Archive for the ‘Working conditions’ Category

It’s been a while since I’ve used the TEFL hero category, and I’ve even stripped some people of the honour (and Sandy MacManus has been pretty close a couple of times), but I’m glad I kept it going because Jon Marks deserves it for saving my life yet again last term with activities from the Puzzle Time books (free sample pages here) and  IELTS Resource Pack (ditto here). He also provides several books worth of incredibly professionally produced photocopiable worksheets for free at ELTgames.com . Another reason I was glad I kept the category was because that was the reason he got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago, and possibly what buttered him up to give an interview when I suggested it. For the inside scoop on ELT publishing and how to make it there, read below:

“I believe you are a full time ELT materials writer. How did you manage to get to that much desired position?

It took a while and quite a lot of rejections. Looking back at my early stuff, I can see now why most of it was rejected. The focus was too narrow. The material would probably have worked for like-minded teachers in similar teaching situations, but that’s not what publishers are looking for.

Can you give us a brief history of how you got there- first steps, big break etc?

To begin with, I started sending ideas for books to publishers. These were rejected, but did lead to some invitations to contribute to projects that were already underway. For example, I was asked to produce half-a-dozen pages for a book called Build Your Business Vocabulary (LTP, now published by Thomson). My first full books were my Puzzle Time series for young learners (Delta Publishing). It’s often a question of luck – I happened to send some YL material to Delta at a time when they were looking to expand their list in that area. It doesn’t matter how good your book proposal is: unless it lands on the desk of a publisher who is already on the lookout for that kind of thing, the chances of getting it into print are very slim.

Why did you decide to go the full time writer route, rather than combining it with a teaching/ teacher training/ ELT management job?

I have no interest in management. I did combine writing with teaching for several years, but when the opportunity came to write full time, I took it. It seemed the logical next step for me.

Are you financially better off than you would’ve been if you’d just climbed the teaching/ management ladder?

Yes I am. The question of why most EFL teachers are so badly paid is too big to go into here, but it was certainly part of my motivation in developing my skills as writer.

Bad pay is one of our favourite subjects here at TEFLtastic! Fancy doing a whole guest piece on the topic??

Don’t get me started! Really – it makes me frustrated and angry that the life-chances of so many hard-working and talented EFL teachers are being held back by inadequate pay.

I’m guessing the stuff you do for ETP doesn’t exactly keep the wolf from the door, is it just to keep your profile up to lead to other work?

You’re correct that writing for trade journals isn’t about the money. I contribute to ETP because I enjoy it, and because there’s room for ideas which aren’t suitable for developing in other ways. I have no idea if it raises my profile. It can’t do any harm though.

Similar philosophy behind ELTgames.com? Looks like it cost a fortune to set up and can’t see how it could possibly pay!!

The website hosting costs a few dollars a year, but other than that, the cost has been zero because I did the web-design myself. One motivation was that I wanted to learn how to make websites. That was a couple of years ago, and I’ve since done several other websites. Income from the advertisements pays for the hosting, but that’s about all.

Do you think all full time writers need/ will need another skill like that?

Perhaps, but at the same time, the more specific your area of expertise, the more likely it is that people will think of you when a job needs doing. The web design is just a hobby, really. I doubt very much that I would offer my services in that area to a major publisher. They already have people for that.

How did Langwich Scool come about?

I suppose the honest answer is vanity. It was my first website, and it’s all about me, me, me!

And how did the cartoons first start?

I’ve had cartoons appearing in various minor publications regularly since I was 16. It’s an enjoyable little sideline, but to make a living as a cartoonist I’d have to be a lot more talented and dedicated. Very few people indeed can make a full-time living from cartoons.

Being able to draw must be a huge boon when it comes to getting ELT writing work. Do you think it’s worth learning for that reason?

I actually first got into materials development through drawing. I did illustrations for LTP (the independent ELT publisher mentioned above which no longer exists). Other than that, I wouldn’t say it’s been a huge boon, although in some cases it’s been helpful. As I said above regarding web design, major publishers already have people for that.

LTP seems to me to be the classic case of how the punters suffer when a big publisher swallows a smaller one- distinctive books written and sold by people who are dedicated to them replaced by an amorphous mass of new editions with the good stuff lost in the mush. Agree? Same for writers?

