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057 Lesson Plan · bit of a Rambler

• 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,080 Hello, my name is Kai and I am a bit of a rambler. 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,060 I like to travel, learn and tell stories. 3 00:00:08,060 --> 00:00:13,680 I talk about teaching English in other countries so much that I thought it might be helpful 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:20,040 to hear what the average day was like teaching English in a school. 5 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:25,960 And I think the important thing to start out with is that the hours are significantly 6 00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,520 reduced from what you're used to. 7 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:33,080 Usually if you're teaching ESL, at least in China, which is the only place I've taught 8 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:38,280 it in schools for an extended period of time, although I've taught here and there in other 9 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:42,160 countries and the hour requirements were the same. 10 00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:47,000 So instead of 40 hours a week, you're working 20 to 25 hours a week. 11 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:53,160 I've almost never heard of someone working more than 25 hours a week, except sometimes 12 00:00:53,160 --> 00:00:56,920 for office hours where you're not teaching. 13 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:03,320 You're just sitting in the office to show people, look, we have foreign teachers, which 14 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:08,040 does happen, but you don't have to do and you can confirm that's part or not part of 15 00:01:08,040 --> 00:01:10,760 the contract before you sign up. 16 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:14,960 What is common is 25 hours a week. 17 00:01:14,960 --> 00:01:20,840 Most of those are going to be on Saturday or Sunday and that 45 minutes of teaching is 18 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,560 also reduced by the in-class breaks you have. 19 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:32,760 So you'll have a 45 minute class broken up with a 10 minute break in the middle, so that's 20 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:38,040 really only 35 minutes per class of teaching, or sometimes there's longer ones that are one 21 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,680 hour of class broken up by a 15 minute break. 22 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:46,160 So 25 minutes and 20 minutes of teaching or something like that. 23 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:52,480 So if you take in the at least 25%, 25 to 30% of the class that is break time, I guess 24 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:58,760 you're really only working 15 to 20 hours a week, roughly, because you got a few hours 25 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,000 of break time in that 20 hour week. 26 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:06,320 And since the classes are only 45 minutes long generally, that's like if you work, just 27 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:12,000 imagine the job you're working at now in the States and you only had to work for 45 minutes 28 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:17,560 at a time and you had a 10 minute break in the middle of those 45 minutes and you have 29 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:23,360 a break in between those 45 minute shifts including the break. 30 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,360 That's the tempo of the classes. 31 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:31,760 So as an example, let's say that you're scheduled for two classes, a two hour shift on 32 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:33,400 Tuesday. 33 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:38,960 Those two hours first subtract the 15 minute prep time before each class. 34 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:43,760 So now you're down to an hour 30 of actual teaching rather than the two hours you're scheduled 35 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:50,560 for and then you also subtract the two 10 minute breaks that are in each of those classes, 36 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,600 each of those 45 minute sessions. 37 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:59,880 So now you're down to 70 minutes out of what was supposed to be 120 minutes. 38 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:04,520 So on your Tuesday class that you have two scheduled hours for, you're only working an hour 39 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:06,920 in 10 minutes out of those two hours. 