Private Class Guidelines
I can’t count the times I was asked to do private classes when I was abroad. I would choose carefully which private classes I took on based on how well the class would fit my schedule. For private classes that I accepted, I judged how much my free time was worth to me and charged accordingly.
I made sure that my private classes were lucrative for me. I may not have had a lot of private classes, but all of my private classes were worth it. In fact, while I taught in Mexico, most of my income came from private classes.
There are some obvious downsides to teaching private classes, but they can be reduced. The biggest problem is handling payment and it is followed closely by handling cancellations. I handle these based on my belief that private classes have several advantages for students, but those advantages shouldn’t focus on easier payment terms and easier cancellation terms. That’s why I came up with my guidelines for private classes. I doubt that these will work for you, but they should be a good base for coming up with your own guidelines.
1) All private classes are taught in the context of a course. A course has a set length of hours with at least several objectives to judge performance against.
2) All course payment is due up front.
3) Students are allowed one free last minute cancellation per course for sickness, meeting, etc. They are allowed 3 other cancellations, but they must be made at least 48 hours in advance. Anything above those limits are lost classes.
These terms have sometimes seemed strict to some students who have approached me for private classes, but private classes are business and I conduct them professionally. If a student is unable or unwilling to agree to the guidelines then I do not waste my time teaching them.
What guidelines do you use for your private classes?
Special Warning: Ad Targeting Filipinas
Ok, this is time for a very special warning. It turns out that there might be some illegal recruitment going on again in the Philippines. It sure looks something dangerous and something that needs to be avoided when looking for a TEFL Job. Scams are proliferating on the internet trying to get money from teachers, but this one seems even more sinister to me.
Teacher 30,000 pcm in Thailand.
Salary and benefits include PHP30,000 pcm tax free, plus retun airfares, share apartment in Pattaya Beach Resort with pool, cable and wi-fi.
Suit 23-33 year old female with Bachelor degree or higher.
Start date 12 January 2008 for 3 month contract could lead to full time position.
I will fly to the Philippines to interview on 10th December.
If interested email me at – harry@4potter.com
Ok, this ad just doesn’t seem right. First of all it is paying a salary that is more than a typical Filipino teacher salary. With a large pool of Filipina teachers already in Thailand willing to work for this, why do they need to advertise abroad? Ah then there is Pattaya. It is widely known as the sex capital of Asia.
The website 4potter.com is an under construction site and could be considered not related at all to teaching and some may even consider it pornographic
The original details was just a job teaching a 9 year old New Zealand boy at 30,000 pesos a month. Even that sounded fishy, but seeing Pattaya in this ad, in my opinion, this was a job that might involve things of a sexual nature. Sexual trafficking of women is a bad thing and it is something TEFLWatch stands firmly against.
In my opinion, this is trafficking of women in the worst regard.
Additional Information:
This was another ad I found online:
Teacher 30,000 pcm (plus expences) in Thailand.
Start 12 January 2008 teaching a 9 year old New Zealand boy one on one.
Intial contract for 3 months could lead to a permanant position.
On top of the 30,000 pcm tax free salary other benefits include return airfares,
share your own apartment with pool, gym, games room, cable and wi-fi.
Education – Bachelor or higher. Age 23 to 33 years old female.
I will be flying to the Philippines on 10th December to interview applicants.
If interested email me – harry@4potter.com
Private Tutor and Nanny Job Offers
We’ve talked about Nanny and Private Job Offers before in the TEFLWatch Forum, but I’m seeing an increase in complaints from TEFL and ESL teachers about these kind of scams more and more recently so it’s time we put a warning about them here on the front page. While some offers, I’m sure, are legitimate, many it seems are not and English teachers looking for jobs abroad need to be aware of this.
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