How I got the job?

My friend G and Cousin L were asking me the other day:

• "How did you find this job?"

I found the job through a job agency "Carney, Sandoe & Associates" http://www.carneysandoe.com/. It's a agency based in Boston. But they place the teachers everywhere in the U.S. Free of charge for candidates. The agency charged the schools who are looking for teachers.

You can also use "Cal/West Educators Placement". It's another agency based in the L.A. area. They place teachers mainly in California and west coast. But they do charge the applicants $ 35 for application fees (one time, life long).

Both agencies are pretty capable of finding suitable positions for you. The first thing you have to do is to fill out all the application forms on line. If you're qualified (the basic is a B.A. degree), they will contact you for a phone (or in person) interview, then send you all the info you need to know for your job searching.

• "What's the process of getting a job in a U.S. private school?"

For my example, I started my job searching from last October. After I've done my phone interview with Carney Sandoe, they sent me 3-5 F/T or P/T Mandarin Chinese teaching openings in different schools last December. I did the follow up e-mails (or mails, depends on what the school prefers), and started my interviews and teaching demos process with different schools in February and March. I did my last interview and teaching demo with my current school in the end of April. A week later, they offered me a job that will be starting in August.

So, you get the picture. The whole process took me about 6-10 months to land a job. But, you're going to change or find a job at any private school, you can just start from January or February. That will give you enough time to do so.

• "If I want to teach Mandarin Chinese in the States, what qualifications do I need?"

You do need a California teaching credential, and a B.A. to prove that you are qualified to be a CFL teacher in the States.

Please see the links for more details:
--Teaching in public school system in California: http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/teach.html
--駐洛杉磯台北經濟文化辦事處文化組 http://www.tw.org/cbest/faq.htm
--Teaching in private school system in California: http://www.calwesteducators.com/

But, for my case, I don't have a California teaching credential. Some privates school do request the teachers have credentials, some don't. I was lucky that my school didn't request one, I guess they emphasize more on teaching experiences and skills.

• When you look for a part-time or full-time job as a Chinese teacher, how do you convince others that you are able to teach Chinese not only because you're from Taiwan but your native language is Chinese?

Sigh... This is a very good question, and it will be a long story to tell... Very sadly, there are still many prejudices against "Taiwanese" Chinese in this field. Anyway, please check my old blog entry: http://ctinlalaland.blogspot.com/2008/02/beverly-hill-lingual-institute.html. You will understand what I meant.

However, I think the most important thing is, you must have pretty good knowledge of the Chinese language itself if you want to be a capable Chinese teacher (of course along with other criteria, such as: effective pedagogy tailored to students' needs, tremendous patience & humor, and cultural sensitivity).

I started to learn a lot of things regarding "Chinese" on my own after I begun tutoring English speakers. Many things we have never learned from our Chinese teachers at school when we grew up, many things we never understood why and how... I found the answers on my own by reading a lot of related materials. I guess the reason why no teachers would ever tell you the answers because it was considered "rebellious" to even think about challenging teachers by asking "tricky" questions (another Confucius influence!).

Carrying the "Taiwanese" Chinese accent seems to me a very minor thing from the linguistic perspective. If you ask any native English speakers, how many of them will dare to admit that their spoken English is the proper "American" English and their accents are "standard"?

Finally A Job Offer

The upper school dean of a private school called yesterday morning to inform me that the school wanted to off me a job as a full-time Mandarin Chinese teacher starting August, 2008.

I was overwhelmed by the following facts of this great offer:

1. This school is only 2 miles from my place, which literally means a 10-min. bus ride every morning (yeah... consider the super high gas price these days， and the 1st class begins at 7:40 AM, it's a great benefit for me!)
2. It's the subject I want to teach and be good at teaching (though they're asking me to teach maybe one Chinese history class if the enrollment for Chinese classes isn't going too well...)
3. The salary is pretty good. Since I only have one-year teaching experience in the U.S. , I won't even think about negotiating the salary at this point.
4. The students are ages 12~18 (6th~12th grades), all pretty behaved and motivated to learn (at least that's what I feel from the previous 2 teaching demos ).
5. The school environment is nice, the school offers free lunch (and it's hot!) and provide pretty good benefits.
6. The vibes I received from the teachers and staff are friendly and supportive. It feels like I can fit in well in the community.

Needlessly to say, I guess I'll just accept the offer next week after I receive and read the contract.