I do agree. LTP books were distinctive and innovative. A blandness and one-size-fits all ethic characterises much ELT publishing these days, and it’s not getting any easier for independent publishers to complete against the marketing might of the big names. However, there are still plenty of independent publishers around, and many of them are very successful at providing materials for more specific needs than the big names tend to cater for.

Haven’t seen a book from a UK-based publisher from you for a while. No plans?

I’m currently developing a series of books for a Korean publisher. I haven’t really thought beyond that.

Do/ will all full time writers need to cast their net wider in that way?

EFL teachers have been writing books for the domestic markets of their adopted countries since the beginning of ELT publishing. All that’s changed perhaps, is that the internet makes it easier to write for the domestic markets of other countries as well.

How do you approach writing books for a country/ age range/ type of teaching you don’t have any/ much experience with?

I don’t think the country issue is a major factor: you can research the background. I haven’t yet been invited to write materials for an age range or type of teaching I haven’t experienced personally. I would be very cautious about doing that.

How much does TEFL theory influence your materials?

As a writer you have to keep abreast of the main developments in methodology, although you don’t necessarily have to incorporate them all into your work. Some writers are very committed to one particular methodology. Others take a more general mix-and-match approach, and I’m very much in that camp.

Any room for PPP?

Did it ever really go away? My guess is that in the majority of ELT classrooms something at least loosely resembling PPP is done on a regular basis. I suspect that many teachers actually bring elements of PPP into play when using printed materials even when the writers have assiduously avoided that approach.

Any particular books, writers or other people influenced you?

A key part of the process of becoming an ELT writer is using books in the classroom and evaluating them as you go along – noticing what seems to work well and what doesn’t work so well. In that respect, all the books I’ve used have influenced me, even the ones I didn’t like very much.

How have you seen ELT publishing change since you started writing? Are those good or bad things?

It’s much harder to find a market for supplementary communication activities (principally photocopiable resource books), because there’s so much stuff available for free on the internet. Not all the material on the internet is great, but then nor is all the material in photocopiable resource books. It pains me to say it as a writer-for-hire, but I think the explosion of free material on the internet is a good thing on the whole. It benefits teachers and students alike.

Any predictions for the future of ELT publishing?

A pretty obvious one: more online learning and online delivery of teaching materials.

Is it possible for someone who doesn’t teach to write materials for classroom use?

Good question. The majority of ELT books on the market are written by full-time or nearly full-time writers. We certainly need to be aware of the risk of getting out-of-touch with the realities of the classroom, and it’s helpful to do some teaching whenever circumstances allow.

How did you end doing a series of books for young learners and a book for IELTS?

Both are exam related – the young learner books are based on the Cambridge Young Learners English Tests. I seem to like writing for exam preparation, for some reason.

Best and worst ELT publishing experiences?

Pretty much everything I’ve done has come with both frustrations and rewards. You just hope that there will be more of the latter than the former.

What kind of person would make a happy and successful full time ELT writer?

Somebody who genuinely wants to do this type of work and who is content with the lifestyle that goes with it: freedom, a reasonable amount of creative satisfaction but not a lot of social contact.

Any advice for those that want to get to that point?

Save as much money as you can. There will almost inevitably be periods when you have little or no work, and you’ll need a financial buffer to get through those.

Not tempted to get in on the TEFL blog thing?

No. Perhaps my websites are a kind of blog in their way – my ideas on the internet.

Favourite and least favourite TEFL books and why

I liked the original OUP English File series a lot – fresh, versatile and it even had a few sly jokes in it. I think it’s still available, although New English File (inferior, in my opinion) has been around for a while. I’m not a fan of material which requires elaborate preparation. Regardless of whether it’ll work, it just not realistic to expect teachers to spend hours making or acquiring props beforehand.

What kind of books etc would you write if you had no restrictions from the publishers?

More material aimed at students who are intellectually engaged with the Arts, current affairs, Science, Philosophy etc. I understand why so much ELT material assumes a rather limited frame of reference, but such material can be dull for the livelier-minded student.

Not tempted by self publishing?

Yes and no. Producing the books would be fairly straightforward and enjoyable. Dealing with marketing and distribution somewhat less so. Ask me again in a couple of years…

An Interview with Karenne of Kalinago English, part 3

What are your predictions for the future of TEFL?

Difficult.

There are radical changes going on in education, in general, globally. The TEFL industry will either catch up on some of these shifts or someone else will.

