5 traits of a bad Language School

 

We’ve all been there, underappreciated, overworked, badly managed, lions being lead by sheep. It can be dreadful on the mind but here are some of the truly worst traits that a Language School can possess, If you see any of them… RUN!

World Teachers’ day and fond farewells

Happy world teachers’ day to all who read this post!

It was a sad start to my world teachers’ day as my two favourite students were leaving. I didn’t think I could connect so much with elementary students: I didn’t know what we’d talk about and how we could even build a relationship, but we did, and I will miss them. They reminded me how rewarding it can be to teach elementary students and the interesting challenges that you face everyday. They’d been with me for only six weeks but it felt like just a few days. I wish they’d stayed longer but it is a very sad part of our jobs that the best and closest students all have to leave at some point. It was a sad morning and made me almost forget about world teachers’ day.

Blogging in the classroom

We’ve been blogging for a while now; we’ve had ups and downs, but overall really enjoyed the journey. The interaction with like-minded people, the trolls, the constructive feedback, and the friends, it has all been a blast. We wanted our students to experience a similar thrill, minus the trolls, so we set about setting up a blog for them.

Help your students write with ‘write and improve’

We moved back from Spain last year to England, and when we landed we were fresh out of ideas, but we settled down to a new job in Oxford, and have come across a fantastic website, that we have found very useful for students.

https://writeandimprove.com/ is a really useful tool for helping students with their writing both in and out of the classroom:

5 things to watch out for when looking at EFL job advertisements.

There are many many websites that you can browse to find the perfect TEFL job, however the sheer amount can at times be overwhelming and what may be the perfect job can descend into a nightmare quite fast. Making sure you pick the right job is make or break for any teacher and sometimes the adverts, and what you get when you arrive in your destination, can be vastly different. All jobs come with a danger of not meeting expectations but having some knowledge of what to look for and what to avoid may just be the difference between walking into a disaster and walking into a damn good time.

My most obvious piece of advice is don’t let where you want to go cloud your judgement. I’ve heard it so many times:

5 things pupils ask that you wish they wouldn’t

Welcome to students say the darndest things or should I say any EFL class anywhere. It can be a hoot and a holler teaching them to an outright existential crisis causing nightmare. Here are some of the more humorous episodes that we’ve experienced, perhaps you can relate and add some more in the comments.

Teacher Burnout

Unfortunately this term is not as common as it should be. It can affect anyone at any time and is no different to work related stress or simply being pushed too hard day after day until you break. It is in fact all too common in the EFL world as bosses push employees to their limits day in day out until they either quit or are replaced.

Everybody’s different and some are affected more than others but the toll it can take on people’s lives, no matter how small, are quite frankly unacceptable. Most bosses turn around and say if you can’t handle it then quit, others may say it’s a product of the self entitled millennials who don’t know real hard work but in a world where stress related illnesses are on the rise and where it is being spoken about more openly than ever before perhaps it is time to speak out and address the issue in our field and let employers and employees alike know that teacher burnout is very real and very damaging.

We reached out across the Facebook group sphere, these private groups where every kind of EFL teacher dwells from here to kiribati (shout out to our reader over there), to find out what some teachers thought and if they could take some spare time to answer a few questions about teacher burnout. We asked them to answer four questions and here are some of their answers we received….

EFL Interviews- The questions I like to ask

The classic tête-à-tête. The first formal meeting between employer and potential employee. They are a fundamental part of the recruitment process for any EFL teacher and can also be quite nerve-racking. Especially when the job is in a place you really want to go. Through my experiences of doing interviews for positions in Spain, Italy, Malta and England I hope to put together some questions that you should definitely ask during the interview. And I’ve had it all, from why are you asking so many questions, to why aren’t you asking enough, to even… I don’t want to answer that. Well, with some decorum and respect you can ask these questions below and, hopefully, it will help you get a better picture of what you are stepping into and, like the once bitten twice shy teacher that I am, you can avoid the trap of working for the kings of this pyramid scheme we call EFL. (a term from a comment on a previous blog I wrote that still makes me chuckle).

Part 2: Going Private in Spain

Part 2- Going private

Well, after receiving some very positive feedback from people and after also being told we are academy bots writing with the sole purpose of promoting academies in Spain, I guess it is time for part two where we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of going private in Spain.

Academies or going private- Which one to choose when teaching in Spain?

Part 1: Academies

To go private, or not to go private; that is the question. Despite the obvious Shakespeare hijack this is an issue that interests a few and scares many. The decision can determine how your academic year will play out, whether you will make money or not, and at times truly push you to the limits of your teaching and the limits of your sanity. From grumpy bosses to unrealistic students and from a comfy classroom to a busy rush hour bus, desperately trying to get from class to class. Both choices have big effects on your time, social life and enjoyment of, wherever you happen to be, in the land of opportunity, more commonly known as… Spain.