It is March, and that means that institutes are on the lookout for new teachers. Finding the right place to work can be a challenge, so it’s important to ask questions and have a clear picture of what to expect from a teaching job.
Just with any other professional job, it is realistic to know your responsibilities, your employer’s expectations, and important policies such as your pay rate and late cancellations BEFORE accepting a job. Ideally the questions I pose in this blog post are answered within the indicated time period and are provided in writing in a job manual (or at least in writing). If they aren’t, your potential employer should be able to give you an answer.
These questions are based on my experience living in Santiago for nearly a decade and having worked at a variety of institutes as well as the experiences of other teachers I have known over the years. I have broken them up into three categories: early stage questions (to be asked in an interview or before accepting a position), later stage questions (after you have accepted a job), and class-specific questions (those that apply to a specific class).
Onto the questions!
Early Stage Questions
1. What materials and resources are provided to teach and prepare classes?
In terms of teaching, what textbook or curriculum will you follow? Is there a structure already defined, or do you have to create the structure of a course based on textbooks and workbooks that are available?
In terms of preparing classes, what physical space is available? Is there an office with a space where you can sit down, look at materials, and share ideas with other teachers? What equipment does the institute provide to prepare your classes? Ideally there are computers, printers, photocopiers, whiteboard markers, and other miscellaneous office materials.
These seem like small details, but once you start teaching and those things are not provided it becomes painfully obvious how important they are. I taught at one place that had everything I needed, a large workspace for teachers to share ideas and plan, and a computer area too. Another place I worked at only had a few computers in a large open concept office, and there was no space for teachers to meet or share ideas. This really affected my attitude towards each place, and I believe it also represented how each place viewed the teachers.
2. How closely are teachers expected to follow the syllabus/course plan?
This will vary based on the institute and type of course. I see most places falling into one of two categories:
In the first case, you will follow a textbook for the duration of a course. Some places will require you to be on a certain page on a certain day, not allowing much time to add in any other activities or to slow down if students are having trouble with a concept. Others will give more flexibility and give you the chance to add in activities and practice as needed. In that case, the institute is probably ok with you moving at your own pace as long as you complete the course objectives.
In the second case, teachers are provided with the course objectives and are required to plan the classes on their own. The institute may or may not have resources related to the objectives, so it’s an important consideration to anticipate how much potential work you might have building a course.
I liked both cases, as having a structure was an anchor for both me and the students while also giving me some creativity. Given the challenge of building a course was daunting at first, but it really pushed me outside my comfort zone and helped me become a better teacher.
3. How are classes scheduled?
The most common arrangement is for an institute to give you courses with a set starting date and ending date that are at a set time each week. This helps you establish a weekly routine and fill in any spaces you have with other classes (possibly at other institutes or with private classes).
If a teacher leaves or a student requests a new teacher, you may be given an existing course that you then take over until it finishes. You might also be asked to cover a class for a set period of time while a teacher is on vacation.
It’s not very common, but some places will give you a weekly schedule. You don’t necessarily have the same hours or same students each week, and you may be given a new course to teach without any prior notice. Working under these circumstances is quite difficult, as it makes it near impossible to schedule classes at any other institute or to teach private classes.
4. How long do courses usually last? Are teachers expected to create evaluations throughout the course, or are they standardized?
Institutes typically sell courses as a package with a set number of hours, but they might also let students select how many hours a course will be. It’s important to know this information so that you can see when courses are supposed to end so you can fill your schedule with other classes (assuming that the institute doesn’t have a new class to fill that space).
If evaluations are standardized, it’s nice because you know exactly what you students need to be able to do at various points throughout the course. If you have to make them yourself, the ideal situation is to use backwards planning to create your evaluations at the beginning of the course.
5. What is the late cancellation policy?
A late cancellation policy ensures that teachers will be paid if students cancel a class with less than x hours notice or if they don’t show up. It’s crucial to help guarantee your income, as one or two late cancellations by each of your students per month can be detrimental to your income.
In addition to the policy, it’s important for all cancellations to occur in writing to prevent any type of misunderstandings.
To give you an idea, one place had a cancellation policy of 3 hours for afternoon and evening classes or 6:30 PM the day before for morning classes, and another had a 24 hour cancellation policy but it was eventually changed to 12 hours. Yet another place had no late cancellation policy, and if you wanted to be paid for the class you had to work in the office creating materials. As you can see, these are vastly different policies so it’s important to know what you’re getting yourself into.