By that, in particular, I am referring to the edu-social-networking sites who are actually run purely by marketers and business people who have no idea how languages are learned: but have a critical mass of global members.

It is very difficult to predict how quickly the internet and computer ownership will spread across the globe, so it’s difficult to say for how much longer textbooks will be used.

I wouldn’t put it at more than 10 – 15 years though.

In terms of teaching, well, I hope for more professionalism –that’s not so much a prediction as a wish.

How can TEFL teachers improve their pay, conditions, job security, status etc?

What a person is paid is a choice like all other choices in life.

My clients don’t question my knowledge of teaching English – or my IT knowledge and I am paid well because I am worth what I charge.

TEFL teachers can improve their lot by simply becoming specialists, in any niche of English but also, in things like using technology effectively: before the institutes are able to react.

At the moment so few provide real training in this area – clearly watching over their budgets – so a little time spent in self-training or a good financial investment with experts – could easily give anyone a competitive edge.

An example, you know the Ning I set up for us bloggers to talk to each other – well, the learning that came from creating that, coupled with the blog I write for students (currently being reformatted and relaunched) led to me getting an enormous contract, beating out 3 language institutions despite me being a small trader: through the Ning for my new client, I am able to provide a way for students to communicate with each other and continue learning outside the classroom.

As a result I didn’t have to pitch at a lower price (the opposite, I was the 2nd highest bid) my proposal aimed for quality over well, let’s face it, the type of teachers the institutes could provide to this sector: teachers with little experience in IT or those way too afraid to try out turning on a data projector.

Arrogant of me? No. If you are the expert in the room, you can always ask for more money.

Many in ELT shoot themselves in the foot. In their need for job security, they accept the low salaries offered. The bother of specializing, the time it does take to read and practice and develop is seemingly too much, they’d rather grab another beer.

But sitting in the pub whingeing about not making money is a fool’s game.

If TEFL teachers want to improve their pay, then they simply have to improve their game: they have to take themselves seriously and be professional.

Would you join a TEFL union if you had the choice? How about paying into a TEFL legal fund?

Depends on who was running it.

Unions can be such stagnant and ineffective beasts when they’re run by idealists and volunteers.

The right people in charge who have a good understanding of what it costs to run a business (because some teachers aren’t aware that electricity, rent and taxes have to be paid which is why they can’t earn 100% of the fees charged) and a good working knowledge of the market (because too many institutes take advantage of teacher’s charitable natures and rob them blindly) coupled with the power and weight to carry out the changes that need to be made – then yes, gladly.

Tell me where to sign-up.

Regarding the TEFL legal fund… it should be run as a foundation perhaps, funded by one of the certifying body of language institutions themselves.

What do you think that IATEFL, TESOL and other teaching associations should be campaigning? If so, what should their main focus be on?

The above. Clever questions, how tricky of you to lead me here, Alex – I know you , Sara Hannam, Marxist ELF and quite a few others have been thinking quite deeply about these issues.

What should they be campaigning?

Professionalism, first.

Not just in terms of making sure teachers are certified in teaching, eliminating the “I have doubly majored in philosophy and marketing so of course I have the skills to teach English to little children” or the “I’m bored of sitting at home knitting so maybe I’ll just go teach a CEO how to give a powerpoint presentation despite the fact the only office I have visited in the last 20 years was my husband’s auditing home-office and I have no idea what a meeting even looks like” type of teachers.

Of course, then, professionalism in the business of certifications for teaching will also need to be looked into, getting rid of those who inevitably are just about making yet more money – because, ha, anyone can learn how to teach English in a weekend.

In my not so very humble opinion, part of the problem is that:

A community which works together, functionally, must be fully supportive of the members and must also be able to take care of its own.

It cannot be only words on a page, it cannot be made up of loosely connected individuals casually contributing, gathering and networking, can not just be about our educational development but should also have an actionable charter dedicated to making the quality of our lives better.

The associations should take on much more cleaning-up responsibility – such as the legal fund you mentioned, the professionalism I call for, the global battle cry for better pay for all TEFL teachers, Non Native equality with the Native English Speakers – however this does require both marketing and money.

And work.

Whenever you have an organization or an association run by mainly idealistic volunteers (10 years in non-profit work, me) and sorry to be so blunt, including ambitious persons looking for personal career development rather than having a real commitment to the industry, rather than with “employees” paid to put charters forward, then it will never ever achieve the level of power to cause effective change because it will constantly be in debt to those who give the money to exist in the first place.