I'm so happy that the very long job hunting process is going to end pretty soon. Thank God, no matter there is a God or not, I'm thankful for the almighty power above us.

Teaching Demos + Interviews

--My "hand-made" poker cards. Now you know why I'm not an art teacher (of course I color photo-copied J,Q & Queen, there's no way I can paint that complicated patterns...). The reason why I used poker cards to do number games instead of just plain Arabic numbers on pieces of paper is to add the fun factor to the game.

Did 2 teaching demos today. The main topics today is reviewing numbers. I used different activities for Grade 6 and 12.

Grade 6:

Ss #: 18 students
Level: Beginners, only learn Chinese for 20 hrs/1 month

1. First showed the students the A4 size flash cards (or we can call them "poker" here) of Number 1~10 (plus Jack, Queen, and King, which represent 11,12 and 13). Ask the students to review these numbers by repeating after me.
2. While saying the numbers, asked the students to fix their eyes on the right hand corner of the cards, which the Chinese characters for number 1~13 were printed there.
3. Play "Heart Attack" after you make sure almost all the students remember the numbers. The winner won a prize ( I gave the winner a small bag of chocolate as the prize today).

Rules for playing "Heart Attack":

• The dealer showed the card one by one by saying the numbers 1~13 in sequence out loud.
• When the dealer showed the card whose number matches what he/she said, the players should do an action as the proof of catching it (in this class, I asked the student to stand up once they saw the card number is matching the number the dealer said).
• The last player to do the action is out.
• The last player who stays in the game wins the game.
• The whole process is very exciting, so your heart beat races, and probably will give you a "heart attack", hence the game's title--Heart Attack.

* You can substitue any action in this game. Since this is an early morning class (7:40 am), I asked the students to stand up every time they heard the matching numbers. You can do clapping hands, thumping the desks, stomping... etc. But, by doing standing up or sitting down, it's easier for the teacher to catch who's winning.

12 Grade:

Ss #: 4 students

Level: Learned Chinese for one year (about 150 hrs)

Bingo

1. Write 25 grids on a piece of paper,
2. Fill in numbers 1~25 randomly
3. Spin the marker, the person who is pointed by the cap of the marker will be the lucky person to start the game (there are many other ways to decide who starts the game...).
4. Each student calls out one number
5. Mark the number you or other students call.
6. The 1st student who connects 5 numbers in a line wins the game.

The winner who won the game today won a bag of "rice crackers" from me as the prize.

By playing above games, students get to review the numbers in Chinese in a much more fun way. Here are a few numbers many English speakers will get confused with:

6 六 liu (4)

9 九 jiu (3)

16 十六 shi(2)liu(4)

60 六十 liu(4) shi(2)

19 十九 shi(2) jiu(3)

90 九十 jiu(3)shi(2)

69 六十九 liu(4)shi(2)jiu(3)

Chinese Bilingual Teacher Education Program at LMU

M was just asking me if there is any graduate program that provides not only a master degree, but also a CA teaching credential. That reminded me there IS a program like that promoted by a professor from that university when I attended the IC workshop last month.

This is a private university in Marina Del Rey-- Loyola Marymount University. According to the program coordinator, Terry Qian (who I briefly talked to after the workshop that day), after some school board members visited China earlier this year, they decided to launch their new Chinese Bilingual Teacher Education Program this summer.

The tuition is super expensive, $830 per unit. You need to finish at least 36 units (9 classes) to graduate. So the total expense for attending this program will be approximately $30,000 (not including textbooks, living or commuting expense).

Even though LMU (Loyola Marymount U) claimed to offer "StarTalk" scholarship to all accepted applicants, which ONLY covers half of the tuition for 2 summer prerequisite courses and full amount of test fees... which are valued at about $1,300. So... not really helpful.

That's the reason why I didn't even consider applying for the program. Private school is untouchable...

Teaching Styles

Maybe some schools are still in Spring Break, I didn't have much happening in my job searching the past 2 weeks. However, I did find a summer camp opening for Mandarin teacher, I will give it a try anyway.

Sure you always have to fill out the application form before you submit it to the website or to its physical address. And this one is Summer Institute for Gifted Students that request a 11-page application, along with some essay questions. I usually hate answering essay questions. But, it's a good way for the employer to find out the more suitable candidates.

One of the essay questions is to describe my teaching style. Gee... I have never thought about that after teaching for almost 7 years. However I found this website, did the test and found out my teaching style is: Facilitator. Which I think it's pretty close to my own personality and belief.

