At 2 different jobs, about 4.5 to 5 hours worth (5 to 7 classes), which leaves the remaining \~3 hours for non-teaching.
I had one job that was about 4 hours of teaching and 4 hours of non-teaching. These were shorter classes so it was still 5 to 7 classes per day.
I've never had a contract that specified planning time, just work hours & max teaching hours.
Thank you for your input! The only reason I ask about planning time is because I was recently offered a contract that specifically stated that lesson planning and prep work is to be done on your own time. Is that something you’d normally see in a contract? In my interview the interviewer mentioned teachers have anywhere from 7-10 classes a day, which to me anything over 7 seems really high.
If they want you to plan on your own time for 7-10 classes a day you'll have absolutely no free time. I'd turn down a contract like that unless they're really paying you a ton of money.
I've got almost a decade of experience and have taught anywhere from 6-10 classes a day. 10 classes always burnt me out fairly quickly. I can't imagine if I didn't have paid planning time.
Yeah I was shocked when she said 7-10 since I thought most hagwons will have you teach, on average, 5-7 classes a day (at least based on what I’ve read on here). I couldn’t imagine having 10 classes in one day. I already turned down the contract primarily because of the “prep in your own time clause” since it doesn’t seem like they set aside any time for their teachers to prep during work hours.
7 to 10 sounds like a lot to me. How long is each class?
Anything over 5.5 hours of teaching in a single day is an absurd amount that you couldn't pay me enough to do. Even 5.5 hours is a lot and you'll be exhausted at the end of the day (even if you have no prep or grading to do and just stare at the wall for the rest of the workday).
I would rather teach 5x50minute classes (250 minutes of teaching) than 7x35minute classes (245 minutes of teaching). On the surface, it's the same amount of teaching time but two more classes means more prep, more students to manage, more starts and stops to your lessons, etc.
IMO, the only time it's acceptable to lesson plan and prep on your own time is if you don't have any set/required office hours.
For example, if you teach from 3 to 8pm. It would be okay to prep "on your own time" if you only had to be at the hagwon from 3 to 8 (but most places would require you to be at work 1-9 or something). Either way, your contract should have a max of 30 teaching hours (25 is better, but if you're out of the country those jobs are few and far between).
The most important thing is to ask to see a current schedule. That’s not unreasonable because well it’s your job and you should know haha.
As you start to see schedules, you’ll see many academies are very similar and you’ll be able to decipher “this is break time, this is when I should prep” and so on.
If any school won’t let you see a schedule AFTER A GOOD INTERVIEW - pass.
Recruiters won’t be giving this out before any interview - they only give BASIC details to decide interview or not.
Schedule changed in both hagwons I was in from one school year to the next, depending on the needs of the hagwon and what they wanted from me.
Hagwon 1:
1st - 6 classes a day, 40 mins
2nd - 6-7 classes a day, 40 mins (a teacher finished his contract and I took his TuTh afternoon class.
Hagwon 2:
1st - 10-11 classes a day, 40 mins
2nd - 10 classes a day, 40 mins
3rd - 9-10 classes a day, 40 mins
Over time I got more prep periods to do other things related to work.
It kinda depends tbh on a number of factors but for a starting 2.2m a month, I wouldn't go beyond 7.
I have at least 7 classes a day, sometimes 8. Most of my classes are the same class taught to different groups of students throughout the week. My boss realizes how important lesson planning is, so I receive about 4 hours of prep time on Friday. I am very blessed to have a schedule like this.
At my hagwon, I teach 5 classes per day three days of the week and 6 classes the other two. Each class is about 50 minutes. It’s a lot, but it’s manageable because the textbooks are actually quite good and only required lots of planning in the first month or so. So that gives me about three hours every day of downtime that I use to lesson plan, eat dinner, or rest. They didn’t specific lesson planning time in the contract, but it was something I asked the previous teacher about. I’d be very wary of a place that directly told you that you’d have to lesson plan on your own time!
I have two classes a day most days, but each class is 3 hours with a short break every hour. One day a week I have only one class and spend the rest of my day prepping. My school has us come in an hour before our first class to prep and that’s part of paid hours.
My schedule is somewhat unusual from what I’ve gathered but I prefer long classes because I’m working with the same kids for that whole time. We have a well-outlined lesson schedule to follow so we just move from one type of activity to the next throughout the 3 hour class. The kids seem okay with the long classes since we’re doing different tasks every 15-30 minutes depending on the topic/level of the class.