If a good chunk of the funding to host conferences comes from ELT publishers, monolithic institutions or certifying bodies, then it simply has no option but to keep them happy, providing time and space, no matter what level of quality is given in return.

It must dance to the tune of its devils.

If an association wants to be independent of such influence (or even just create a balance in the voices) then it must attract more paying members or solicit more funding from within the existing membership list.

I mean let’s face it, what percentage of TEFL teachers, globally, belong to a teaching association, either locally or internationally?

Why do you have to pay separate fees to local and international associations – why are they not linked?

How do you convince more members to join such associations when many teachers think that they are mostly about catering to their sponsors and can clearly see that they are not unified global bodies?

How on earth do you convince people to pay more for their membership?

Something really worth paying for must be offered.

More than a magazine subscription and good/bad workshops: it must offer to take care of its internationally certified professional members no matter what corner of the globe they are currently living in – medically, legally, provide insurances against disasters and aid getting out of them.

It must campaign on important issues, shake-up in the industry when it needs a good shake: we TEFL teachers drive globalization, we deserve the recognition of any industry making such a global impact.

It is only when these issues appear on the agenda of the TEFL teaching associations that any of these changes have any hope of occurring.

Who is your favourite blogger?

You are, Alex. Thanks for giving and teaching me so much over the last years. Now get your butt in BELTfree and help your community.

Or actually, it is perhaps better to ask “often better or often worse”, as we can only choose from the options we have available (as in my usual Dip post obs litany “Yes, you can criticise my lesson, Ms DELTA tutor, but I asked you for better ideas on how to do this before I wrote my lesson plan, and you had none!”)

 One obvious answer to the problems we do see in the private ed TEFL world would be for more of TEFL to be taken under the control over various governmental and intergovernmental organisations, so let’s compare private and public TEFL in a “BT might be shit now, but it was really really shit as a nationalised company in the 70s” kinda way:

- Even the worst schools I have worked in have compared reasonably well in academic standards to my secondary school and university, and I have heard of few places worse than South Bank College, where I made the mistake of enrolling in A Level French evening classes (I’ll regale you with the whole story some time- it’s a long one). Ditto with comparing the standards of teaching in private language schools and state primary schools I have worked in

- My EU students in London who fled from private language schools had one good thing to say about the further education colleges they went to- they are cheap. In other words, they had an education subsidized by British tax payers, got a worse education, went back home with a worse (i.e. real) impression of what British education is like and didn’t put any money into the economy. All that, and apparently that is exactly what put the well-respected Swan School out of business

- I learnt very little from reading the first half of The Oxford ESOL Handbook, in fact it often seemed more like an Oxford Basics book than The Practice of English Teaching and it states in several places that ESOL has much to learn from TEFL

- Several requests for information about teaching in universities in Japan as compared to private language schools (made as the teachers in universities are apparently a different breed as they have MAs) resulted each time in a litany of “long holidays” and “job security” and the occasional “got my own office”, and not one single positive thing about teaching standards or professional development

- The tests from Cambridge ESOL and (especially) ETSmight leave a lot to be desired, but half the reason they were so successful is that the government owned tests in most countries are much much worse (e.g. JPLT in Japan, whatever the multilanguage tests all the students in Spain take before fleeing to FCE are called)

- The training organisations that seem less commercial and ambitious in terms of expansion (e.g. Trinity) don’t seem to produce any better training than some others that are more so (e.g. Cambridge)

- Ditto for publishers (Delta Publishing are heroes for publishing things that others wouldn’t, but in the books you can directly compare to OUP like business skills ones and Primary textbooks they no longer shine so bright)

Running out of ideas and time before catching up on sleep, so any comments from any others very welcome. Thatcher was bad but Hugo Chavez is no better? Any other evidence for and against? And what are the other options? Same public/ private split but more government regulation of the private sector ala attempts to cut banking bonuses? Cooperatives? Really non profit making non profit making TEFL organisations? Profit sharing? Joint teacher and management ownership? Same capitalism but unions so we can screw every penny we can out of them? Every single one of us go self-employed?

So, basically, until someone tells me exactly what we are missing out on, I’ll keep pointing out the crappy bits of our industry, whilst not complaining too much that that is what it is (an industry).