6. What is the pay rate I will receive? Is it the same for each class, or will it be higher for classes that are further away or that have more students?
You should be guaranteed a minimum pay rate per hour, and if classes are further away or there are other factors making substantially more work a higher pay rate may be offered.
While it may be beneficial to procure a higher pay rate at one institute, it might be beneficial to accept a lower pay rater at another institute if they can offer you more hours, have classes that are closer to the office or where you live, or they can offer classes that are longer (1.5 hours instead of 1 hour) or classes that are back to back in the same office or area.
7. When are the low and high periods for classes here?
The academic year starts in March, but due to bureaucracy and everyone setting up their schedules it realistically takes until late March or early April for places to get classes started. There is usually a dip in classes in July for a few weeks while students go on winter vacation, and the same thing happens in September during fiestas patrias. Once December arrives, people start preparing for summer and Christmas, and kids finish school. January typically has fewer classes, and a lot of people take their vacation in February.
Institutes might experience different trends, so it’s a good idea to ask so you know what to expect.
8. How many classes do you have available for me? Where are they located, and what is the schedule?
I actually started my first job at an institute teaching an evening course. As time went on, I really liked the institute and made the transition to working solely for them. I was up front with them, and I was very fortunate to get a full schedule of classes within a month. It’s not very common for that to happen, and looking back I am eternally grateful for that.
What is more common is that people will piece together work between two or three institutes and possibly teach private classes too. Knowing where and when you will be teaching is important to decide if it is worth your time and if so to then fill the remaining gaps in your schedule.
9. Will you have other classes available in the future? If so, when do you expect them to be starting?
Bureaucracy in Chile is a nightmare, and institutes are not immune to the inevitable delays and difficulty in communication and slow pace of getting things done. Despite that, institutes should be able to give you an idea of what is in the pipeline and approximate start dates.
10. Are you able to provide a contract? If so, are there a minimum number of hours I need to work and a minimum amount of pay that is guaranteed? What benefits are included?
If you are applying within Chile, this question may not be relevant to you. As of April or May 2018, foreigners wanting to get a work visa cannot transition from a tourist visa to a work visa; they must have a job offer before arriving in Chile.
I was once offered a work contract to teach at an institute in Santiago. It was for 25 hours a week, and there were blocks of 4.5 hours of class in the same location three days a week. It was appealing in the sense that I would have had a guaranteed minimum salary, health insurance, contributions to the AFP system, and paid vacation, but it had its downsides. Later on I found out that I was expected to work 3 hours every Saturday morning, and if any classes ever cancelled I was expected to go to the office and do administrative work to compensate for the cancelled class. I was unable to find out the details of the health insurance plan to make a comparison with the one that I had at that time, so in the end I didn’t accept it.
The surprising thing was that I was offered classes on a freelance basis, and I actually made the same amount as the contract would have offered teaching 40% as many hours.
If you are presented with the option of signing a contract or working on a freelance basis, ask lots of questions (like the ones in this post). Pay attention to how your questions are answered? Are your questions being taken seriously, or are you being pressured into signing the contract? You should also be able to talk to current employees to see how they feel about working there.
11. What additional responsibilities are required in addition to teaching classes? Is there any additional compensation for work that is above and beyond what is in the job description?
Typical responsibilities include keeping a course and attendance record, planning your classes, submitting lesson plans, and completing reports on student progress.
One of the places that I worked had professional development workshops every few months. While they were not paid, the institute always provided food, drinks, and a relaxed atmosphere. At the time that I interviewed it was not stated that they were required, but I liked attending them because they were valuable and I enjoyed the collaboration with other teachers.
Another place decided to start running workshops and tried to make them mandatory, but they really had no way of enforcing it. I did attend one to see what it was like, but it was geared towards less experienced teachers and didn’t really encourage any type of collaboration.
Later Stage Questions
12. How do students communicate with the institute or teacher to cancel a class? Is there a maximum number of class cancellations permitted? How are cancelled classes recuperated?
Institutes have varying systems to handle cancellations. Some prefer that teachers and students communicate directly, while others require that all cancellations go through the institute. If communication goes through an institute first, there is the risk that you don’t find out about the cancellation until you are already on your way; even worse, you may not find out until you have already arrived and wasted time going to a cancelled class.
