All About The Teaching Environment and Getting Paid

Recently, a reader asked me some very valid questions, which I am sure are on many an ESL teacher's mind who may be reading this blog. Today, I will answer some of those questions, in particular those about the teaching environment.

Firstly, the classrooms. My classrooms is some 125 square feet, which isn't huge, but not bad for the task, since there are only 15 students on the roster, and very rarely do more than ten show up at a time. In my particular class room, there is a large whiteboard one wall, and another is used for a digital projector. I sit at a desk with a computer, and the students sit in chairs with flaps that fold out to hold their books. The setup is a bit different from class to class. In some rooms there are e-podiums or smart boards for the teachers, and in some the students have desks. It just depends.

In the English foundation program, which I teach, our primary coursebook is Touchstone. We are free to teach the material as we see fit. We can bring in new material, skip stuff in the book, or whatever. As long as the content gets covered, it's all good. We teach other material, but we can skip over most of it if there isn't time. The main thing is that we teach the Touchstone books, and a course in study skills. The students only get graded on those two courses.

The trainees are great guys but many of them are terrible students. So, despite the fact that they are in their late teens to early twenties, a lot of classroom management goes on. You can read more about the particulars in my recent post about the students here.

My co-workers are a really great group of guys. The youngest is in his mid-twenties, and the eldest is perhaps in his early fifties. Most of them are from the United States, Canada, Britain or Jordan. Many of them speak Arabic, and many (although there is no absolute overlap) are Muslim. None of them has ever tried to convert me to Islam, and all are tolerant of my choice of religion. Nearly everyone speaks English at the institute.

Working hours are 7:30 to 3:40. Our salaries are based on twenty-four contact hours per week. We get paid overtime for anything beyond that at a rate of 1/100th of our basic salary per hour. The rest of that time is technically office hours, although we may eat breakfast and lunch at the school canteen if we like. If we need to get business done off campus, the administration is usually really good about letting us go. 

We are on a trimester system, and we get time off every three months. We only teach class nine months out of the year. The rest of the time is dedicated to preparation, staff development and vacation time. We get a lot of vacation time. Exactly how much, it just depends, but it's a lot more than in Korea, for example. We also get two weeks of national holidays off. Most, if not all time off is paid.

My company in particular is very good about paying staff on time. I've heard about there being issues at some other institutes, but  ESL schools in KSA make a good deal of money and not getting paid on time is the exception, rather than the rule. We get paid in Saudi Riyals which are deposited directly into our Saudi bank accounts, or if we have yet to set those up, we are paid in cash. (Riyals, of course.)

We can, of course wire money into our home bank accounts. We can do this online without going to the bank.

Hopefully that answered some of the pressing questions some of you had. In the next episode, I will discuss accommodation!