Facilitator:

• A student centered approach where the instructor facilitates and focuses on activities.
• Responsibility is placed on the students to take initiative to achieve results for the various tasks.
• Students who are independent, active, collaborative learners learners thrive in this environment ( I think it's important for my students to have these qualities to thrive in the global world).
• Instructors typically design group activities which necessitate active learning, student-to-student collaboration and problem solving.
  

Check this website at http://www.longleaf.net/teachingstyle.html

or go to http://members.shaw.ca/mdde615/tchstylsquiz7.htm

and find out what your teaching style is.

CarneySandoe SF Forum

"...Was it a waste of time?..."

My mom-in-law left a voice message in my cell asking me about the past event in San Francisco last weekend while she was tyring to set a date to meet us in L.A.. Later I told her, I didn't regret to spend about $600, 700 dollars (incl. 2 nights @hotel, flight tickets, public transits and basic meals) flying up to SF for that California private school job searching conference, and ended up having 2 interviews only. One school was the 2nd interview actually, another girl school I kinda like is located in Pasadena though (about 1 hr drive from my place, which means at least 2-hour commute every day... No way...).

But, it's always good to visit San Francisco. Even though it was still freezing cold (about 40~50 F/10~15C), I managed to get a massage in Chinatown, checked a few stores I've always liked, dined at "King of Thai" twice, "The Scala" French bistro for 1st day breakfast, "La French Press" for breakfast the 2nd morning, and "Boudin" for sourdough bread lunch.

Overall, it's a nice trip. But it's more like a little vocation to myself. As my step-father-in-law said: "Honey, you're entitled to it. No worries."

A few interesting observations during the forum:

1. The overall candidates are younger, and well-dressed.

Maybe it's a private school thing, or because you don't need a CA teaching credential for this, most candidates are like in their early or mid 20-something. And they sure know how to dress for success. I was a bit embarrassed by my very teacher-like outfit (black cashmere cardigan+coral shirt and gray trousers+silver flats). After living in the U.S. for 5 years, and seeing how those ESL teachers dressed up, I've been very sloppy for my personal image than I used to be. And I don't know why, I just can't dress up like a "corporate" anymore. Those tailored suit (blazer and skirt), 3-inch high heels are very far away from me now. I might just donate my 1 or 2 suits to dressforsuccess.org.

2. The myth of "Chinese" teacher.

The forum is in a pretty formal setting like 50 schools tried to interview all 50-200 candidates within 8 hours. So, it's sort like speed dating, everyone gets about 20-25 mins to talk to each other and find out if they're a good fit (of course, you have to make a request to the school you're interested in first, the school can either reject, ignore or accept you, and vice versa).

At one point, I was just waiting, and reading a book outside the conference hall with a bunch of other female candidates. Then we started to chat and found out we are all language teachers at the same table. The French teacher said something to catch my attention: ".... I was laid off because the school wanted to start a new Chinese program... but later I found out that new Chinese program was discontinued because there weren't enough students enrolled in the class."

Then a Spanish teacher complained about one of her previous interview experiences:"... I was talking to that director in Spanish during the whole interview. But at the end of it, she questioned me that she's afraid my Spanish is not good enough compared to the native Spanish speakers...".

An English teacher, who looks pretty young, and recently just received her master degree said: "No school is hiring English teacher now... I heard they just want Chinese teachers...". (My O.S.: Hello? Just want Chinese teachers? That's weird... I'm here! How come I requested interviews to 7 schools in L.A. area, got 2 rejections, 1 acceptance, 4 unheard...)? She continued:" I just did an interview with a Singapore high schools, they want me so bad. I could literally just accept that job on the spot... Maybe I should really think about it... I heard they have developed the whole system of 'Singlish' now...".

And of course, we together started to attack how bad the American education system has become these days... How public school system is even worse, and the teacher was tormented by the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" policy.

Hmm... Anyway, that's why I worry so much about the future of America. Sure I'm not a citizen yet, but my husband is, and our future kids will be. I certainly don't want to send my kids to a pricy private school so he or she can get a better education. All I can do now is to devote myself to a very tiny part of this system, try my best to make some differences, and hope a better future for everyone here.

Teaching Demos

Went to a private school for teaching demo/interview this morning.

I prepared for this event for about 3 hours last night (sure I'd had a rough lesson plan in my mind earlier on).