If you are teaching individual classes, it’s highly probable that the student will cancel class due to travel for work or vacation, and they might also need to cancel due to work meetings or commitments. This is one aspect of working for institutes that make it challenging to make ends meet, and you always need to factor in cancellations into your monthly budget.
If an institute has a maximum number of cancellations permitted for a course, it is a nice way of protecting teachers from missing out on hard-earned money while ensuring that students are dedicated to their classes. I was offered a class at an institute that had this policy with the classes they offered me, but the timing didn’t work out with my schedule to take it in the end.
As for recuperation classes, they can be handled in a variety of ways. One way is simply adding the classes onto the end of the course, effectively extending the end date until all classes are done. If that’s the case, it can feel like a course is dragging on forever as cancellations pile up, and it can limit you from being able to move on to teach a new course that might have fewer cancellations.
Another way this can be handled is if institutes let teachers work with the students to find time in their schedules to recuperate cancelled classes outside of their normal schedule. This helped the student to not lose progress, and the teacher doesn’t lose out on pay. One institute I worked at allowed this, and we were even allowed to extend 1.5 hour classes to 2 hours for multiple classes to help make up for missed classes too.
13. How will I communicate with the institute and my students?
How does the institute communicate important information? Is it done by email, a Whatsapp group, or information that is placed in teacher mailboxes in the office?
If you are having problems with a particular student or class, who do you talk to? What happens if you want to take time off to travel or need to get a book for a new student that has joined a class?
Those are issues between teachers and the institute that might come up, and it’s important to have clear who to talk to. I preferred working at a small institute where I knew the office staff and academic coordinator, and I knew I could talk to them face to face for any questions that I had. Another place that I worked at had so many different coordinators and contact people that you had to email that it was hard to keep track of who to talk to, and sometimes I felt like I was left hanging not knowing what to do or who to talk to.
The other issue is how you will communicate with students. Are you allowed to give them your email address and phone number? One of the places I worked at didn’t allow us to do that, which made it impossible to communicate important information about homework and such to students between classes. I believe that those places are in the minority and that most trust their teachers to be able to communicate with their students in an appropriate way outside of class.
14. If students do not show up to class and do not respond if I try to contact them, how long am I expected to wait?
I actually didn’t think about this until I was in the situation. When it happened luckily the academic coordinator was available when I called her, and I believe I had to wait 30 minutes for them to show up before I could leave and it was considered a no show class. At another place, I was required to wait half the length of the class.
In case this happens, it’s a good idea to have a book or something with you to occupy your time. Students run late with meetings, so you can actually get a lot done with the small pockets of time that you have throughout the day.
15. What do I do if I’m sick or unable to teach a scheduled class?
Some institutes might want you to communicate directly with the student and recuperate classes with them. Others might want all cancellations to go through them so everyone is on the same page.
I worked at a place with each policy. In the case of communicating through the institute, classes were never cancelled and a substitute teacher was found to cover the class. This helped ensure continuity for the students, and I actually liked being a substitute since it gave me a glimpse into different classes and teaching contexts. Making some extra money was also nice too.
Class-Specific Questions
16. Going to this particular location, what is the traffic like going to and coming back from the class? How much time should I allow to get from point A to point B?
The travel time and schedule are key factors to consider when you are offered a new class. You will need to leave a cushion of time before and after the class in case of traffic or any other unforeseen circumstances. If a class seems too far away or it would be too difficult to commit to for the long term, it’s best to share those concerns up front as difficult as it can be.
If an institute cannot give you any idea about this, it’s a good idea to ask other teachers and to check out Google Maps. (See my next question for more information.)
17. According to Google Maps, I see these ways of getting to the class. Do you know of any other ways? Do you think one way is better than the other?
While it is not perfect, Google Maps will give you an idea of the possible routes and approximate time needed to get from one place to another. Be forewarned that it does not always show the most efficient route, and sometimes by simply going to a different bus stop a few blocks away you can save a lot of travel time and headaches.
If you are told that a class takes a certain amount of time to get to, it’s a good idea to check with Google Maps. It never happened to me with an institute, but I have had potential private students tell me that I could get to
a particular place much more quickly than in reality. I remember a student told me I could get from Ñuñoa near metro Chile España to an office near Clinica Alemana in 20 minutes using public transportation. In reality, this would take a minimum of 45 minutes.
In Conclusion
There’s a lot to consider when you are considering a teaching job in Chile. I hope this post is helpful in finding the place that is right for you.
Are there any questions you would add to this list? If so, share them in the comments!
