Teaching in a Colombian University

curramberochris says on Sep 10, 2008, 09:11:

All depends. From what I have seen. Discipline is better but that depends ion the Uni. Class sizes may be bigger or smaller, depends on the Uni again.
Again the resources given to you depends on how if you are in a public or private university. Where i work now has fanastic resources but I have workied in other palces that only had 1 tv! Usually less hours that a school and more holidays.
I like the environment, more freedom to do what you want in class. Sometimes motivation is a problem in uni, especially if there language course doesn't contribute any credits to their overall grade.
I prefer Uni over school any day. Maybe the pay is better in some private schools but i have more free time and and enjoyment from the job

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Monita Linda says on Sep 10, 2008, 09:28:

Some universities require you to have a professional degree to teach English. If you want to teach a science in my school, you need to have PhD and in some cases they also accept people with MSc.
I think for languages it is only a professional degree, but I am not sure.

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adrienne79 says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:12:

Thanks guys. I am looking into a private university. They don´t have a problem with my qualifications. I´m just still trying to weigh all my options and make sure I have a good idea on if this is really the change I want to make. I suppose you are right though, it will just depend on the school.

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vicshere says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:22:

Adrienne the biggest problem is most private and public universities will not hire you full time but more on a part time basics like an average of 20-24 hours... and considering your working on a visa which states you can only work for one employer and an addition (I believe) 8 hours per week for a secondary employer that leaves you with about 30-32 hours per week...you might find it hard to make ends meet ...but private universities do pay more per hour...e.g. UNAB pays like 20,000 per hour which could turn out to be 2,400,000 which is better than a kick in the ass...not bad for work 30 hours a week...actually now that I think of it that would be a good place for you cause I know you have the credentials...then if you really what extra money you could find a part time at a secondary school

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Monita Linda says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:34:

oh the barrigon!!!! please take away that picture!

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vicshere says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:39:

barrigon
what is barrigon

are you saying i look ugly? that hurts

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adrienne79 says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:56:

I was unaware that UNAB pays so much. I had always herad it was lower for them. I´m actually not in talks with that school, so who knows. You are right though Vic. It will be a part time position (only 12 hours) if I take it which actually will be a pay cut but hopefully less stress...I just want to be sure of that before I take it on. I will go talk to them in detail next week and make up my mind. All I know right now, is I think I need a change

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adrienne79 says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:58:

¨¨working on a visa which states you can only work for one employer and an addition (I believe) 8 hours per week for a secondary employer that¨¨

Vic- do you have more info on that? I was under the impression I could only work at one place legally.

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Monita Linda says on Sep 10, 2008, 10:59:

Barrigon is a big belly, I am not saying it's ugly, I'm just saying it's not very tasteful........

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vicshere says on Sep 10, 2008, 11:04:

Adrienne
...no i dont but thats what i heard...maybe it was on PBH...i can remember where i heard it...but do remember hearing it

Monita
i had pretty boobs before but i was forced by the mods to change my pic.

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Monita Linda says on Sep 10, 2008, 11:05:

jajajajajaja

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Philly says on Sep 10, 2008, 15:02:

When I got my work visa, the consular told me if I get my papers certified in Bogota, I forgot where she said, I could work for another employer and work as many hours as I want.

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gamm2 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Sep 10, 2008, 15:11:

Bill Turley (Moderator) (Trustee board) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Sep 10, 2008, 16:28:

adrienne79 says on Sep 10, 2008, 16:33:

I love my current job overall. I love the staff, the kids, my bosses, etc. And they all love me too for the most part. I am underpaid but I know that would change for the next year now that I have experience and like I said...they like me (my boss already told me). My problem is the kids lack of discipline. I have rules but I think I am considered one of the stricter teachers and yet they are still awful. I don't raise my voice at them because that would not help anyhow. I have been able to tolerate it for a year but I don't think I can continue. I think the kids are so bad because many of the other teachers just don't care and don't enforce school rules so the kids have very little consistancy in their day.

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Philly says on Sep 11, 2008, 05:44:

adrienne, my school has the strictest rules that I have ever seen, but the students still have discipline problems. Now, in my class I do not have that problem. Please, do not take this offensive, the more enjoyable your classes the less students have discipline problems. I have read your post before so I know you are a relative new teacher. Teaching takes a lot of time and patience. That is the draw back with taking courses online. When you actually go to college to be a teacher, you see first hand in the schools how to control problem students. you learn and study sooooooo many techniques.Hang in there, you can get so much joy when you see the students starting to use the things you have taught them. It is a process, YOU CAN DO IT.

