Top 10 List

What they really want from English Teachers

Read the article or watch the 2-part Youtube video below for new prospective teachers.

  

Top 10: What they really want from English Teachers

10. Have a Personality

Despite any fantastic CVs out there, a face-to-face interview is usually required because of just how important your “personality” is to both the students and your bosses. For a lot of interviewers, the concept of “personality” will include the ability to be “personable” (with a beautiful physical “appearance” for a very shallow few) and “endearing.” They will want “good people” who are “friendly” (or “extroverted”) and who enjoy adults and/or children, depending on where their teachers will work. It would both be nice for you to like people, and for them to like you as well. Patience is a great long-term character trait to have also, especially with really, really, really, really, slow learners. They will want a teacher to have a “positive attitude” and to be an “interesting person” – perhaps to be a bit of an actor and/or comedian. Oh, and don’t let all that discourage or transform you, just be yourself! Don’t put on an act! You can fool your interviewers some of the time, but you can’t fool your students all of the time (after 40 hours of class, they will know you).

9. Have Good Social Skills

You should have the ability to build a good working relationship with your students and the ability to be firm without being a “sergeant”. When you’re working with children, for instance, you need to know how to control them, or how to be a bit mean when you start out, for instance, and then how to slowly loosen up. When you’re working with adults in companies, you need to know how to build a rapport with them. I think you have to get as close as possible without forgetting you’re an outsider. I know super-friendly temp workers who haven’t gotten invited out with their “permanent” colleagues even when they’ve been working side-by-side in the company for years, and we’re only in there a few hours a week.

8. Be Engaging

You should have the ability to engage at least some kinds of students (adults and/or children) – to get them interested and keep them interested. For the most part, this means having “initiative” as most students tend to be a bit passive. (In other words, this means that almost everything that will happen in your classes will happen because you initiate it, including your relationship with them.) Teachers who have an ability to think on their feet will have a definite advantage over their dimmer-witted colleagues, but these can make up for their lack of wit through good planning, a bit of creativity and just plain good, conscientious service. Think of your students’ needs and wants and actually try to give both to them at the same time, and you should do ok.

7. Have Experience

There’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be able to handle whatever comes up if you’ve been at this job for at least a year. That’s what they’re looking for. And if you don’t have this year of experience, or any other experience in the corporate world, for instance, they’ll want a TEFL certificate. If you don’t have this, they’ll want at least a college degree. And if you don’t have any of these things, you can still get the job if they haven’t got anybody else, if your strong, knightly (or “princessly”) character really shines through.

6. Be Freelance teachers

A lot of academies and agencies which send teachers to companies prefer to work with freelance teachers. I could say that it’s because we’re better teachers and so on, but really, the big advantage for academies is that it’s usually far more profitable and safer for them to work with “professional” freelancers. (This basically means that they don’t have to pay out as much to the government or to teachers for things like severance and holiday pay.)

Oh, and by the way, if you’re teaching in the academies themselves, they’ll prefer the typical loyal and faithful good team-worker type. (I used to be that kind of teacher, but I had to become a mercenary - a free “lance” - when I couldn’t afford to pay the rent and raise a family on the low wages. (Even if on a contract.)

5. Follow their Methodology

A few schools won’t care what you’re doing in your classes. Maybe they’ll follow a “no news is good news” or “hear no evil, see no evil” policy. A lot of other schools will want to make sure that you can teach before they’ll send you up to the front. Some will be satisfied with your experience or TEFL certificate. Others will ask you to prepare a lesson plan and teach a sample class. Others will want you to go through their 3-day to 3-week orientation/training program, although many of the so-called TEFL courses are really just crafty ways of attracting teachers because there’s so much demand. Sometimes you will have to follow the school’s usually antiquated methodology line-by-boring-line. (Who knows? It may seem exciting to you.) Other times, you’ll have to pull every freshly-created class out of a hat (in which case, say goodbye to weekends). In general throughout Madrid, schools approach English teaching in a standard Europe-wide as-fun-as-possible, communicative way – often using off-the-shelf materials, which is nice because you can take that sort of thing anywhere to your next job.

4. Show Good judgment (or use common sense)

To give you an example of how to use your noggin with the schools which require that we use their materials and follow their methods: If you find their materials boring or pedantic, they may be putting you behind the eight ball. Everyone wants you to teach English in a fun, communicative way, but the school will want you to follow a “boring” product it markets and sells. If you’re a “creative”, innovative”, “motivated”, “energetic”, “dynamic” and “enthusiastic” teacher, it will help. If you yourself are not interested in the material you are using and if you’re not having fun with it, it won’t help. I would at least modify the materials to try to make them a little more interesting. If worse came to worse, I would replace them altogether. What you do about it or not is up to you. Just remember though that we’re dealing with human beings and each one of them has different needs and interests. Keep your individual student’s needs and interests in mind and try to cater to them in spite of what your bosses and theirs are ordering you to do, and you’ll probably do a lot better.

3. Put up with the BS (bureaucracy and small-minded)

BS is the kind of thing that can really irritate any adult. For example: “Teachers are expected to arrive punctually to every class.” (I foresee a dark future for you in teaching if that one’s an eye-opener for you.) “Appropriate dress must be worn both for in-company and on-site classes.” (What no shorts and t-shirts?) “(This useless) administrative work must be accurately carried out and promptly handed in.” “A DOS will sit in on one of your classes every month” (undermining what little authority you have there, making everybody nervous and wasting your time). Etc. etc.

Actually, this kind of petty stuff will be the least of your problems. If you’re working teaching in companies like I do, for instance, every now and then you’ll get the axe. It’s just part of the game, which doesn’t make it any less traumatizing. Students don’t want to marry you, they just want some English classes – and they want them when they want them (maybe not in December, or June, July, August and September). But, there’s no more job security in this business at 50 than at 25 and you never know where you’ll be teaching next, and the salary is never good enough. It’s no secret that there’s such a high demand for teachers precisely because there’s such a high turnover rate.

2. Start and Stay Committed

So, understandably schools don’t actually advertise for teachers who can “take a lot of BS”, but some do request “responsible teachers” who’ll stay for the entire school year from beginning to end. (For a lot of schools, this basically means no Spanish students or backpackers – maybe because they might flee at any moment.) It’s helpful for your resilience if there’s something about English teaching that makes you happy or if you have some “faith” which sustains you, and I’m not just talking about organized religion here.

1. Be any “Tom, Dick or Mary” who’s actually here

That is anybody who’s a native speaker or a nearly perfect bilingual (preferably with a Spanish work permit). In a lot of cases, a geographical presence will do if there are no competitors. (Being at the right place at the right time.) All the other stuff like age, appearance, being a team worker, speaking a little Spanish, being a super-TEFLer (or someone who’s a real “expert” at English teaching), or having a super-CV - all those things don’t really seem to make a really big difference. In fact, schools very rarely remunerate a teacher with a fantastic outstanding CV very much better than anyone else. It does happen, but not an awful lot, not when most feel that our clients can’t tell the difference, or don’t care. So, you see, if you’re actually here, you’re in the ball game. Most of the time, they don’t even want to bother talking to you if you aren’t. When supply’s at it’s lowest though, even a phone call just might get you a job.

Bear in mind that a lot of schools have told me that they have an occasional problem. The problem is that from time to time they really, really need a teacher and they can’t find one. Some of my best job opportunities have come at the worst times of year when everybody’s busy and they’ve just got to have you. If you don’t have a job yet, or if you haven’t filled all your slots yet, all you have to do is just keep shaking that tree until something falls out. Don’t let up! It never fails!