Will I have enough time to complete degree while teaching?

[dawie]

Hi there

I'm considering doing the CELTA course and then teaching in Korea for a few years.

I'm also busy with an LLB degree part time, and have around 2-3 years to go. It is very important for me to finish this, which I want to do while teaching overseas.

My question is regarding the time I'd have available for my studies, while teaching EFL. I have read on forums about contractual 30 hr. work-weeks, but teachers ending up working much longer than that, doing preparations, and other activities (meetings etc.). These aren't part of the initial contract.

I need at least 3-4 hours per day to study. Would this be possible, generally speaking, while being a TEFL teacher?

Thanks in advance and kind regards,

Dawie

[Lucy]

Dear Dawie,

You have really exciting and interesting plans. Good luck with them!

There are many things that teachers are expected to do outside their contracted teaching hours. You usually have a contract for teaching a certain amount of hours; you need to add to that: planning time, time for marking homework and tests, meetings. Added to this, newly-qualified teachers tend to spend more time preparing lessons than their experienced colleagues do. In some cases there is also travelling time. If you work for a school that has corporate clients, you might be asked to teach one lesson in one company and then to travel to another company to teach a second class. If you have this type of job, you can expect to spend a considerable amount of travelling between lessons.

Of course things vary from school to school and from country to country. Before taking on a job check on all the aspects above: how much time are you expected to spend on all these aspects (expect to get add a couple of hours to any answer you get!) and whether the activities outside of teaching are actually paid for (though this is not the norm).

I think 3 hours of studying a day on top of a new teaching job is very optimistic. You could also look out for a part-time job. Having said all that, I’ve never worked in Korea; you could also post your question in one of the open forums to get the opinion of teachers who are familiar with Korea.

Kind regards,

Lucy