40 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:11,960 The schedule you'll be getting into is important to know because it's completely different, 41 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:17,760 much less strenuous schedule than anything you've probably worked before, not least importantly 42 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:23,640 because all of the curriculum is provided and available by the school if you're working 43 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:29,160 for a school, which is how most English teachers operate teaching English. 44 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:33,200 So you don't have to figure out how to do your job like you do in most other jobs. 45 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:38,560 The curriculum is right there and if you have a template like the one I'm about to give 46 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:45,080 you in a minute, very simple activity tax blah blah blah, then you have all of the classes 47 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:46,400 you're ever going to do. 48 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,400 They fit in that template. 49 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,440 But what if the child acts up or like what if something shows up? 50 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:57,600 If something goes wrong, there is an assistant in that school, usually one for your class 51 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:03,400 specifically or one for the whole school and they will deal with any problem children 52 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,920 or parents who want to talk to you or anything like that. 53 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:12,720 So anything that interrupts that curriculum and lesson plan, anything that disrupts your 54 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:18,120 actual teaching time, the school has someone available that will deal with that part of 55 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:19,120 it. 56 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:21,120 You are just there for the teaching. 57 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:28,520 So the job is much simpler with far less responsibilities and far less hours required 58 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:34,680 for $2500 in a country that costs $500 a month to live in. 59 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:41,720 So any problem that comes up or any class you're in, you know it's 25 minutes maximum and 60 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:46,240 then you're going to have a break and then another 20 minutes later, the classes over. 61 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,880 So whatever the class is like, you can get through it just wait a few more minutes. 62 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:55,040 As for the weekly schedule itself, most of your week Monday through Friday is going to be 63 00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:02,080 free because the kids don't have formal school on Saturdays and Sundays. 64 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:04,840 So that's usually the heavy day for ESL. 65 00:05:04,840 --> 00:05:11,440 So you could have eight hours on Saturday, six hours on Sunday and then 10 hours through 66 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:16,120 the rest of the week, which as mentioned, you still need to subtract the breaks and prep 67 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:23,080 time from to get down to your actual teaching hours or six hours on each day in the weekend 68 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:26,040 and then again, 10 hours through the rest of the week. 69 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:32,980 So you might Monday through Friday have no classes, which is very common or have one class 70 00:05:32,980 --> 00:05:40,120 on Monday, three classes on Tuesday and who knows, four classes in total on Friday. 71 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:45,320 In many of the schools I knew about, the teachers didn't even work 25 hours a week. 72 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:51,280 They were prescribed for 25 hours per week, but it depends on how the school recruits the 73 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:52,440 kids. 74 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:56,680 So there might be less hours to work in general, but you'll probably still get paid the same 75 00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:01,800 salary and as a point you can put in your contract before you sign up, but it happened very often 76 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:08,440 in China that teachers wouldn't have to teach the full 20 hours a week and as a result, a 77 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:14,840 lot of them would work two jobs at two different schools or work part time at one and full at another 78 00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:18,840 because that's still only 30 hours a week and now they're getting paid twice. 