get through your individual school) if no one will bloody well hire them?
I"m sorry but whoever thought of that system wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box[/quote]
Well, if you’re employed, then yes there are PD hours provided that you must attend (no outs), but if you’re not working in the state, then you don’t get that and have to find opportunities to keep up your hours by yourself.