Teaching In Thailand

[frenchFARANGbkk]

Hi,

One of my friends is a new teacher here.

He is teaching 14 hours a week but then, back home, he also has to work as much as this because the school asks him to give a notation and make a review for every student, everyday. He also has to prepare games to make the teaching SANOOK!

So he is paid for 14 hours but work 30, is it like this everywhere or is it because he looks like the guy who cannot say no?!

Thanks for advice.

[Spit the Dog]

When I done my TEFL course, I was told that for every 1 hour lesson that you teach, you should spend the same amount of time in preperation. So if your friend has 14 hours contact teaching time he should be spending roughly 28 hours a week in total.

In reality, when you do start teaching, you will spend more time preparing lessons. However, once you get a bit of experience under your belt, you tend to spend less time preparing as you know what is required and you will be able to improvise much more during a lesson.

[Ijustwannateach]

The review every day is a bit much, unless they're paying him quite a bit. If he's a new teacher to TEFL (it's TEFL he's doing, or another subject?) then it *will* take him awhile to build up a file of games and activities, but once he's done it he can use them over and over.

I wrote once before on this forum that 30K pay should be for 20 hrs total, teaching and prep, and that if more hours are required there should be extra pay at 1000B/hr. At 28hrs teaching plus prep, I wouldn't take your friend's job for under 38K a month.

I happen to be a subject teacher with a LOT of outside prep to do, but I do get paid according to my own scale.

"Steven"

[mr-chris]

From a professional teacher point of view, if you've got no homework, you're not doing it right.

Any teacher with an idea of what he or she is doing gets 'home-work'.

Be prepared to work your 14 hours into a 40 hour week.

[Bluffer]

From a professional teacher point of view, if you've got no homework, you're not doing it right.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Any teacher with an idea of what he or she is doing gets 'home-work'.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rubbish

You do your prep or "homework" in the non contact time at school!

OP, does your friend go home when he is not teaching? If so, it is fair that he is spending that amount of time working at home. As I said above, the non contact time during the week is when you prepare extra stuff.

If they are asking him to do reviews everyday, they are taking the piss. Tell him to make up about 5 standard reports. Put them on a pc then copy and paste into the record. I bet none of them are even read.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Bluffer

[otherstuff1957]

  Put them on a pc then copy and paste into the record.  I bet none of them are even read.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll second that. A lot of the schools require their teachers to produce reams of useless paperwork. Just write your reviews using the most advanced and difficult vocabulary and grammar you know. No-one will complain, because no-one will read them. After a couple of weeks, you can just recycle by cutting and pasting.

[PeaceBlondie]

I wouldn't mark each student's work each day, especially in multiple areas of behaviour, because there's no way you can observe their behavior, unless class size is below 20 and you have each class 2 or 3 hours per day. It's absurd.

Or, you could arbitrarily give them categories like "picayune" and "coquettish" and "abstruse but not obtuse" or "corpulent," "flatulent," and "prostrate." The marking system could be X, Q, Z, alpha, and omega.

[EVO]

Bring on the paperwork, thats the motto of most Thai schools.

However, i've come to the conclusion that you give them an inch they will take a mile. If they want me to do extra stuff like write written reoprts everyday then so be it. Either pay me for it, or take away some contact hours to enable me to do it in school.

My work time is when i work. I VERY rarely bring home work to do, even though i dont have enough prep time in school. I do the very best that i can with the timeframe that i am given. If i was paid overtime for working whilst at home that would be a different matter entirely.

[PeaceBlondie]

It's probably not SERIOUS, anyway. Do some marking, as much as you reasonably can within your time on campus (or at home if you're only on campus during contact hours). They may never ask you for it. If they do, just reply, "Oh, Ajarn Poopyporn, you're too SERIOUS!!!!"

[frenchFARANGbkk]

Bring on the paperwork, thats the motto of most Thai schools.

However, i've come to the conclusion that you give them an inch they will take a mile. If they want me to do extra stuff like write written reoprts everyday then so be it. Either pay me for it, or take away some contact hours to enable me to do it in school.

My work time is when i work. I VERY rarely bring home work to do, even though i dont have enough prep time in school. I do the very best that i can with the timeframe that i am given. If i was paid overtime for working whilst at home that would be a different matter entirely.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's what my friend should do but he is not self-confident enough to tell them what he thinks ;-)

It's also less than 6 months he is teaching, has no degree, no work permit, and he is paid per hour, so this is also why he keeps busy ;-)

So that's what I was thinking, thai like to see a lot of paper, even if unuseful, but I also know that Khon thai kigon gnai (easy to cheat the thai)... so I will teach that part to my friend....

Last thing, do you think it is stupid to think that the people who have to care about my friend at school might be jealous about farang teacher salary and want him to work a lot for that salary? In my opinion it is not the Thai way but I never worked for or with them, so I don't know...? Ever met some jealous thai?

Thank you very much ;-)

[Tyree D.]

where are y'all teaching? LOL

[EVO]

Bring on the paperwork, thats the motto of most Thai schools.

However, i've come to the conclusion that you give them an inch they will take a mile. If they want me to do extra stuff like write written reoprts everyday then so be it. Either pay me for it, or take away some contact hours to enable me to do it in school.

My work time is when i work. I VERY rarely bring home work to do, even though i dont have enough prep time in school. I do the very best that i can with the timeframe that i am given. If i was paid overtime for working whilst at home that would be a different matter entirely.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Depends where you are teaching with regard to the jelousy thing, but if you are teaching at a reputable school with a decent (obviously) payscale for the Thai staff then there isnt as much jelousy. IMO the jelousy situation comes about when the farang and Thai staff are not integrated into working together and adopt the them and us attitude.

Regards

That's what my friend should do but he is not self-confident enough to tell them what he thinks ;-)

It's also less than 6 months he is teaching, has no degree, no work permit, and he is paid per hour, so this is also why he keeps busy ;-)

So that's what I was thinking, thai like to see a lot of paper, even if unuseful, but I also know that Khon thai kigon gnai (easy to cheat the thai)... so I will teach that part to my friend....

Last thing, do you think it is stupid to think that the people who have to care about my friend at school might be jealous about farang teacher salary and want him to work a lot for that salary? In my opinion it is not the Thai way but I never worked for or with them, so I don't know...? Ever met some jealous thai?

Thank you very much ;-)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>