ESL Teachers Wanted, Up to $3,500/month, Bonus, Housing and Working Visa Supported

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1. What is the school’s academic calendar?

Our school year officially begins on the first Monday in September. We have three school

terms per year:

★ Fall/Winter -- September until Spring Festival (Chinese New Year);

★ Spring -- End of Spring Festival until the end of June;

★ and Summer -- July and August.

Spring Festival is tied to the lunar calendar and typically occurs in late January or early

February. Most of our students are in school all year.

Our curriculum matches the academic calendar. We typically have a new theme every

two weeks (Dinosaurs, My Neighborhood, Geography, Diversity, etc.). The Summer term

is an 8- week program tied to a single theme that builds throughout the term. We provide

the teachers with a sample of approximately two dozen activities tied to each theme, as

well as suggested books, music and flashcards.

We also teach social skills and health and hygiene skills throughout the year. We have a

schedule for these skills (brushing your teeth, working as a group, etc.) that is tied to the

curriculum. While we do have a unit tied to hand washing, for example, basic life skills

should be taught throughout the year.

2. What is the length of the contract period?

We typically offer twelve-month contracts with an option to renew for a second year. The

second year includes a re-sign incentive equivalent to one month of salary. We pay the re-
sign incentive in two installments -- half at the end of the third month of the second

annual contract, and half and the end of the ninth month of the second annual contract.

We do offer a shorter contract for teachers who wish to do other things in the summer,

with benefits and incentives pro-rated accordingly.

We also offer a second-year contract renewal program, which includes a re-sign incentive

bonus equivalent to an extra month’s salary in the second contractual year.

3. What are the lead teacher’s work hours?

The workday for a lead teacher is from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Each day there are 4 hours of

time in the classroom, 3 hours of prep and a one-hour break. The schedule is as follows:

8:30 - 9:00 Prep

9:00 - 12:00 Morning session

12:00 - 1:00 Break

1:00 - 2:30 Prep

2:30 - 3:00 Afternoon session

3:30 - 4:30 Prep

The morning session includes a class block from 9:00 - 10:00, a snack from 10:00 to 10:30, and

a second class block from 10:30 to 11:30. The children have their lunch from 11:30 to noon. A

Montessori teacher is typically comfortable with a work session of this length.

For the English and Chinese classrooms, it would be impossible to have a full hour of formal

teaching. We break the time down into shorter units. Here is a sample of what a morning

session from 9:00 a.m. to noon in an English or Chinese classroom might look like:

Drinking water 5 minutes

Circle time - greetings and songs 10 minutes

Semi-circle - new vocab and games 15 minutes

Individual work - kids use materials from the shelves 20 minutes

Story time - read a book as a group 10 minutes

Morning snack 30 minutes

Outdoors - playground time 30 minutes

Group work - crafting activity 20 minutes

Circle time - song and dance 10 minutes

Lunch 30 minutes

Teachers are welcome to eat the food served during lunch. Lead teachers have an hour of

personal time from noon until 1 p.m., followed by 90 minutes of prep time. They return to the

classroom for a one-hour class session from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and then wrap up the day with

one

hour of prep time until 4:30 p.m.

Once a week we have a one-hour staff meeting, typically from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Once a week

lead teachers are also available to meet with parents from 4:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. These

meetings are by appointment.

4. How many kids are in a class?

Each class consists of up to 18 children. Every class has a lead teacher, a bilingual co- teacher

and a caregiver. The student-teacher ratio is never more than 6:1. Because 2 or 3 children are

absent everyday, the average class size on any given day is about 15 children.

5. Who will assist me in class?

Lead teachers are paired with a co-teacher who assists during all class sessions. Our co-
teachers

are bilingual and assist in maintaining order in the classroom. Each group of students has a

caregiver whose primary role is to make sure the children use the bathroom, wash their hands,

stay safe, etc.

7. What are my workdays?

Lead teachers work from Monday to Friday or from Tuesday to Saturday. The only exceptions

are when the Chinese government moves calendar days. For example, if a Thursday is a

national holiday, the government may declare the following Friday and Saturday to be the

“weekend” and make Sunday a work day. The idea is that workers can then have a three-day

holiday.

Three times per year we have Parent-Teacher meetings in the evening. We also have afternoon

parties three times per year: Children’s Day, Halloween and Christmas. Three times per year we

have Teacher Training Days, with no students in attendance.

8. What about holidays?

China has 11 national holidays per year. In addition, teachers may take off a religious holiday

per their beliefs (e.g. Christmas, Hanukkah). Each foreign lead teacher has approximately 10

personal days of leave per year (contract dependent).

We typically ask teachers to limit their requests for consecutive personal days off to the number

of months they have worked. In other words, a teacher who has worked for 3 months can ask

for 3 consecutive days off, while a teacher who has worked for 7 months can ask for 7

consecutive days off. Exceptions are granted in extraordinary cases.

Each year China has two “Golden Weeks” where the entire country is on vacation for 7

consecutive days: one time for National Day on October 1 and a second time for Spring Festival

(late-January or early-February). Teachers often request off a week before or after a Golden

Week to allow for a two-week vacation. Other times, teachers may save their personal days to

go back to their home country for a longer vacation (e.g. two weeks for Christmas).

9. What are the students like?

Our students range in age from 2.5 to 5.5 years old. A plurality of the students are either 3 or 4

years old. Approximately 15 percent of our students come from families with at least one non-
Chinese parent.

Our class grouping is divided by English level rather than age. In a group of 3 classes, one

group typically has no real English skills beyond basic listening skills and a core vocabulary

(colors, repeated songs, numbers, etc.). The second group are advanced beginners, which

means they understand some spoken English and can use learned phrases but can not typically

create their own sentences. The third group is intermediate, meaning some of the children can

hold a basic conversation while others are more advanced.

We encourage our children to be independent and to do as much for themselves as they are

capable. That means we do not spoon fed a child who can feed himself, for example. Giving

children the confidence and space to master skills is an important part of who we are.

10. Are co-teachers and caregivers very traditional or more

progressive?

We hire staff members who are willing to worked in a multicultural environment and who are

open to more modern or “Western” ways of working with children. We do continual training so

that everyone on staff follows the same basic principles: independence, respect, openness.

11. What kind of facilities does the school have?

Each branch groups classes into sets of three rooms: English, Chinese and Montessori. We

encourage each teacher to own his or her own room and to stock the room with the learning

materials and books appropriate to their subject matter. We have an outdoor area for the kids to

play in a staggered schedule. Teachers have access to computers & printers. We strongly

encourage crafting activities over simple coloring sheets whenever possible.

12. Does the school have any special events or parties?

Each year the schools hold parties for 3 holidays: Children’s Day, Halloween and Christmas.

Children’s Day is usually a talent show: a short 15-minute play and the singing of songs learned

in class. Halloween and Christmas have three parts: a craft station, a game area and a food

area. We do field trips 3 times a year on the morning of a school day. The children go home

from the field trip and we use the afternoon for training and teambuilding.

We also have Quarterly Parent Meetings three times a year. Prior to the meeting each teacher

completes a checklist of each student’s skills and writes a couple of paragraphs about each

student’s progress over the past quarter. During the actual meeting parents are invited to school

to have one-on-one conversations with each teacher followed by a school assembly in which

each teacher gives an overview of what happened in the last quarter.