79 00:06:18,840 --> 00:06:23,960 This is a long intro of benefits in general to ESL before the actual school day schedule 80 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:28,920 I want to talk about, but it's because the actual school day is not very remarkable. 81 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:35,400 What's remarkable is how little you are actually required to work in order to get your full 82 00:06:35,400 --> 00:06:36,960 salary. 83 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:43,400 20 to 25 hour work weeks, 25 to 30 percent of that is taken up by in class breaks as well 84 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,320 as the scheduled prep time between classes. 85 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:50,680 All of the material is provided, so everything is already taken care of on the curriculum 86 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:51,680 end. 87 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,200 You'll have local faculty members and assistants who will help you wrangle the actual 88 00:06:55,200 --> 00:07:01,960 kids and parents and your salary absolutely will cover several months of living in the 89 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:09,960 country every month that you teach at those very low hours are going to pay for several 90 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:11,200 months living in that country. 91 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:17,800 So you will be saving money with way less stress and trouble than you're probably going through 92 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:19,840 an hour at your job. 93 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:26,760 Varing all of those benefits in mind, here's what my typical 45 minute class session looked 94 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,680 like, which is the norm amount of time. 95 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:36,720 So five minutes before the class, I would check what section the class learned last time, 96 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,160 open the PowerPoint for the next section. 97 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:45,080 So say last time they studied 3-3, this time I would open up 3-4 PowerPoint. 98 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:49,960 All the kids would come into class, usually 5 minutes before or right on the dot. 99 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:55,760 I'd spend about 5 minutes reviewing stuff they learned before or introduction stuff. 100 00:07:55,760 --> 00:08:00,000 Hello Cassie, she'd say hello back, great work. 101 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:01,800 How are you Charles? 102 00:08:01,800 --> 00:08:04,320 I am good, great work. 103 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:06,240 Do that for 5 minutes. 104 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:12,720 Then about 5 minutes of repeating from the PowerPoint or the textbook or flashcards, whatever 105 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,280 your classroom materials are. 106 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:17,320 Do you want spaghetti? 107 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:18,880 The kids repeat after you. 108 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:20,360 Do you want spaghetti? 109 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:21,760 Yes I do. 110 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:22,760 Yes I do. 111 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:24,040 No I don't. 112 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:25,360 No I don't. 113 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:26,760 Great, good work. 114 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:28,920 Now that's 10 minutes of the class gone. 115 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:33,400 So for the next 10 minutes, now that they've repeated the words, have them practice it with 116 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:34,640 you. 117 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,840 Marco, do you want chicken? 118 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,400 He says yes I do or no I don't. 119 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:41,400 Great. 120 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,320 Melissa, do you want a sandwich? 121 00:08:44,320 --> 00:08:45,880 Yes I do, no I don't. 122 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:46,880 Great. 123 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:48,840 Cassie, you ask Marco. 124 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:50,440 Do you want chicken? 