My Life as a teacher

So I am now an English teacher, and have been working for about a week. It is not too bad, and I even kinda enjoy it. I really like the other teachers I work with, most of them are local Chinese teachers, with a couple of other foreign teachers. I don't really know the other foreign teachers, as one left for three months to go back to the states, the other left of vacation, and one other new one has been working between the two centers (The school I work with has two different locations in Beijing. They are fairly close to each other, and both are close to our apartment. The one I have been working at more is closest to our apartment).

So my average day looks like this:
I get to work a little before 1pm. I have a little time in the office to prepare, then I have a couple hours of class. Then there is an 'English Corner' - a free topic time where any student can go and sit in on it, and the goal is to get them to practice more. If I don't have an English corner, I sit in the office again. Then I have a couple more classes, and go home after that, usually 7 or 8pm. About three times a week, I have a 'VIP' class for two hours, or someone who has paid a little more to have a one on one English experience. However, the center that I am working at has not been open too long, so even in the normal classes there is only between one and three students there. The good news is that if I am doing a VIP, it takes the place of a couple of hours of regular classes, so I still only teach about classes a day. One class is 50 minutes. So I am teaching about 25 hours a week, and I am supposed to be in the office for about three hours a day, for a total of about 40 hours a week. I only get paid for the teaching, but they are paying me 10,000 RMB/month (after tax) or just under 1500 USD, so it is fairly decent wage here for English teachers. Almost no school will pay you for your office hours, only for the actual teaching. The bad side about this school is that they don't have a lot of benifts yet (such as flight home), but they hope to add those on in the future.

I do follow a book in teaching English that covers a lot of topics and some basic grammar. I also get a little flexablity to divert off the page a little bit, as long as it is on topic. Basically, I try to get the students to speak as much as possible, and help them on their pronuciations.

It is not a bad job, and a lot of English teachers have it worse - I am actually teaching. Some are expected to be an entertainer while speaking English. The students that come to this school want to learn and improve their English, so at least there is that!

Chelsey has yet to find a job, it is not that she has not had offers, but just trying to find one that works best for us. We are hoping that something comes up soon for her, as time is limited. We are still trying to figure out exactly what is best for everything.

Have fun!
mikey