Most training centers offer special classes in the summer and winter, between the normal semesters, that they call camps. I’m not sure why. They aren’t fun and outdoors like the camps I went to as a little kid. They’re just more boring English.
Some of these classes are the normal curriculum, just accelerated due to offering longer classes. Others are new classes that focus on some aspect of the usual curriculum. For an English training center, they may offer reading, writing, phonics, or review classes.
My Summer Classes
I, of course, don’t have any classes of my own to teach this summer, at least not till August, maybe. I’m starting to think that the training center doesn’t like me. They aren’t giving me the number of classes that they should be.
My Chinese teacher mentioned that it is partly because that evil mom complained about my teaching the first weeks I was here because she wanted free classes. But it was also partly because not enough kids signed up for classes, therefore, there aren’t enough classes to go around.
While I’m the only teacher without any classes since the semester ended, I’m not the only one without a full schedule. Several of the other teachers don’t have a full schedule, 2 classes a day, right now.
Life with no Classes
Since I have no classes and I’m a full-time teacher, they need to find something for me to do. Or, I may throw a fit, if it impacts my pay, because, usually, no classes means no money, and leave to go work elsewhere.
Luckily, they found some other projects for me to work on. But, reading a couple of the textbooks so they can have better audio for their homework program and writing up a few lesson plans isn’t all that much work. It’s definitely not enough to keep me busy while everyone else is teaching classes. Without me. Again.
In the first week of summer camp, I finished all the lesson plans, finished reading the first textbook, and got through a third of the second, and last, book.
To save my sanity, some of the Chinese teachers had some students that needed a few make-up classes and one who wanted to skip a level and needed to run through one of the textbooks to make sure the kid knows the material and is really ready for the higher level.
Between having the extra afternoon class the last week of the semester, my normal classes, and tons of make-up classes, I taught almost 50 hours in the first two weeks of July. I work enough to get just over two weeks of pay, at least.
And Then…
I also have a two-week vacation sometime in the summer, getting paid at least half my salary, but I’m taking that in August, so it’s not going to help me much in July.
To make matters worse, for me, at least, my Chinese teacher had a family emergency and wouldn’t be there to supervise me. Apparently, this means that they don’t trust me to go to work to finish reading the textbook. Or they don’t really need it.
But, to make this bad situation worse, they told me at 11:30pm at night that I didn’t need to go to work tomorrow, which I understood. Well, not the late-night notice, but that there’d be no one to let me in the building. Their solution was that I could immediately start my two-week vacation. It’s not like I already had plans or anything. It’s not like I could work the same hours as the other foreigners, as they have another 5 days of teaching, and finish reading the textbook and maybe teaching some more make-ups.
Just 12 hours after I was informed of my surprise day off/vacation, my actual employer, the folks that pay me and tell me which school to work at, decide that they need a meeting to discuss my future next semester. No details.
Like everyone else, my first thought is “what did I screw up this time?” I know my training center has a bit of a problem of too many teachers and not enough students, even with losing 3 foreign teachers at the end of July.
A few days before the meeting, the training center had a going-away party for the teachers at a very large and delicious buffet. I found out that I would be, at most, part-time at the center next semester. They, once again, don’t have enough classes for me.
But, that’s not the only reason that I’m going part-time. Some of the higher-ups have a bad impression of me from when I started and the mother of one of my students complained about me hoping to get free classes.
Guess I’ll get to see first-hand if public school is as bad as everyone says it is.
Update (kinda): So, this post was supposed to end in the last paragraph, but, before it was even posted, the training center decided that they really did want me to work there full-time next semester. The joys of working in China, where nothing is set until after it happens. Let’s see how long this decision lasts.
If you have any questions about any of the terms I’ve used, look in the glossary.
My TEFL Adventure 