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Teacher satisfaction
Hello again,
I want to tackle a slightly unusual topic in this post. I hope you will let me know what...
...you think.
Every school I know makes a great effort to get students’ feedback. And, for obvious reasons, student satisfaction is extremely important. However, I am not aware of many organisations that seek to discover the level of satisfaction with the school of teachers. I think this is a pity.
I said in my last post that I felt that teachers were not particularly motivated by financial gain. If this is true (although I am sure teachers will always welcome a salary raise) then it seems to me that schools have little to fear and much to gain by surveying their teachers’ level of satisfaction.
I assume that happy teachers perform better. And if teachers perform better, then students are happier too. It seems to me that schools could get regular feedback from teachers to find where, within budgetary constraints, they could help make teachers’ experience of the school more enriching.
If the teachers are working away from their native land, then they may feel it is difficult to get to know locals and to really discover local culture. Perhaps the school could organise some trips and some social occasions to help with this. Are there areas in the school that teachers could make more their own? A special staffroom where they could make drinks and cook food they like, for example. Are they constrained by the teaching methods or the materials? If so the school may be missing out the teachers’ creativity and expertise, so why not let them contribute more? Do they feel lonely in the evenings or at weekends? Why not make the school available for them to watch DVDs, hold social gatherings? And what about activities? Do they miss a particular hobby or sport? If so, why not set up staff/student clubs t bring these activities into the school and so enrich the lives of both students and teachers?
I think it is important for all the people in schools to feel valued and to be drawn into a circle of mutual understanding. If you think about it, a teacher who has travelled half way around the world to learn about a new country and culture has a lot of initiative. With the right treatment, that teacher will invest that initiative in the school.
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Comments
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Eric Roth Says:
December 23, 2008 09:57 PMPerhaps universities provide a better working environment than ESL schools and language institutes, but they also require more pieces of paper and greater experience. It's a tricky, difficult situation - especially during a recession when more English teachers are willing to tutor on the side for extra cash. Your situation in Germany seems more typical than exceptional.
In the United States, private language schools often pay far less than public adult schools or community colleges. On the other hand, teachers have far more freedom and fewer students. The international students also tend to be far more academic and professional students more serious than many of the other adult students. As a former director of a CBO and adult school teacher, I have seen many different sides of this situation. It's also worth noting that the quality of teaching widely varies between and within each category of schools.
Because my financial needs were less than some other teachers, I preferred smaller, better classes. On the other hand, 10 Euros is far too little to pay for a professional teacher.
Good luck.
Let's hope 2009 provides more smiles and fewer sighs in our ESL classrooms and schools.
taken advantage of Says:
December 14, 2008 08:04 PM
I have been working as a teacher in a School in Germany for longer than I care to remember. With a permanent contract, it used to be a wonderful job.
..don't misunderstand me, please. The students are still wonderful and I LOVE teaching, but in the last 5 years the standards have gotten worse and worse... and I can only put it down to bad management and incompetent teacher training.
And now the management are planning on reducing the basic starting pay per lesson to under ten euros! Here in Germany the cleaners receive more than that!
Any sort of outside school activities are left entirely up to the teachers to organise amongst themselves, and mixing with students outside of teaching hours is prohibited! Maybe the school is worried that students may approach teachers to give them lessons privately.
New teachers are given 10 days training then thrown in the deep end with material that is incredibly disorganised. You are only allowed to teach with the shool's, or school approved, material and very irregular further training(if any at all) is offered. A large number of lessons take place outside of the school premises, at the customers offices, and there is almost no possibility to speak with other teachers or the local instruction supervisor, when problems occur.
Amongst the freelance teachers there is a mutual distrust. 'Maybe this new teacher will have my lessons allocated to them.'
You are completely at the discretion of the lesson planner, and woe betide if you fall ill and have to call in to say you can't teach... 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' or a lesson planner at 8 o'clock in the morning who needs to check through her list of telephone numbers for 'stand in' teachers. Beware! you are quickly replaced and you are demoted onto that list!
Does anyone know of any schools that treat their staff better?
[Note from Moderator: name of school withheld.]