How Many Subjects Are Too Many?

[ArtVandelay]

What's the "average" number of courses to teach?

I was given 5 subjects this semester (19 periods a week total).

That's 5 x 2 lesson plans a week minimum.

5 tests to write every time there's a test (which is often here), 5 mid-terms, 5 final exams, notebooks and workbooks to grade too.

I'm a science teacher, so 4 of the subjects are science (grades 9-11) including biology and general science. The 5th one is not even in my area: social studies. I told them they may as well have me teach how to cook Pad Thai, but they didn't listen to me.

[Scott]

It takes amazing organizational skills to do what your doing. I know a few teachers who do this sort of thing, but I get totally overwhelmed. It's easier to have more hours, but the same classes.

[lovelomsak]

Quite a work load. I know of one teacher in a rural thai school teaching 4 anuban classes, plus 5 levels of mattyom yes 5 levels 4 mattyom 1 classes and 4 mattyom 2 classes and 3 mattyom 3 classes and 2 mattyom 4 and 2 mattyom 5 classes every week one hour each class for 19 hours and 7 different lesson plans. The poor fellow must be run ragged. But hey he doesnot have to teach pratum ha ha.

[oneway2himm]

i know your story. I teach P. 4 Math and English 9 hours. M. 2 & 3 English grammar 4 hours. G. 2 computer 2 hours. Social Responsibility 1 hour. EFL 1 hour. One on One 4 hours. Duty 2 hours. That is 23 hours a week, not including lesson planning, grading papers, making exams and so forth. 19 hours would be great for me.

[Ijustwannateach]

Schools which do this are clearly not concerned about educational quality- if they were, they would have dedicated teachers not only per subject but also per age group. These are money-making ventures which only care about a 'white face.' Leave as soon as is practical for you.

[aidenai]

Schools which do this are clearly not concerned about educational quality- if they were, they would have dedicated teachers not only per subject but also per age group. These are money-making ventures which only care about a 'white face.' Leave as soon as is practical for you.

I don't think it's that easy, IJWT.

Many English Programmes upcountry have only one section per grade-level. That makes 90 periods/ hours per week for 6 grade-levels in total for that school. An acceptable division of labour makes that each teacher has to teach 18 periods/ hours per week. The 90 hours may consist of 18 hours mathematics, 18 hours general science/ biology- physics - chemistry, 6 hours social studies, 6 hours health education, 6 hours art, 6 hours computer studies and 30 hours English language.

Teachers will have to teach more than one subject to more than one grade-level. That's simply the way it is.

[paully]

Teachers will have to teach more than one subject to more than one grade-level. That's simply the way it is.

Sure, but teaching 5 subjects is a nightmare for the teacher and likely to lead to an early coronary. It's also not great for the students either. That's simply the way it is.

[Scott]

One of my tasks each year is to schedule the classes for the foreign teachers. It's a delicate and difficult balancing act. You get teachers who simply refuse to teach a certain subject or grade--sometimes with justification, sometimes because they are a pain in the behind and simply don't like that class. I try to keep teachers in their major subject or area of specialty and give preference to grades they want to teach. About every three years we reach the point of diminishing returns when there are just too many classes and not quite enough teachers to accommodate subjects well. It's also a case of not quite being able to justify additional staff. The reason is because of growth in the school. So someone will get stuck teaching all of P. 2 English and a couple of hours of Moral Education.

I try to off-set this with a reduction in other duties, but sometimes admin can't quite see why that should be. I think that 3 different subjects is the most I've given someone over maybe two or three grade levels.

The next year we will increase the number of classes, but we will end up adding more teachers and everyone is relatively happy and the schedules are much more accommodating.

[aidenai]

Teachers will have to teach more than one subject to more than one grade-level. That's simply the way it is.

Sure, but teaching 5 subjects is a nightmare for the teacher and likely to lead to an early coronary. It's also not great for the students either. That's simply the way it is.

Point taken, paully. What do you suggest for English Programmes as pointed out regarding the division of labour?

[paully]

^Teaching a couple of subjects is understandable, I've done it myself. You can't always get/afford one teacher per subject,which would be the ideal. But in the OP's case this has gone too far, one subject even being completely outside his area.

[Ijustwannateach]

Schools which do this are clearly not concerned about educational quality- if they were, they would have dedicated teachers not only per subject but also per age group. These are money-making ventures which only care about a 'white face.' Leave as soon as is practical for you.

I don't think it's that easy, IJWT.

Many English Programmes upcountry have only one section per grade-level. That makes 90 periods/ hours per week for 6 grade-levels in total for that school. An acceptable division of labour makes that each teacher has to teach 18 periods/ hours per week. The 90 hours may consist of 18 hours mathematics, 18 hours general science/ biology- physics - chemistry, 6 hours social studies, 6 hours health education, 6 hours art, 6 hours computer studies and 30 hours English language.