125 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:51,440 Cassie asks. 126 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:53,600 Do you want chicken? 127 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,280 Marco says yes I do, no I don't. 128 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:57,280 Great. 129 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:01,480 Marco, you ask Melissa and that happens for the next 5 minutes. 130 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,840 Just half of the class is now over, break time. 131 00:09:04,840 --> 00:09:10,640 So chill out for 10 minutes, the kids are going to go out to the bathroom, get some water, 132 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,760 tell their mom I want chicken, something like that. 133 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:19,360 After 10 minutes, class starts up again, the assistant calls everyone back into the room. 134 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:24,520 Or what usually happened was I would say, "shankala, shankala" which is classes starting 135 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:29,700 and all the kids run back in and it's time for the second half of class, which is 10 136 00:09:29,700 --> 00:09:34,920 minutes of reading or repeating from the PowerPoint textbook or flashcards. 137 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:41,540 And then 10 minutes of practice by me asking them questions, them asking each other questions, 138 00:09:41,540 --> 00:09:44,380 or you can use an activity or a game. 139 00:09:44,380 --> 00:09:49,200 A good example is like if they're learning colors then you can say touch blue and the kids 140 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,700 will go and touch something blue in the classroom. 141 00:09:52,700 --> 00:09:53,700 Great. 142 00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:57,540 Touch yellow and the kids will run around to another classroom and touch yellow. 143 00:09:57,540 --> 00:10:02,660 So you do that for 10 minutes and then class is over. 144 00:10:02,660 --> 00:10:06,100 And that is one hour of logged work. 145 00:10:06,100 --> 00:10:14,100 Say hello to the class, repeat from the textbook, practice questions, 10 minute break, read 146 00:10:14,100 --> 00:10:19,680 from the textbook, practice questions, or a game, class is over. 147 00:10:19,680 --> 00:10:21,380 One work hour done. 148 00:10:21,380 --> 00:10:25,620 You'll usually have 15 minutes to prep if there's another class after that. 149 00:10:25,620 --> 00:10:29,180 You only have one class a day, especially during the week. 150 00:10:29,180 --> 00:10:31,680 So that might be your whole work day. 151 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:37,420 On, let's say Saturday, which is the busiest day and you have six hours of classes. 152 00:10:37,420 --> 00:10:39,700 So you'll work 10 to four. 153 00:10:39,700 --> 00:10:44,380 But each of those hours includes the 10 minute break in class and the 15 minutes of prep 154 00:10:44,380 --> 00:10:46,300 time before the next class. 155 00:10:46,300 --> 00:10:50,540 So out of those six hours that you're scheduled that day, remove an hour and a half for the 156 00:10:50,540 --> 00:10:55,580 15 minute prep time each hour and remove another 60 minutes for all the break time. 157 00:10:55,580 --> 00:11:01,780 Sometimes you have in class and you're really teaching three and a half hours out of those 158 00:11:01,780 --> 00:11:05,020 six hours that you're scheduled to work that day. 159 00:11:05,020 --> 00:11:07,460 And that's just how English schools are structured. 160 00:11:07,460 --> 00:11:10,900 They all have breaks in the middle of a 45 minute session of class. 161 00:11:10,900 --> 00:11:13,820 You always have 15 minutes between classes to prep. 162 00:11:13,820 --> 00:11:20,580 So a significant part of the 25 teaching hours you have are taken up by break times or prep 163 00:11:20,580 --> 00:11:21,900 times. 164 00:11:21,900 --> 00:11:29,620 It's not going to be a cakewalk, but it is about as easy as it sounds. 165 00:11:29,620 --> 00:11:32,140 And the routine doesn't change. 166 00:11:32,140 --> 00:11:38,220 You greet the class, 10 minutes of material, 10 minutes of activity or game, break time, 167 00:11:38,220 --> 00:11:43,060 10 minutes of material, 10 minutes of activity or game, classes over. 168 00:11:43,060 --> 00:11:47,980 So once you get the routine down, which is pretty straightforward, you're set for as long 169 00:11:47,980 --> 00:11:50,700 as you want to teach at that school. 170 00:11:50,700 --> 00:11:55,880 And if it's Wednesday or like an off day Monday through Friday, that's a whole day you showing 171 00:11:55,880 --> 00:12:02,260 up teaching for maybe 30 minutes and then, okay, guys, great work. 172 00:12:02,260 --> 00:12:07,180 And you have the rest of the day to pursue whatever you like or play video games or start 173 00:12:07,180 --> 00:12:12,980 day drinking, ride a bike to a concert, like whatever you want to do. 174 00:12:12,980 --> 00:12:14,740 Most of your days are free. 175 00:12:14,740 --> 00:12:19,860 And even Saturdays, even the busiest days, your evenings are still going to be wide open 176 00:12:19,860 --> 00:12:25,700 because classes aren't going to go past early evening, like five or six o'clock late afternoon. 