Job Responsibilities
Our company is a small non-profit organization that runs, like
most nonprofits, on a shoestring budget and a minimal staff. My
duties, therefore, include everything from advertising and
promotion, to teaching, to administration, to grantwriting and
fundraising. IN a typical 12 hour day, at least 8 hours are
spent working with students in an instructional setting. The
remaining four are fairly equally distributed between
administrative duties (paying bills, filing, data entry),
fundraising and grantwriting, and advertising and promotion. I
also train our employees and volunteers in methods of teaching
English to adults. Many of my "off" days are also spent on
grantwriting and promotion. Volunteer instruction takes place
during my interaction with students through modeling and through
monthly meetings that last roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
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Job Requirements
In order to do this job effectively, I had to have experience
both in the business world in managment and in the academic world
in curriculum design and instructional methods. From the time
that I began my undergraduate career, I began volunteering to
teach adults at a center for refugees. I took courses through
volunteer agencies while I was working on my BA. While I was
working on my MA, I was teaching in the public school arena and
honing my skills. Now that I am working on my PhD I have a
position that is very demanding, but also very rewarding.
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Uppers
The best part of teaching English to adults is when a student comes back to you,
his face all lit up, and announces that he "used" English - at work, on the bus,
at the store. The excitement that these people express when they are able to
communicate is contagious. When a student reports back that they have completed
her GED or citizenship interview, there is no feeling like that in the world. I
KNOW that I have made a difference in the life of at least one person.
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Downers
The worst part is saying goodbye to students. Sometimes students
leave without saying goodbye and you're left with a sense of loss
and no sense of closure. Sometimes it's a bittersweet goodbye,
because they are advancing to college level courses. Sometimes
it's a heartwrenching goodbye when someone has to return to their
home country involuntarily. But goodbyes are part of the job.
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Lifestyle
This is a rewarding field. Whether you teach in the US or
abroad, you have the opportunity to impact the lives of literally
thousands of people over the course of your career. However, you
have to have above average patience. You have to be able to
think on your feet and explain the same thing one hundred
different ways. You have to love people and be willing to make a
fool of yourself to get your point across. You have to be able
to laugh at yourself and with your students.
With the immigrant situation being as it is right now, I suspect
that we will need many more ESL teachers, both for K-12 and
adults, in the future. Already we have teachers in the public
school systems "certified" in ESL who have only had a precursory
course in foreign language instruction. And all around the world
schools are soliciting for native speaker instructors, many not
even requiring a degree in ESL or language instruction because
they are so desparate. I think the future for teachers of
English is quite bright.
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Compensation
You will never be rich working as an ESL instructor, and
especially not for a nonprofit organization. This is a career
you enter because you understand there is more to life than
money. You can be comfortable on this kind of salary (most ESL
teachers earn $20-$25/hour, part-time, no benefits). There are
organizations such as TOEFL that you can join and receive group
benefits.
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Advice to Jobseekers
This is a rewarding field. Whether you teach in the US or
abroad, you have the opportunity to impact the lives of literally
thousands of people over the course of your career. However, you
have to have above average patience. You have to be able to
think on your feet and explain the same thing one hundred
different ways. You have to love people and be willing to make a
fool of yourself to get your point across. You have to be able
to laugh at yourself and with your students.
With the immigrant situation being as it is right now, I suspect
that we will need many more ESL teachers, both for K-12 and
adults, in the future. Already we have teachers in the public
school systems "certified" in ESL who have only had a precursory
course in foreign language instruction. And all around the world
schools are soliciting for native speaker instructors, many not
even requiring a degree in ESL or language instruction because
they are so desparate. I think the future for teachers of
English is quite bright.
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