I’m a candidate for a job teaching elementary school in Tainan. Can anyone with experience teaching public elementary give me a heads up as to what I might expect and what sort of questions it would be good to ask the agents.
I’m thinking here of hours, number of classes, class size, responsibilities, extra duties, curriculum. Anything I’ve missed? Anything in particular to watch out for in my list?
Thanks.
Based on my experince, you should teach about 21-23 40-minute periods per week. The pay should be about 65k before deductions. You should have 10 (sometimes 20 minute) minute breaks between periods.
Questions to ask:
[quote=“AAF”]Based on my experince, you should teach about 21-23 40-minute periods per week. The pay should be about 65k before deductions. You should have 10 (sometimes 20 minute) minute breaks between periods.
Questions to ask:
I am certainly not putting down your advice. Those are some wise quaestions to ask; However, if the teacher left because the teaching environment sucked, getting a truly honest answer for #14 would be nothing short of a miracle.
Yes, but it would still be a good thing to find out from some source.
Hey thanks very much, excellent list of questions.
You’ve gone beyond the call of duty already but I have a couple more after reading your list: Whats been the quality of the teaching in your experience? Mindless and rote or the closest thing to Montessori in the public school system. (I’m guessing a little closer to the first option)
How about the teaching materials you worked with. Good bad or indifferent?
You like/liked the work? Just curious.
[quote]Questions to ask:
You mean, say I have twenty three teaching periods which finish Friday morning, can I head home Friday lunch time or do I hang out at the office and look busy?
[quote]2. Can you have lunch at school and how much will you pay?[/quote] My experience with school food doesn’t make this one much of a concern - I’m more worried about being told I had to eat it 
Good question. In other words, if not catch up will be required in an already tight schedule?
Another good question. Training sessions are cool if they help me do my job better and don’t involve stupid amounts of time.
Such as what do you think?
[quote]6. Will you be able to depend on co-teachers or homeroom teachers for assistance?
[/quote]
This isn’t standard I take it.
7.[quote] Do you have to do weekly/monthly lesson plans?[/quote]
Depends also on how involved those lessons plans have to be. Having said that some planning is always necessary, yeah.
Deductions for being late are cool within reason. Deductions for being sick. Really? That would piss me off: not only do I get to feel crap I have to pay for it!
[quote]9. Will you be able to interact with other foreign teachers teaching at other elementary schools?
I get the idea that you think its important that you have some foreign teacher contact besides the sound of your own voice.
Excellent question.
Do you mean, ‘will I have any co-teachers’?
While I agree with the previous poster on the likelihood of getting a straight answer on this one if the answers no good, at least it gives me an outside chance.
I prefer the work I’m doing now to any other job I’ve had before, not only in Taiwan. It isn’t perfect though. Expect some hitches. If you prefer to be treated as a professional, this is probably the best option for you.
As far as teaching materials are concerned, you will probably not have any say in the matter, but teaching style is normally a matter of choice.
It’s hard to say what your situation will be. Your co-teacher or head teacher will determine a lot. Be nice to her/him. That’s the secret of my success. Be nice to your co-teacher.
[quote]Quote:
Questions to ask:
You mean, say I have twenty three teaching periods which finish Friday morning, can I head home Friday lunch time or do I hang out at the office and look busy? [/quote]
I made a mistake. I meant “the end of each school day”. Sorry. I used to be able to leave at 12 or start at one three times a week, but things have changed at my school. Now we stay unil 4pm.
[quote]Quote:
5. Are there any extra weekly/yearly activities?
Such as what do you think? [/quote]
You might be asked to run a club or tell a story to a class once a week. Yearly activities might include attending the school’s “birthday”.
[quote]Quote:
6. Will you be able to depend on co-teachers or homeroom teachers for assistance?
This isn’t standard I take it. [/quote]
Many homeroom teachers only mark books during the English period although they can often see that you need some help.
[quote]Quote:
9. Will you be able to interact with other foreign teachers teaching at other elementary schools?
I get the idea that you think its important that you have some foreign teacher contact besides the sound of your own voice[/quote].
It’s easy to cheat a single teacher, but not a large group. You can also ask the other teachers to help you. Socially it also helps to know another 40+ people.
[quote]Quote:
14. Who will be your co-teachers?
Do you mean, ‘will I have any co-teachers’? [/quote]
You should have some co-teachers, but I’m not sure it’s a blessing.
Which school?
Working in a public elementary school can be great, but a lot depends on the attitude of the principal and the quality of the person responsible for looking after you at the school. I taught in public elementary schools for 7 years in Kaohsiung and really enjoyed it.
A couple of other questions to add to AAF’s great list:
How much time will I get off (completely off) for both winter and summer breaks?
This will vary a lot between schools and seems to be totally up to them to decide.
Often, the school will run English winter or summer camps that they want you to stick
around for; try to avoid this or at least make sure you get paid extra for it, as it’s not part
of the MOE job description.
*The main attraction of Public school work for me was that I always got 5 weeks off in winter
and 2 months in summer; winter break was with pay but not summer.
Will I be expected to teach conversation classes for teachers at the school?
Will I get my own classroom or have to move around every period?
Certainly be prepared to do extra work while you’re at the school: speech competitions, Christmas performance, Morning assembly sing-a-long, editing university applications for the principal’s son, etc…
good luck… I hope you get the answers from them you want.
Ktown, thanks for the great additions. With you and AAF watching my back ( albeit all the way from Forumosa) I’m feeling quite well equipped. (Well I’ve always been well equipped, but you know what I mean 
) Seriously, thanks guys. I’ve got my head around it now.
And Bigal, I’m not 100 percent sure where exactly the position. I’ll drop back and give a progress report.
[quote=“Dial”]Ktown, thanks for the great additions. With you and AAF watching my back ( albeit all the way from Forumosa) I’m feeling quite well equipped. (Well I’ve always been well equipped, but you know what I mean ) Seriously, thanks guys. I’ve got my head around it now.
And Bigal, I’m not 100 percent sure where exactly the position. I’ll drop back and give a progress report.[/quote]
Any time. Be sure of my steadfast support.
Here’s something I posted in 2003 on the topic forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … Elementary. Doubt a lot has changed. I no longer teach at Elementary School but have had friends who taught at the same school. Our opinions are similar.
Amos is right. Elementary schools are amongst the shittiest teaching jobs available.
You’ll be teaching 40-50 students in a class. You’ll probably see that class 3-5 times a week in 40 min or so blocks. The English language ability of those students will range from "I’m fine sank you, and yoooUUU??? to the ability to hold a decent conversation with you about their last trip to the US. Needless to say, you’ll have to pitch your lessons at a level which is completely over the heads of half the class, and boring as hell to the other half.
The students will most likely see the Englsih class as a chance to goof off and be silly for a while or perhaps sneakily catch up on other homework. All but the most experienced teachers will find it all but impossible to keep good discipline going in the class, unless they strike one of the few Chinese home teachers who decides to help keep the students under control rather than take the opportunity to mark homework, prepare the next days test or reapply nail varnish.
You will most likely be bored shitless teaching the same lessons and the same simple things over and over, and be frustrated at the complete lack of progress most of your class makes.
The paid holidays and slight bit of extra status (oh no, I don’t teach at a cram school, I teach at a public elementary school), will not go far at all towards making up for the awful work environment.
If you want to teach kids, try a private English ‘cram’ school with every day elementary students.
Brian