Or am I perhaps just feeling all positive about life for once for no particular reason? (Regular readers might have theories on why that should be…)

PS, if anyone is suddenly rethinking their estimate of my politics after this little rant/ musing, I am and shall remain a card carrying Confused Socialist/ Socialist in Search of Something to Believe In.

This is prompted by comments on my How can we increase TEFL pay? post and Sara Hannam’s TEFL unions/ solidarity post, and also by the feeling that it is one thing getting stumped for an answer to “1, 2, 3, 4, what the hell are we fighting for?” but quite another to not even understand the question by not knowing who “we” are. If I can also dig myself out of yet another seeming case of NEST bias too, then all the better.

I want to start by asking people to answer this question just as it stands, specifically leaving the word “should” until at least a little later. After several attempts to do so myself, I found that the best approach was to see solidarity as circles within circles. And here are mine as an example:

I personally feel most solidarity with foreign teachers (native or non native equally!) in the country I am presently in or countries I have taken a great interest in (because I was there a long time etc), especially teachers who have gone down a similar route- CELTA or equivalent, mainly private language schools, thinking about doing a Dip if they are still in the game that long. On the edge of that inner ring but still in it would be teachers who are from the country I am teaching in but who have taken a similar route.

The next ring would be people who have all that in common, but are just in countries I have no particular attachment to or knowledge of.

The next ring would be state school etc teachers from the country I am in who I have nothing in common with in terms of job security or wages (usually to their benefit, but occasionally to mine) but who are on the same side of the fence when it comes to government policies and reforms on English language and education more generally. A totally different group who would also probably make it into that second ring are people who did pre-experience MAs in TESOL and have probably spent or are planning to spend most of their careers in universities.

After that would be anyone who feels totally underequipped to teach English and so are desperately searching around for anything to make it better.

And that would be the outermost circle worth mentioning. Have already started writing up what it might mean, but would like to hear others answer “Who do you feel solidarity with?” (in any way you like) first.

As we don’t seem to have made all TEFLers better paid just by blogging about it (what is wrong with this world???), here are some tips I have been collecting from other teachers and TEFL blogs and forums over the years on how to make the money that you do have stretch:

1. You can easily make bead curtains and washing lines from paperclips taken from school

2. Rubber bands and a piece of cardboard make a great replacement for a fan for your teacher’s accommodation

3. Rubber bands can also be used as a replacement for a dartboard if you wish to set up your flat as a venue for other teachers who can’t afford to drink in pubs. In that case, sniffing Tippex and the ink from permanent markers is a good replacement for alcohol (leave actually drinking of these liquids just for special occasions)

4. Take at least 10 small empty mineral water bottles into the school and every time you fill one up from the mineral water dispenser secretly swap it with another empty one from your bag. That way, when you carry them all home you’ll have enough to wash up and flush the toilet a couple of times a week, even when your own water supply is cut off.

5. Make the last cup of tea or coffee of the day in your vacuum mug actually just a cup of hot water, and use that to shower when you get home. As with the mineral water above, using several during the day can really add up! In a similar way, putting creamer, milk, a tea bag or some instant coffee into your mug and then only pretending to pour water into it means that you can easily take the ingredients back home.

6. Shredded school documents, e.g. CVs of all the teachers who turned down jobs there once they realised what it was really like, can easily be made into a pillow by stuffing them into two A3 pieces of paper stapled together

7. Wear a pad filled with charcoal between your trousers and your arse and spend every moment you can in school leaning against the radiator. The heat the charcoal absorbs should keep you warm for at least the first half hour back home

8. Put similar charcoal-stuffed cushions on your students’ chairs, then take them home and use the accumulated body heat to warm up your mattress

9. Microwave your dinner and rush it home to eat. Doing the same with your breakfast and wrapping it in 16 layers of aluminium foil has also been known to work.

10. While you are in lessons, leave your mobile phone’s camera videoing the TV in reception and then watch the recording when you get home as a replacement for having a TV yourself. Alternatively, record your most incomprehensible student on the school Dictaphone and listen to that in the evenings until you work out what he or she was trying to say

11. Collect student mistakes and use them as a replacement for TV comedy and Bill Bryson books

12. Microwave a hot water bottle, rush it back home and stick it in your bed

13. Use water soluble whiteboard pens as a replacement for make up

14. Cover your bag, textbooks etc with those fluorescent star things and use them for lighting when you get back home

15. Use the (for some reason always C&W style) songs in Headway as a replacement for karaoke. Even better, young learner songs often have a version with no lyrics to sing along to.