Teachers will have to teach more than one subject to more than one grade-level. That's simply the way it is.

If OP would like to post more details (how many classes, how much are the kids paying, etc.) it would become clearer whether the money was there to provide proper staffing as well as a reasonable overhead/'tea money'. In my experience, *excessive* profit and poor management almost always explain these problems, but as I've said- no way to tell without more details. As an additional note, despite multiple horrible schools I have witnessed, I don't believe I have yet been in a school where most foreign teachers were routinely teaching (involuntarily and against the evidence of their own qualifications, at that) multiple subject areas, especially not as diverse as those cited by OP. I mean, it's not unusual to have a science teacher doing a math section (or vice versa) or an English teacher with some talent in history, fine arts, or PE putting on a second hat- but this is usually out of interest and with the consent or even enthusiasm of the individual teacher (to develop themselves or avoid boredom with routine).

I reiterate: a program which PLANS its curriculum to demand subject teaching from staff who can't even arguably be shown to have any academic background/interest in the subject- is poor management and/or pure greed. One hopes that the parents would be asking questions about why the upper levels maths expert is suddenly teaching, for instance, M.1 health- if for no other reason than to demand that his bona fides in such a subject be justified.

[otherstuff1957]

Last year I taught P4 & P5 Science, P4 Math & P4 English. When you add an hour for Club and an hour of Gate or Field Duty, I was at 18 hours/week.

This year I'm teaching P4, M3 & M4 Science, M5 & M6 Geography, M6 Univ-Prep English and M4-6 Advanced English (the M4-6 English classes are divided by ability, not grade level). With Club & Duty, I'm at 19 hours. It's one more hour than I would like, but it's doable.

[siampolee]

I personally teach English for eight periods a week to Y.6 Social studies six periods a week to Y,7 , Reading to Y8. three periods a week and Social studies to Y12 for two periods a week.

I also have forty five minutes a week classroom duty.

Lesson periods vary from fifty to forty-five minute duration times, thus in a twenty one period week my classroom / student contact time is actually around seventeen and a half hours a week.

I find have adequate time to draft lesson plans, mark books and grade the work and write exams, boils down to time management skills.

Exams are normally one exam day then a no student day, thus marking and grading is not an arduous task as time is allowed for you to mark and grade.

We are able to arrive and depart from our school according to our personal timetables, thus in essence our hours are flexible, no 08-00-16-00: hrs routine .

No gate duty, no assembly duty (apart from three special a year, then classes normally do not start until 11-00:hrs ) no flag duty.

I can cope with ease, no work is ever taken home.

[troehr]

I guess I will have to go the other way here. I teach 24 hours of classes at a university and then four hours at another school. At university I teach eight three hour classes. I have four different subjects this semester. Last semester I had five different subjects. My other job I teach one hour a day four days a week. One day each of P3,P4,P5 and P6. So I essentially have eight different lesson plans a week. If is not a problem and I seldom have to work extra hours to get my work done. But then I actually plan everything and do things in a streamlined fashion. I find that the biggest reason my peers do not have enough time is they are poor planners and do not think about the best ways to do things. T

[Firelily]

When I hear teachers complaining about too many classes / subjects, I always wonder what it is like for an average prathom 1-2-3-4 kid to have ten or eleven different subject teachers (English, Thai, Maths, social, art, music, scout etc etc), having to adapt to all these adults' different expectations, personalities, communication, reward and punishment schemes, accents. hel_l it would creep me out if I had ten bosses, all with slightly different takes on what I should be doing and how! How do these kids have continuity in their days? coherence? Cross-references to what they did a few hours before? The teacher won't even know if someone was sick in the morning and needs to be taken care of, or whatever. Won't even know if someone's absent or having a long toilet break. It's like a stupid conveyor belt assembly system. It's not designed for people. I am happy to be a homeroom teacher, staying with the same children full time, teaching all the subjects, really relating to them. Maybe their maths or art is not taught with perfect precision.... but, are we teaching subjects, or are we educating children?

Sorry I am slightly off topic. I would rather quit the job then jump around from class to class like a homeless person, not having anyone to relate to. I pity everyone who needs to do that and suffer from it.

[aidenai]

I am happy to be a homeroom teacher, staying with the same children full time, teaching all the subjects, really relating to them. Maybe their maths or art is not taught with perfect precision.... but, are we teaching subjects, or are we educating children?

That's a choice administrators of schools have to make, Firelily.

We've chosen for exposing our students to as many as possible foreign teachers. At our school it means five different persons, voices, accents, approaches and methodologies.

[ArtVandelay]

Thanks for the comments.

Some more details that were asked for:

I teach at a private bilingual school in Bangkok. Not sure how much the students pay, but it's not cheap.

