One of the major reasons I wanted to become an English teacher and move abroad was to begin a different pace and style of life. Not the Monday to Friday, 9-5 crap. When I began teaching I was working like a horse but finally, since March this year, I 've managed to work a 4 day week.It's important to remember, that in Poland, you'll have many national holidays which will result in more leisurely working hours but here's a few tips if you want to have only 4 days working, every week and still earn the money you need.
1. Prioritise yourself - Forget your students, forget your job, your number one priority should be yourself. You're a hard working, competent, English teacher. If you want Monday off every week bus Kasia can only have lessons on Monday morning, 'Sorry Kasia, you better start searching on nativespeaker.pl' and don't feel guilty about acting this way!
2. Pick your third day off and stick to it - If you want to have Monday off, have Monday off. Every single week. If you work one Monday, students and schools will start to be clever and nag you to work on Mondays.
3. The secret 4th day off - Actually I spend 4 days at home during the week but one day is specifically for planning lessons. One of my earliest mistakes in cutting my work load was talking myself into believing my planning day was also another day off. Don't fall for it. You still need to prepare good lessons and this takes time.
4. Treasure midday students - People who have lessons early morning or late evening should be your least important students because they are so easily replaceable. Anybody who can string two or three words together in English could find students early in the morning or evening. However those precious students you find that can have lessons during the middle of the day, you should bend over backwards for because they are the most difficult to find. My advice is to advertise or ask around amongst university lecturers. This is the demographic which I teach the most midday.
5. Think of how to use your extra day - Just because you've got an extra day off, what are you going to do with it? For me it's Ukrainian and learning to do DIY, it's most definitely not spending time on the Internet....
My week looks like this at the moment:
Monday - Off
Tuesday- Planning day (work at home)
Wednesday - 7 hrs in class
Thursday - 8 hrs in class
Friday - 7hrs in class
It might sound cruel to be so ruthless with students and I know all relationships (including student/teacher) should be give and take but nevertheless, I try to follow these rules and stick to them because I know for my long term motivation and willingness to teach, it's crucial to have a little more beer time as an English teacher.
Thanks you've cristallised a fair few thoughts of mine. I take it you teach in Wroclaw? What's your opinion on the supply of teachers vs. the demand of students? Also, I wonder what happens in the Summer - do a lot of university students leave to go home?
ReplyDeleteIn addition it's my observation that a lot of Polish people in western Poland speak much better English than in Eastern Poland - is that something you'd agree with?
Cheers!
Paddy
@Paddy, yeah I teach in Wro and I also think the supply and demand of teachers is still in favour of the teachers. What's it like in your neck of the woods?
ReplyDeleteAs for the East/West thing, I've not noticed it but what I do know is the quality of teaching is apparently worse in the East, fewer natives I think.
I know two girls who came to live in Wro simply to learn English. They said it was difficult to find good natives in Przemysl.
crazy!
Yes I did the same in Slovakia. I made about 1,000 euro a month just working 4 days and NOT full days. Life was sweet, easy and fun. NOw in Moscow I don't work much (not by my choice) and hate it.
ReplyDeleteI teach one rich kid for 90 mins X 2 per week and get 200 euro a week.
I think your are cool to do what you do, work to live don't live to work and enjoy life!!
It's fairly hard to judge (supply n demand) but I would definitely say there are a lot of bad teachers. I've heard various anecdotal stories of teachers who are Poles advertising as native speakers and other teachers falling asleep in classes etc. But that probably happens everywhere!
ReplyDeleteDemand from corporates is still high here, which surprises me after so many years of cost saving.
I can't say I want to be teaching for ever - a maximum 12 more months. But I know I will miss the opportunity to work less hours, take walks whenever I want, and travel and meet so many different people, rather than being confined to an air conditioned office with the same faces which is what, sigh, inevitably awaits me.
@ Paddy
ReplyDelete"But I know I will miss the opportunity to work less hours, take walks whenever I want, and travel and meet so many different people, rather than being confined to an air conditioned office with the same faces which is what, sigh, inevitably awaits me." - this is exactly why I'll do it forever! I might just change the country every now and then!
@EMIM - Cheers mate. How's the rich kid? I assume brattish?