16. Sell all the textbooks your school gives you for each term and then buy much more bashed up second hand copies to replace them

17. Carry all your textbooks and marking back home every day as a replacement for going to the gym. You could also try wearing wrist and ankle weights in class (available from pound shops), making writing on the board a real workout!

18. Virtually every kind of furniture can be made from empty photocopy boxes, although I have only tried bookshelves, a wardrobe and a sofa myself.

19. Take home the cardboard clocks that teachers use for teaching the time and a stopwatch that they use for races. Set the cardboard clock at the right time as you leave the school, then add the time it probably took you to get home. Start the stopwatch, and you can work out the real time for the next 12 hours by adding the numbers on the stopwatch to the time on the cardboard clock. The same thing works with an egg timer in place of a stopwatch, making a notch on the door each time you have to turn it over.

20. Using the puppets from YL classes in a box cut out to look like a TV can be a great replacement for the real thing

21. Sleep with other teachers for warmth

22. Print out the whole of Wikipedia on the school printers and use that as reading matter

23. Use three layers of tissue when helping the kindy kids to wipe their nose, drool etc and put them in your pocket. Once you have thrown away the top layer you will have two perfectly serviceable tissues left. Alternatively, use kitchen roll rather than tissue and just rip off the bit that got soiled and use the rest.

24. Pretend to wash your hands right at the end of the day and preserve the soap in your left hand until you get home, to be used as shampoo or washing up liquid

25. Record your lessons on video and use the tapes as a replacement for Blockbusters

26. Record your lessons on the school Dictaphone or the classroom’s tape recorder and use the school’s collection of TEFL songs and baroque music as much as you can in the class, then fast forward through the tape when you get home so that you can play just the musical bits during romantic meals for two

More ideas (e.g. how to make nappies out of classroom supplies) gratefully accepted.

If you liked this…

…maybe you need to get out more! Alternatively, you could try these

THE MOST TEFLTASTIC ATTEMPTS AT HUMOUR

Coming soon- Money making tips for TEFLers

The question in the last blog post ”Does better pay lead to better teaching?” seems more or less agreed on- maybe, but probably less so than other ways of investing that money and anyway we can never prove it well enough that companies will pay any attention to that conclusion (please continue that discussion there rather than here if you want to dispute that).  The obvious next question is therefore one that is posted there some way down the comments section- how else can we make general TEFL pay go up then? Here is my brainstorm on the matter (mainly concentrating on private language schools- working on another whole post explaining why!):

- Form a union and go on strike, first making sure that the school can’t just sack you all and replace you with another boatload of even cheaper teachers

- Embarrass or in other ways ruin the business of schools that pay badly

- Cut down on the supply of TEFL teachers going to private language schools, e.g. by using TEFL forums and articles in newspapers back home to persuade as many people as possible (especially underqualified ones who will really undercut us) to think again, by refusing to be a teacher trainer for new teachers, by setting up an organisation to help TEFL teachers find other jobs, or by all becoming freelance

- Persuade TEFL course providers to think more carefully about pay when recommending jobs to their “graduates”

- Set up schools based on the principle of well paid teachers being worth the investment (as a partnership, cooperative etc if you prefer) in the hope that it works and puts the badly paid schools out of business or makes them try to steal your business model

- Persuade our students and prospective students that well paid teachers (usually meaning more expensive lessons) are worth it and teach them how to find the right ones, e.g. by writing newspaper articles on the topic (probably in their L1)

- Persuade governments or accrediting agencies to set national minimum wages for teachers in private language schools

- Persuade governments or accrediting agencies to set higher minimum qualifications etc for teachers in private language schools- preferably making those qualifications difficult and expensive to obtain to make as few people as possible get them

- Keeping and expanding any other restictions on teachers getting visas and being allowed to teach, e.g. by age, first language, country where degree is from, degree subjects (that’s me out of a job!), or need to speak the local language

- All decamp to the best paying countries or jobs, or persuade new teachers to do so, e.g. by ignoring schools which are good for self development but crap for pay packet (e.g. many IH schools)

- Advertise how bad really badly paid jobs are and what better options are available, so teachers (especially new teachers) don’t take badly paid jobs due to ignorance and therefore undercut the rest of us

- Develop a kind of teacher training that makes fully trained teachers more financially valuable to their schools (no idea what that could be as yet)

- Do or fund research that proves that better paid teachers more than make back the money they cost their schools

- Persuade even more people to learn English

- Persuade people to take more classes that they are likely to pay more for, e.g. exam classes and business classes

- Invest our wages in the shares of the companies we work for

Like I said, purely 10 minutes of brainstorming rather than a recommendation of any of those ideas. That being the case, probably better to start off with more ideas and shoot these down later, but frankly I’ll take all the comments I can get!