As for time management on my part, there's probably always room for improvement. However, I can also count on one hand the number of true "weekends" I have had since January (weekends where I didn't have any grading, lesson planing, test making to do), and that includes Songkran weekend.

I think I got stuck with the social studies class because the usual teacher decided she didn't want to do grades 10-11 anymore (she's better with younger students because they're more afraid of her in my opinion) and she got preferential treatment having been here 6 years longer.

I have also come to the conclusion (as have some of the posters above) that it all seems to boil down to greed and mismanagement (and possibly skimming) by the administration here. I've already started looking for another job.

[Firelily]

Aidenai: and I would have nothing against that after grade 4 or so, when they don't need that much "mothering" and personal connections anymore.

[troehr]

I personally teach English for eight periods a week to Y.6 Social studies six periods a week to Y,7 , Reading to Y8. three periods a week and Social studies to Y12 for two periods a week.

I also have forty five minutes a week classroom duty.

Lesson periods vary from fifty to forty-five minute duration times, thus in a twenty one period week my classroom / student contact time is actually around seventeen and a half hours a week.

I find have adequate time to draft lesson plans, mark books and grade the work and write exams, boils down to time management skills.

Exams are normally one exam day then a no student day, thus marking and grading is not an arduous task as time is allowed for you to mark and grade.

We are able to arrive and depart from our school according to our personal timetables, thus in essence our hours are flexible, no 08-00-16-00: hrs routine .

No gate duty, no assembly duty (apart from three special a year, then classes normally do not start until 11-00:hrs ) no flag duty.

I can cope with ease, no work is ever taken home.

This is what it comes down to. Do you have time management skills. I have no problem teaching multiple subjects. I have never taken work home. I am always a couple weeks ahead in my lesson planning and materials preparation. I think the main problem is that too many people are working as teachers who shouldn't be. It is not theat hard if you actually work and manage your time.

T

[ArtVandelay]

troehr -

So you have no problem with a high school instructor teaching outside his or her subject area? Would you send one of your children to a school with a science teacher handling social studies on top of 4 other subjects?

[Scott]

I will remind posters that the rules are followed strictly--and that includes flaming and baiting.

How much work and time a teacher has to put into managing his/her teaching load is going to vary. How many years have you taught a subject, is it your major field or field of interest, what support materials do you have, as well as many more.

There are individual variables between teachers; some routinely take work home, do a lot of checking and researching on the internet (and other sources).

Personally, I have always taken work home. Especially things that I need a reasonably relaxed and quiet environment to work in with minimal interruption.

[troehr]

troehr -

So you have no problem with a high school instructor teaching outside his or her subject area? Would you send one of your children to a school with a science teacher handling social studies on top of 4 other subjects?

Actually I would not have a problem with it as long as it was a good teacher. You can teach anything up to a certain point. There does come a point in say calculus or chemistry where you need to have the knowledge ahead of time. But who is teaching calculus here? I teach outside my area all the time. Everyone is really. Just because you can speak English does not mean you are actually qualified to teach it.

T

[Scott]

Troehr: There are plenty of teachers who teach advanced subjects. We have teachers who teach math and advanced mathematics to upper level Mathyom. We also have teachers who teach Biology, Chemistry and Physics. These are not subjects to be taken lightly and you can't BS your way through those classes. The students taking the subject are streamed for their knowledge and ability in Math and Science.

Outside your area depends on the level of the students and the difficulty of the subject material. I got stuck teaching Physics for a time (we simply couldn't find a qualified teacher easily). I spent hours studying the material and trying to prepare for classes. I have a Bachelor's in Science, but it was difficult and frustrating.

Fortunately, we eventually found a teacher. I have never been so grateful in my life.

[jayinoz]

Newer teachers especially often get overloaded then move on... 5 subjects is far too many. Max should be 3... If I did more than 3 completely differnt subjects it would not be workable I believe. You must be very smart and organized to have 5 subjects- too much work and stress for me. Unless a couple of the subjects are no brainers like fitness, music, art, etc.

I have Maths, science and English- and that is more than enough. I have been asked to perform more but i will not- as it not fair to me or the students. I need time for other things in my life.

One girl I felt sorry for got absolutely crashed from far too many subjects. She burnt out in less than 6 months and was only getting 25K bt pm. She was all excited to do all this in the first 3 months, yet the noviety always wears off. Like many she moved back to her country and never wishes to teach OS again. As she feels that 6 months aged her 6 years- she had 5 or 6 subjects also... Not worth the heart attack, even if getting huge bucks. Which u rarely get as a teacher in SE Asia....

[Scott]

When teachers are new to our school (even if they are experienced), i go to great lengths to give them a lighter work load. Different schools have different expectations, rules, policies etc. It takes time to get used to the little things. I have found that when teachers get a heavy work load or too many hours, it increases the number of sick days and a higher turnover of staff.