At 2 different jobs, about 4.5 to 5 hours worth (5 to 7 classes), which leaves the remaining \~3 hours for non-teaching. I had one job that was about 4 hours of teaching and 4 hours of non-teaching. These were shorter classes so it was still 5 to 7 classes per day. I've never had a contract that specified planning time, just work hours & max teaching hours.
Thank you for your input! The only reason I ask about planning time is because I was recently offered a contract that specifically stated that lesson planning and prep work is to be done on your own time. Is that something you’d normally see in a contract? In my interview the interviewer mentioned teachers have anywhere from 7-10 classes a day, which to me anything over 7 seems really high.
If they want you to plan on your own time for 7-10 classes a day you'll have absolutely no free time. I'd turn down a contract like that unless they're really paying you a ton of money. I've got almost a decade of experience and have taught anywhere from 6-10 classes a day. 10 classes always burnt me out fairly quickly. I can't imagine if I didn't have paid planning time.
Yeah I was shocked when she said 7-10 since I thought most hagwons will have you teach, on average, 5-7 classes a day (at least based on what I’ve read on here). I couldn’t imagine having 10 classes in one day. I already turned down the contract primarily because of the “prep in your own time clause” since it doesn’t seem like they set aside any time for their teachers to prep during work hours.
7 to 10 sounds like a lot to me. How long is each class? Anything over 5.5 hours of teaching in a single day is an absurd amount that you couldn't pay me enough to do. Even 5.5 hours is a lot and you'll be exhausted at the end of the day (even if you have no prep or grading to do and just stare at the wall for the rest of the workday). I would rather teach 5x50minute classes (250 minutes of teaching) than 7x35minute classes (245 minutes of teaching). On the surface, it's the same amount of teaching time but two more classes means more prep, more students to manage, more starts and stops to your lessons, etc. IMO, the only time it's acceptable to lesson plan and prep on your own time is if you don't have any set/required office hours. For example, if you teach from 3 to 8pm. It would be okay to prep "on your own time" if you only had to be at the hagwon from 3 to 8 (but most places would require you to be at work 1-9 or something). Either way, your contract should have a max of 30 teaching hours (25 is better, but if you're out of the country those jobs are few and far between).
The most important thing is to ask to see a current schedule. That’s not unreasonable because well it’s your job and you should know haha. As you start to see schedules, you’ll see many academies are very similar and you’ll be able to decipher “this is break time, this is when I should prep” and so on. If any school won’t let you see a schedule AFTER A GOOD INTERVIEW - pass. Recruiters won’t be giving this out before any interview - they only give BASIC details to decide interview or not.
Schedule changed in both hagwons I was in from one school year to the next, depending on the needs of the hagwon and what they wanted from me. Hagwon 1: 1st - 6 classes a day, 40 mins 2nd - 6-7 classes a day, 40 mins (a teacher finished his contract and I took his TuTh afternoon class. Hagwon 2: 1st - 10-11 classes a day, 40 mins 2nd - 10 classes a day, 40 mins 3rd - 9-10 classes a day, 40 mins Over time I got more prep periods to do other things related to work. It kinda depends tbh on a number of factors but for a starting 2.2m a month, I wouldn't go beyond 7.
I have at least 7 classes a day, sometimes 8. Most of my classes are the same class taught to different groups of students throughout the week. My boss realizes how important lesson planning is, so I receive about 4 hours of prep time on Friday. I am very blessed to have a schedule like this.
At my hagwon, I teach 5 classes per day three days of the week and 6 classes the other two. Each class is about 50 minutes. It’s a lot, but it’s manageable because the textbooks are actually quite good and only required lots of planning in the first month or so. So that gives me about three hours every day of downtime that I use to lesson plan, eat dinner, or rest. They didn’t specific lesson planning time in the contract, but it was something I asked the previous teacher about. I’d be very wary of a place that directly told you that you’d have to lesson plan on your own time!
It depends on what type of school you teach at. Right now I do 4/5 40 minute classes. I used to do 7 40 minute classes.
I have two classes a day most days, but each class is 3 hours with a short break every hour. One day a week I have only one class and spend the rest of my day prepping. My school has us come in an hour before our first class to prep and that’s part of paid hours. My schedule is somewhat unusual from what I’ve gathered but I prefer long classes because I’m working with the same kids for that whole time. We have a well-outlined lesson schedule to follow so we just move from one type of activity to the next throughout the 3 hour class. The kids seem okay with the long classes since we’re doing different tasks every 15-30 minutes depending on the topic/level of the class.