177 00:12:25,700 --> 00:12:29,900 I think the latest ones I ever did ended at 8 p.m. 178 00:12:29,900 --> 00:12:31,860 But that was pretty rare. 179 00:12:31,860 --> 00:12:35,500 The other thing you might do is teach one-on-one, which is pretty common. 180 00:12:35,500 --> 00:12:40,420 I just checked one-on-one classes in Beijing and a bunch of them are still hiring. 181 00:12:40,420 --> 00:12:45,820 And they pay much more for one-on-one than they do for full-time classes. 182 00:12:45,820 --> 00:12:53,780 So they'll post advertisements in like classified sections of the Beijing or online and you can 183 00:12:53,780 --> 00:13:00,540 teach people one-on-one for four to 800 Remembee per hour, which is 50 to 100 US dollars per 184 00:13:00,540 --> 00:13:04,940 hour, like face-to-face one-on-one classes. 185 00:13:04,940 --> 00:13:07,740 And you would need to provide your own curriculum. 186 00:13:07,740 --> 00:13:14,260 But what I did when I did this was get a ESL textbook from the internet. 187 00:13:14,260 --> 00:13:19,620 There are many freely available full ESL curriculum for every age level. 188 00:13:19,620 --> 00:13:24,780 And you just choose the lesson appropriate to the level of the student you're teaching 189 00:13:24,780 --> 00:13:25,900 and block it out like that. 190 00:13:25,900 --> 00:13:28,900 OK, we'll do 10 minutes of reading comprehension. 191 00:13:28,900 --> 00:13:37,980 We'll do 10 minutes of practice, 10 minutes of writing, 10 minutes of back and forth questions, 192 00:13:37,980 --> 00:13:41,420 10 minutes of review for the material and then classes over. 193 00:13:41,420 --> 00:13:44,220 Actually, thinking about it now, my one-on-one sections were more common 194 00:13:44,220 --> 00:13:46,780 conversational, so they were even simpler. 195 00:13:46,780 --> 00:13:48,620 They usually only had three sections. 196 00:13:48,620 --> 00:13:56,620 It would be 20 minutes of reading comprehension, 20 minutes of writing, and 20 minutes of conversation. 197 00:13:56,620 --> 00:14:00,380 Or 40 minutes of conversation and no writing sometimes. 198 00:14:00,380 --> 00:14:03,340 Just have a 40 minute conversation about the material. 199 00:14:03,340 --> 00:14:08,380 I remember I was teaching through the looking glass one time and I just asked reading comprehension 200 00:14:08,380 --> 00:14:13,460 questions and what the student thought about that part of the story and what it meant 201 00:14:13,460 --> 00:14:15,740 for Alice. 202 00:14:15,740 --> 00:14:20,060 Then the class ended and you just made 50 or 100 bucks. 203 00:14:20,060 --> 00:14:27,700 And my apartment while I was living in Chengdu was $80 USD per month. 204 00:14:27,700 --> 00:14:33,540 So in one one-on-one teaching session, you could easily make your monthly rent. 205 00:14:33,540 --> 00:14:36,380 Certainly in two hours if not one. 206 00:14:36,380 --> 00:14:38,900 But that's how straight forward the process is. 207 00:14:38,900 --> 00:14:45,900 Find a good textbook online, use whatever age your one-on-one student is at, construct 208 00:14:45,900 --> 00:14:51,180 10 minute segments as long as they want to do the class or 20 minutes if it's two hours. 209 00:14:51,180 --> 00:14:52,180 Sometimes I would do that. 210 00:14:52,180 --> 00:14:57,020 We'd read for 20 minutes, do back and forth questions for 20 minutes, reading comprehension 211 00:14:57,020 --> 00:15:00,420 review for 20 minutes, and now two hours is gone. 212 00:15:00,420 --> 00:15:02,540 And you just got paid for two hours. 213 00:15:02,540 --> 00:15:08,620 ESL is such a huge industry that there are textbooks, free curriculum, everywhere that 214 00:15:08,620 --> 00:15:13,660 you can use so that you don't have to spend time making your own curriculum. 215 00:15:13,660 --> 00:15:16,860 Many schools like to develop their own curriculum? 216 00:15:16,860 --> 00:15:21,020 There doesn't seem to be any difference if you use someone else's curriculum or develop 217 00:15:21,020 --> 00:15:22,260 your own. 218 00:15:22,260 --> 00:15:24,740 The parents don't care about the brand. 219 00:15:24,740 --> 00:15:29,700 The parents care that their students are learning English in the classroom and especially 220 00:15:29,700 --> 00:15:32,340 that their children, your students are engaged. 221 00:15:32,340 --> 00:15:35,900 That's what the parents I've talked to really care about. 222 00:15:35,900 --> 00:15:41,380 Oh, speaking of that, I let them sit in on the first day of class or the first day that 223 00:15:41,380 --> 00:15:45,940 their student joins the class so that they can see how the class is run. 224 00:15:45,940 --> 00:15:49,420 But after that first day, the parents do not sit inside. 225 00:15:49,420 --> 00:15:54,460 If the class lets the parents sit inside if the school allows that, you might want to look 226 00:15:54,460 --> 00:15:58,100 at other schools because it is such a pain. 227 00:15:58,100 --> 00:16:00,860 The parents will absolutely talk in class. 