I haven’t mentioned yet, I don’t think, the one downside to my new job. Attendance is a very tricky subject. I got some clues that it was somewhat of a concern during the interview when one of the interview questions was, “What would you do about the problem of attendance?” But I had no idea just how fragile attendance could be.
The government watches the agencies like a hawk. They won’t pay for a teacher to be in a class that only has four students, and understandably so.
So it was consternating when I lost some students right after taking over the class. My supervisor thinks it was due–at least in part–to the room change. He said that has happened before…that changing the location of the class resulted in students using that as an excuse to stop coming. I changed rooms on day 3 after taking over. I did not warn them ahead of time. I was not yet in the mindset of the settlement classroom. I guess I was thinking of these adults as being like university students. I wrongly assumed I could just put a note up on the whiteboard letting them know we were now meeting in the room around the corner and they would all find their way to the new location.
After observing me, my supervisor also suggested that my teaching style might not appeal as much to the higher level students. There is also the matter of students from certain countries believing that the student-centred model isn’t “real” teaching. If they come from a culture/country where the teacher-centred model is still strongly entrenched, they can experience classroom culture shock when confronted with the North American model.
I dare say my approach is even more student-centred than that of my predecessor. I believe that at least one of the students whom I lost was put off by that.
In any case, I’ll admit I have spent some time fretting over the fact that my numbers are hovering dangerously close to the minimum needed to justify funding. So I was VERY happy when two dropouts returned today. In both cases it was due to my efforts to get them back again.
We have a new student and he seems very happy to be part of the class. His first day was Thursday and he came back again today. Yay!
It’s like a sales pressure. I always could sell really well, until I was told I “had” to sell. Then I would freeze under pressure, because everything felt like a sales pitch, instead of just me recommending what they should use. My current goal is to sell therapy to the kids I work with, to the point that they follow me in unasked.
I never taught in a government funded program, but I did teach adults in a community college program and the attendance went up and down like that. A few times they let me teach a class with a low number of students. I was paid a flat fee and if i had lots of students the school made money, if I had a few only they did not.
To my mind, it is harder to teach a small class than a medium sized one. Less ideas flicking around. Good for you for making an effort to get the students to return.
I’ve really been enjoying your teaching reports. A friend here is attending ESL classes and it’s interesting to hear both teacher and student perspectives through the two of you.
How cool!
Something tells me that over time you will figure out what works best for both you and your students and your classes will be quite full. They will get word of mouth news that you are the teacher to have.
Lynn, You are a seer. That happened today! I got a new student due to word of mouth. :) K
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