I’m not talking about schools offering better pay and therefore being able to recruit better teachers, because if the whole industry got the standards that we occasionally demand that wouldn’t work. What I want to discuss is a school giving its teachers a decent living wage and seeing that magically transform its staffroom into one full of happy and unstressed and therefore productive and professional teachers, ones that keep the students coming back even when they have to pay more to keep those better wages coming. People keep on saying that is what schools should morally be doing, and many even say that it would make better long term business sense. My philosophical reading started and stopped with Betrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy, so I’ll stick to the second part of that by now. To put it a different way, is the lack of job security and pay really having a substantial impact on our industry for reasons such as an inability to attract and keep good staff in the industry, teachers teaching badly due to anger at how they are being treated at paid, people not getting good inital training and CPD because they know they’ll never get that investment of time and money back etc? Or a third way- take a teacher who is badly paid and move him to a school where he is better paid, and does he suddenly or even eventually start teaching better due to the direct influence of that?

As Jason of English Raven recently pointed out, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of better pay leading to better teaching in terms of the standards of teaching in countries that do pay well, e.g. comparing teaching standards vs living standards in Spain and Korea or Turkey and the “real Middle East”. There are obviously plenty of things that could be outweighing the influence of money and therefore hiding the effect of decent pay (e.g. the unfortunate number of Canadians in Korea*), but if we want to prove that we as an industry (rather than as individuals) deserve a decent living wage as standard then the burden of proof is on us to prove that it makes business and educational sense to put the money on that rather than marketing, computer technology or keeping prices down. I really can’t offer any proof at all.

To put it another way, does anyone really believe that it would make more short or long term business sense for Wall Street, EF, Berlitz etc to pay their teachers more? And if not, how else are we going to make them do so? And if we can’t make them do so, what is to stop them and others like them undercutting the schools we work for by 50% (without necessarily offering education that is only half as good)?

* Joke!

A brief recent clash with Jason Renshaw over whether something is rotten in the state of TEFL (my answer- yes, but no worse than the rest of this crazy world), reminded me of our only other disagreement about what he called “the smeagol teachers who turn up five minutes before work and rip out 5-10 wordfinds and worksheets as their version of preparing for a day’s classes”. Although it seems to be behind me, I have worked with and supervised people like this before, and although I saw it as a problem that needed to be tackled rather than something you just throw up your hands in defeat about, it never annoyed me. Here are some possible reasons why:

- Does teachers paid at or under the national minimum wage (summer school teachers in the UK) or less than teachers 10 years ago still working as hard as they possibly can and paying for their own materials and teacher development improve the industry, or will paying peanuts and getting monkeys finally teach schools that they get what they pay for?

- Makes the rest of us look good

- I’ve had days or even weeks when I really couldn’t be bothered and so just used my greatest hits with minimal extra preparation. If I’d never made any greatest hits, obviously I’d be using the first acceptable thing I found instead. And if I had that feeling every day for years, would I really respond differently to the TEFL dossers?

- The main reason I write worksheets is that I find it rewarding. The main reason I make sure my classes go well is that I hate the feeling of them going badly. If I didn’t have those selfish motivations, would I plan as much as now, or would I avoid it the way I now avoid paperwork?

- If I’d done a bit more partying when I was a new TEFL teacher, maybe I would’ve learnt enough to avoid teaching with a hangover at all last year!