228 00:16:00,860 --> 00:16:04,100 The kids will run back to their parents half the time. 229 00:16:04,100 --> 00:16:07,380 They'll be afraid to listen to you because when their parents are there, they're supposed 230 00:16:07,380 --> 00:16:08,380 to listen to their parents. 231 00:16:08,380 --> 00:16:11,500 It's a whole big mess. 232 00:16:11,500 --> 00:16:17,180 Just make sure that the parents aren't in the class except maybe for a demo session. 233 00:16:17,180 --> 00:16:19,220 This really went by so fast. 234 00:16:19,220 --> 00:16:26,660 But there's so little to actually tell you because it's one routine and so much of the 235 00:16:26,660 --> 00:16:33,260 classroom experience is that 45 minute session with younger children. 236 00:16:33,260 --> 00:16:39,060 The materials are always going to be fairly fundamental and 10 minutes material, 10 minutes 237 00:16:39,060 --> 00:16:45,340 practice, 10 minute break, 10 minutes material, 5 or 10 minutes of an activity or game. 238 00:16:45,340 --> 00:16:46,500 Class. 239 00:16:46,500 --> 00:16:54,660 They pay you money and you save money starting that month and just going on from there. 240 00:16:54,660 --> 00:16:58,220 What's so awesome too is that you're living in another country. 241 00:16:58,220 --> 00:17:02,340 It's a constantly interesting environment that you're living in, you're learning things, 242 00:17:02,340 --> 00:17:05,260 learning a new language maybe, making new friends. 243 00:17:05,260 --> 00:17:08,900 Just learning things about people that you would never guess if you only lived in one 244 00:17:08,900 --> 00:17:12,980 country's culture, even if it's a multicultural country. 245 00:17:12,980 --> 00:17:14,740 Countries feel different. 246 00:17:14,740 --> 00:17:19,580 People move different, the food is different, the architecture is different, everything is 247 00:17:19,580 --> 00:17:20,580 different. 248 00:17:20,580 --> 00:17:26,660 So while you're having this wild new experience and you have to go to work still, you're 249 00:17:26,660 --> 00:17:30,900 working probably less than half the actual hours are working now. 250 00:17:30,900 --> 00:17:35,260 You're going to be saving way more per month if you're working in most countries with 251 00:17:35,260 --> 00:17:38,380 a much lower cost of living than the US. 252 00:17:38,380 --> 00:17:44,020 It's such a better deal for so many people in the US who have to struggle to survive. 253 00:17:44,020 --> 00:17:46,620 The job itself is helpful to the students. 254 00:17:46,620 --> 00:17:50,700 It's actually giving them more opportunities in the world. 255 00:17:50,700 --> 00:17:55,840 It's great, you're learning, it's a fun adventure, and you're working way less hours and 256 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,020 saving way more money. 257 00:17:58,020 --> 00:18:04,100 Geez, this might be the whole episode because there's really not much more to it. 258 00:18:04,100 --> 00:18:13,140 Once you develop your schedule for school children versus high school children versus adults, 259 00:18:13,140 --> 00:18:17,740 and you can choose to just teach school children, which is obviously the easiest. 260 00:18:17,740 --> 00:18:18,740 You're done. 261 00:18:18,740 --> 00:18:22,180 That is a day in the life of an ESL teacher. 262 00:18:22,180 --> 00:18:26,820 And what's great is from the first day that you start that schedule and every day that 263 00:18:26,820 --> 00:18:33,380 you repeat that simple classroom schedule, you're a crewing experience. 264 00:18:33,380 --> 00:18:39,360 And every six months provide you with an immediate increase in your starting salary, in 265 00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,340 immediate starting increase to your salary. 266 00:18:42,340 --> 00:18:46,060 If you teach for a full year and you go in for a job position and be like, yeah, I've 267 00:18:46,060 --> 00:18:51,060 already been teaching for a year and they have a range of paid that they offer on the website 268 00:18:51,060 --> 00:18:55,100 or whatever, you can ask for the top pay right away if you already have a year of experience. 269 00:18:55,100 --> 00:19:00,620 If you have two, two years of experience is the maximum almost any school will ask for 270 00:19:00,620 --> 00:19:01,780 before you start teaching. 271 00:19:01,780 --> 00:19:06,980 And if you have two, you can ask for the top pay very easily and all the benefits because 272 00:19:06,980 --> 00:19:08,780 you have exactly what they need. 273 00:19:08,780 --> 00:19:14,420 They need someone comfortable in the classroom who's comfortable repeating from this textbook, 274 00:19:14,420 --> 00:19:16,740 taking breaks and then getting paid. 275 00:19:16,740 --> 00:19:19,900 And they can tell all the parents, oh yes, he already has two years of experience. 276 00:19:19,900 --> 00:19:21,540 That's huge for the school. 277 00:19:21,540 --> 00:19:25,900 If they can explain to new parents to your classroom that you've already been teaching 278 00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:27,140 for a little while. 