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adrienne79 says on Sep 11, 2008, 11:23:

Thanks Philly but that is not the case. Trust me, if you could witness this school, you would see. I have many many years of experience with kids, just never as an actual certified teacher. My mother is one of the best teachers ever in US and I use all her approaches. I agree that it is a draw back of an online corse but my online corse actually discussed discipline problems and classroom managment. In unioiversity I also took many education courses that discussed classroom managment. So I am not new to handleing a classroom. Don´t get me wrong, the kids are good for me, and they love my class and they want to be good but they only have my class for 3 hours a week. You can imagine to a 2nd grader that is allowed to do what ever he wants in other classes (hit, fight, yell, stand up whenever, etc) and then all the sudden comes to my class and is faced with actual rules and consequences, it is hard on them to understand. The other teachers don´t get paid enough to care and many have witnessed taht the school won´t do anything about it anyhow because they don´t want to risk upsetting a parent who could pull their kid from the school and then they lose the money. You have a valid point but just directed to the wrong person on that one. To give you an idea of how loose the rules are here, they just decided in June that IPODS are no longer allowed to be brought to school...but cell phones with MP3s on them are okay. Hahaha! Kids run around hitting each other and no one cares. It really is amazing.

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Philly says on Sep 11, 2008, 16:12:

First, they only have English 3 hours a week? That is the first problem. At my school, we have English 7 hours a week. From 6th grade and up, 5 hours is grammatics, and 2 hours is listening and speaking.
I ran into the same kind of problems at the first school I taught at. The private school situation is really tough. The parents will always control the school. I have found talking to all the parents when they visit really helps. I point blank tell them their kid is an asshole. It is funny, they look shocked like they do not know it. I tell them if their kid does not change he or she will probabaly fail my class. This approach actually really helps.
Now, I teach 10th & 11th graders for 7 hours a week and 6th,7th,8th, and 9th for 2 hours. The stress factor has dropped big time. I can actually talk to my students as if they were adults.
To me, I have found teaching in Colombia is a totally different ball game. You should look into teaching at Cambridge, I have heard it is a GOOD SCHOOL.

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adrienne79 says on Sep 11, 2008, 19:31:

I teach Science, but in English. Our school is bilingual so that they have all their subjects in both languages for a total of 14 hours in English a week in Elementary. I only teach English 4 hours on the Saturday mornings to a class of 4 students. I actually teach 1st to 7th graders. The parents are very aware of how their kids are because we are constantly communicating with them via agendas and in person. Problem is many of our students are raised by the maids and whenever the parents are around they would rather spoil the kid to make up for lost time rather than talk about the problems the kids are having at school. Cambridge is a good school but not on my personal list of places I want to work at. It is very similar to where I am now. In fact our "jefe de area" came from there. Thanks for tips though.

Seriously though, I am not trying to get talked into staying where I am, I just want to hear about the University setting. So if anyone has experience they would like to share....let me know.

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stirdaddy says on Sep 21, 2008, 18:44:

Man, I got the same blues about my students at Panamericano... It's hard to maintain classroom discipline when the school's regime is ineffective. Even my students tell me that discipline is a joke. But I'm a new teacher so it'll take time, I reckon, to get my chops... And I really shouldn't complain too much because the kids (11/12th grade) really are great, fun people (just really perezoso).

In any case, I've also been thinking/wondering about teaching uni part-time to augment ye olde salary. My question to vicshere is: where did you get your data about hourly pay at UNAB? You seem to indicate that it's more than one would receive at UIS...? I don't know if those are real questions... I'm just looking for more info about the university teaching racket here. Thanks, in any case.

Philly -- Don't give props to Cambridge: they're our (Panamericano's) competition! :-)

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vicshere says on Sep 21, 2008, 19:28:

from the teachers I have talked who worked at the UIS and moved to UNAB they are getting paid more into the 20s....but if I remember they can only work like 26 hours a week...something like that

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adrienne79 says on Feb 3, 2009, 16:16:

Well, I figured I would update that I decided to stay at the school I was at last year. I turned down two University offers (the only two I applied at). I was given a huge raise which helps (I asked for it). This is just the first week of school but it seems to be gong better. I only teach 1st to 4th grade now. The doors to the univesities are still open if I change my mind later but for now I am hoping to keep the stress down and stay happy where I am since there are so many good things about being there.

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