- I can hardly claim to have found the secret to health, wealth and happiness, so I have no philosophical justification in criticising people who take the complete opposite approach to work and life (see The Unbearable Lightness of Being for more details)

From July’s MET, and now here on my “CPD portfolio”*

The aptly named article “CPD” by Keith Harding has some interesting ideas I hadn’t come across like a Self-SWOT Analysis and a snap-shot observation, but the really weighty matters are dealt with by Dan Humm Soriano in “Why and How to Change Continuing Professional Development in ELT”. The nub of the problem is, according to Dan:

“For TEFLI teachers to undertake a TEFLQ qualification [such as the Cambridge DELTA], they are obliged to have at least two years’ experience. But with no guidelines on how those magically transformative years must be spent, they could be two years of any form of experience [including] two years spent dumped in a school with no support at all”

and with pay being based solely on how many years you have taught and possibly on how many years you have stayed at one school, rather than what you have done over those years:

“the overall message of this system is that aside from studying for a TEFLQ, the surest way to make the most money is to stay put and put the years in”

You’ll have to read the article to find out what solution he found for his school and for ours, but am happy to hear your thoughts, and here are my various thoughts on CPD:

The Advanced TEFL Certificate (remarkably similar to his ideas, I think you’ll find)

15 criteria of a good TEFL workshop

Common complaints about TEFL workshops

Previous blog posts on CPD

Other interesting nuggets from the same article:

“the six skills believed [by DoSes] to be believed to be lacking in teachers where phonology (68% of respondents), correction techniques (50%), grammar awareness, lesson or syllabus design, and board usage”

and

“Peer assessment as opposed to assessment by superiors has been found to have a highly beneficial effect on training. Sluijsmans et al (2002) found that trainees who peer assessed each other… scored higher than control [trainees]”

Btw, there is now a cheaper online only subscription of MET for those who can bear to spend more time on their computers just to save a couple of bob (although bizarrely, the details of that are in the paper magazine but not on the website!) As for me, I’ll be sticking to paper, sweet paper…

* What a teacher’s blog could be, according to the first of those two articles

If teaching is more important than saving money or accommodation being included, the first thing to do when choosing a summer school is to avoid actual summer schools altogether. If I was in the same position of looking for a few weeks or months of work in the UK again, these would be my preferred options in order:

1. A university pre-sessional course (making sure that it is actually run by the university rather than being hived out to a subcontractor or, worst of all, being a totally separate summer school that just happens to be using that building. Note also that wages seem to be going down rapidly for these jobs)

2. A regular all year school rather than any kind of temporary centre, and if not a centre that is connected to a permanent one (these might be able to find you accommodation in a student house, for better or worse, if having somewhere to stay is one of the selling points of a residential summer school).

3. A summer school in another country, e.g. British Council summer school or even a summer camp. I did one in Turkey for 25 pounds a week (plus bed and board and beach) and it was still a better experience than doing one in the UK

If none of those are possible or desirable

4. A non-residential summer school

Having said all that, being restricted to quarters like a solider under court-martial is a great way of saving money even when the pay is less than other summer school options. So, if that is your preferred option, look out for these:

5. A summer school connected to a permanent school that is British Council accredited (the British Council summer school accreditation is much much less demanding)

6. A summer school with managers that have come from the main centre rather than been recruited especially

7. A summer school that asks for TEFL qualifications for all teachers (mine had PE teachers who also had to teach English)

8. A summer school with the same DoS as last year

Other things you might want to consider

-How many weeks they can offer and maybe guarantee, and maybe if past August is possible

-How much notice you have to give to quit (in case you get offered a September job at short notice)

-Food

-How many people you will be sharing a room with

-Transport connections

-Whether it will be possible to do anything or get out of there during your minimal time off

- Having to wear school T shirts and take groups of 15 kids with identical backpacks around London museums

Things that mean nothing

-The building it is in, e.g. being based in a well known or expensive private school or Oxbridge college

-How much they charge the students

-A well known name

-Size

Ways of making sure you can get the better jobs

Diploma or MA, or if not a B in your CELTA

First aid or lifesaving certs

Sources on summer schools (can’t comment on the accuracy on individual schools, but gives you an idea of what to try and avoid generally)

TEFL Blacklist on AEST

TEFL Blacklist on EF College Oxford

The TEFL Tradesman- How to double your money at summer school

The TEFL Tradesman- Summer school Saturnalia Revisited

EL Gazette (totally viewable for free online- lots of stories of being paid under the national minimum wage etc recently)

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This post was a special request from a reader, so have tried my best despite only having done one UK summer school myself. Other requests or suggestions for the topics of posts gratefully accepted- just leave a comment here or email me through the “Contact me” button. Would also of course be interested in your own recommendations and warnings re summer schools below.