279 00:19:27,140 --> 00:19:34,380 So any amount of experience you gain is so valuable to your future prospects and your 280 00:19:34,380 --> 00:19:39,100 immediate prospects and the benefits you receive as an ESL teacher. 281 00:19:39,100 --> 00:19:43,660 Also the contract, the maximum is going to be one year and usually it's only six months. 282 00:19:43,660 --> 00:19:49,020 And again, usually it's only a handshake deal because if it is a terrible situation, you 283 00:19:49,020 --> 00:19:54,780 can just leave the ESL thousands of jobs in each country. 284 00:19:54,780 --> 00:19:59,020 China alone has thousands of jobs available right now for ESL teachers. 285 00:19:59,020 --> 00:20:03,580 If you join a terrible school and they're treating you poorly, leave and go to a better 286 00:20:03,580 --> 00:20:04,900 school. 287 00:20:04,900 --> 00:20:06,620 Of course, talk to the people there. 288 00:20:06,620 --> 00:20:11,740 If it's a simple matter of scheduling you too much or not paying you enough, you find 289 00:20:11,740 --> 00:20:13,980 out other teachers are being paid more. 290 00:20:13,980 --> 00:20:15,380 Talk to them directly. 291 00:20:15,380 --> 00:20:16,980 Let them know what's wrong. 292 00:20:16,980 --> 00:20:18,460 Ask them to fix it. 293 00:20:18,460 --> 00:20:21,860 If they agree and fix it immediately, good. 294 00:20:21,860 --> 00:20:27,540 If they do not, hoof it because you've got job security, there's no point wasting time 295 00:20:27,540 --> 00:20:30,380 at a place that doesn't appreciate your skill set. 296 00:20:30,380 --> 00:20:34,220 Now you'll very likely have gotten offers from people when you were just walking around 297 00:20:34,220 --> 00:20:35,700 in public. 298 00:20:35,700 --> 00:20:41,340 So you can go to one of those schools or just walk into any ESL school and say, hey, I'm 299 00:20:41,340 --> 00:20:44,220 teaching at a school that is not treating me right. 300 00:20:44,220 --> 00:20:47,860 They're offering me too little pay for too many hours. 301 00:20:47,860 --> 00:20:52,580 Can you offer me less hours and more pay than this school is paying me? 302 00:20:52,580 --> 00:20:57,180 And they'll straight up tell you yes or no because all the ESL schools know that there 303 00:20:57,180 --> 00:21:01,700 are thousands of jobs available for you as a native English speaker. 304 00:21:01,700 --> 00:21:07,260 And you have your schedule like how to teach in mind so you're worth your weight in gold. 305 00:21:07,260 --> 00:21:10,860 Ten minutes material, ten minutes activity, ten minutes break, ten minutes material, ten 306 00:21:10,860 --> 00:21:14,200 minutes activity, schools out. 307 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:19,460 Once you have that schedule and you're comfortable standing in a classroom, you have all the experience 308 00:21:19,460 --> 00:21:20,460 you need. 309 00:21:20,460 --> 00:21:22,440 Yeah, I don't have much more to add on to this. 310 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:27,560 I'll go over looking for a jobs where a lot of that is applicable in another episode. 311 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:31,060 I know that can be daunting if you haven't done it before. 312 00:21:31,060 --> 00:21:34,840 So I'll go into looking for a job in much more detail and all the benefits and all that 313 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:36,040 kind of stuff. 314 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:42,520 But for now, yes, the ESL teaching schedule is that simple. 315 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:48,840 And once you learn it, you can repeat that schedule the whole time you're teaching and 316 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:52,600 it'll work and you'll get paid and you'll save money. 317 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:56,020 And if you're in China, you're guaranteed to eat good food. 318 00:21:56,020 --> 00:21:58,160 So thank you very much for listening. 319 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:04,600 I wanted to get out how simple and regimented the classroom ESL teaching schedule is because 320 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:09,520 I know it seems like, well, what does it mean to teach and all this kind of stuff? 321 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:11,000 But that's what it breaks down to. 322 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:14,520 A few 10-minute sections and then classes out. 323 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:19,280 You can talk to me at bit of a rambler at gmail.com or on all the socials, find the podcast 324 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:20,280 wherever. 325 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:21,280 Thanks for listening again. 326 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:25,080 Thanks for listening a third time and I'll talk to you next time. 327 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:45,360 [Music]