Because I'm pretty much here long-term I've been thinking about my options. The more I hear about other people's work the luckier I think I am. I work 3 days a week a stone's throw away from my apartment.
ReplyDeleteI usually prepare for an hour before I leave, I leave at 2.30pm, teach from 3.30 to 8.20pm, do a bit of paper work and am home at 8.45pm. On Wednesday I leave at 2.30pm and have a 35 min trip to work via metro and 1 bus, where of course I can study, read, listen to music, sleep, check out nice birds (don't tell the wife;-).
On Thursday I leave at 1.30pm and arrive back at 9.15pm. This is from October - May which I am contracted for and I get 4,500 zł net for it. Included in that is about 4 weeks of holidays (paid), ZUS (although minimal payments) and private health insurance (also minimal but sufficient if you are fairly healthy all the time).
I'm covered by my wife's umowa o pracę in the summer period when I have no contract. Of course, for 4 months of the year I have to get private students but last year I had about 100 requests from the different websites I advertised on. Advertising cost me a total of 100 zł for the whole period. I took on about 20 students and earned about 3,000 zł per month. I could have earned more but was getting married so a lot of time was spent organising that.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the long post, but I've always felt a lack of contact and sharing amongst TEFL teachers here. This is partly cause employers threaten fire and brimstone if you reveal details of your contract. I know there are so many schools and so many different experiences, but I've often wondered whether setting up a forum (real and online) specifically for tefl teachers here would be possible. I think many working in the field, and especially dealing with schools get exploited like fuck cause they haven't a clue what they ar getting themselves into.
@Damien you're always more than welcome to share your experiences and it's kinda why I wanted to write a blog but yeah, maybe a forum is a good idea?
ReplyDeleteI'm quite open too, I have a days worth of teaching at a school, a days worth of teaching at uni and a days worth of private contracts. I don't worry about not having a permanent contract because I always get one or two teaching offers every week! and I'm not even searching for work. I think the trick is to get you name around a bit and everything else falls into place. As for the summer, I dont worry cos most of my students will continue but I remember that last year was crazy with the amount of teaching requests I received! but then again another guy I know who was in Wro found the summer quite tough.
On average I would say I earn about 4K. Some months I earn up to 6K and others around 3, so the balance is 4. I'm also pretty lucky because I live rent free... the wife inherited the house... lucky I know. My major 'expenditure' is travel time and money. I have an hours commute into Wro cos I live in a village and every day I work I need to pay 20Pln travel and hand over money to eat at cheap restaurants.
@Secret Agent - but do you worry about longer term costs... things like pension, baby etc. or do you find you have enough income to cover that too? I am able to live reasonably well (roof and food) but it's medical costs, holidays and pension etc. that I can't currently stretch to.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think one of the pluses of your blog is the insight you give into working in Poland - e.g. the How Much Do you Need to Earn blog post. So please keep it up!
Paddy
I do worry, but I think it's generally natural to worry about the future.
ReplyDeleteMy wife got me this private pension thingy, I pay 500pln per month and should get a decentish pension. Plus I'll have a roof over my head and probably I'll always do a little teaching. Full retirement kills people!
But I definitely wouldnt swap this lifestyle, also people like @lodzwonderer ended up getting quite good teaching jobs after 5 or so years experience.
@Paddy - oh and Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Paddy ;) the blog is a guddun!
ReplyDeleteI dont worry about the future now Polska is in the E.U. Things must get better now right?
Besides, 3000pln is way above the national average so that income must be ok? tak?
Good idea about the polls!
ReplyDeletei'm not sure how the EU will be able to help Polish ZUS? It is 100% useless. Polish retirement is not the same as German retirement.
ReplyDeleteTravel, Cars, Good food, forget about it if your pension is Polish. I'm a Pole and it's just a sad truth. We will need many immigrants from Ukraine, Romania and belarus to help us pay for our pensioners in 20 or 30 years and Poland will be a very different place than now.
3 day weeks? You english teachers are living the dream! I work 6 NIGHTS a week!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments and yes, I too know that Polish ZUS is pretty shaky at the moment but let's try and take some solace from the fact that the Polish economy is quite vibrant at the moment and Poland is growing fast.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that Germany have a problem funding pensioners also!