• I pulled out a few authentic materials I think I can use on teaching numbers and asking for directions;
• Some chopsticks, as the counting sticks in ancient time which I got for free from supermarket;
• A map of Beijing for asking directions;
• A name tag with my name on it for asking names... etc..

Created a handout for each class. Then some props I've been using for the past 10 years. When I showed my husband the hour glass and a pair of click boards (castanets,响板), he was confused at first why on earth they have something to do with language teaching.

Anyway, after I thought I was well-prepared for the teaching demos, I still couldn't sleep well last night. I laid down in bed around 10 pm, and then I kept having all kinds teaching ideas/stories/activities popping in my poor little brain... And of course, those old scary "school nightmares" were once again coming back, haunting me...

Luckily I got up at 6:10 am. Only 10 mins behind my schedule. Since I've been training myself to get up at 7 am sharp for the past week (just for this super early interview this morning), I didn't suffer too much for getting ready in the morning. I took a hot shower, had bagels and a small cup of coffee, made tea into my to-go thermo mug... It feels like living a student life, or I'm working full-time again.

I taught 2 classes from 7:40 to 9:15 am, and then I had the interview (or sort of walking around the campus and talked) with the chair of Foreign Language Dept. for the next 40 minutes. The director gave me some very "fair and insightful" feedback to my teaching demos.

After living a comfortable married life for the past 2 years, some of my teaching skills are rusty now. Even though I know I should have

• jumped into the topics right away,
• listed all the key words/sentence patterns on the board before I started to teach the dialogue or activities,
• or even though I should have changed my strategy (or lesson plan A to B) right away when I found out the air in the class was kinda dead at one point....

I didn't manage to perform 100% this morning. For that, I loathed myself a lot while I was waiting for the bus to get home around 10 am (just an upset feeling that I could have done better than this... but not purely just sad, or almost-want-to-cry upset, so that's OK).

Here are things I have to work on before I have the chance to do a 2nd interview at the same school (if they contact me again for a 2nd interview) or doing another demo at other schools:

1. Work on my simplified characters: As a native speaker, a wanna-be Chinese teacher, and with the sense of competition, if that English-born director could manage to master both characters, there's no reason why I can't do it. And as he criticised on my teaching skills and claimed that "...You native speakers don't understand the pain we have to go through in learning Chinese..." (ha, it sounds so familiar... But now the role is reversed...)Oh, I do. As a native speaker of Chinese, I still have to learn different spelling and written systems on my own because of the stupid political scheme. And being a less privileged Taiwanese Chinese, we also have to learn the Northern Chinese linguistic usage. And don't mention that the equally painful process we had been through when we were learning English.
2. Polish my teaching skills by reading the lesson plans, reference books, and articles I've collected over the years. It always helps to generate some new ideas when you read something old or new. The key is to stimulate your stale-as-old-bread brain.
3. Research Chinese History materials: The director asked me to think about teaching a Chinese History class. Even though I have no idea what my audience will be, it will be fun to refresh my memory in Chinese history. And history is always something I'd like to teach, if I'm not teaching a language subject.
4. Practice my Chinese calligraphy: That's one extracurricular class my mom has always regretted for NOT letting me take when I was little (except for swimming, English and piano). "At least, you'll have a more beautiful penmanship...", she always said. Yeah... I don't know how I managed to survive as a teacher with a ugly handwriting for the past few years, how it would affect my future career or how much I could improve my penmanship at this old age. But, it's always good to upgrade things in your life, isn't it.

Mandarin/English Interpreting

December 21, 2007 (old blog entry)

I’ve been doing this over-the-phone Mandarin/English interpreting job for about 6 weeks now. The satisfatory points for me is only about 70%.

Sure all the clients I’ve been helped complimented on my customer service and linguistic skills, and always very much appreciated what I have done for them. Whether it’s to help them activating new credit cards, starting new electricity service, seeing doctors, reporting to the insurance company for car accidents, getting the police officer over to deal with an emergency… All and all, I did contribute a bit of myself to make their lives easier.
But, I just don’t feel like I can keep doing this job for any longer…

The super low hour pay is the majoy thing. $7.50 an hour is the most dreadful hour pay I’ve ever had in the U.S. (FYI, the lowest legal wage in San Franciso is $8.25 per hour). Oftentimes, I made fun of myself that I should find a cashier job at “Trader Joe’s” or “Whole Food”, at least I can get the 20% off employee discount buying groceries.

The 2nd thing is, I can’t really “interact” with people. One fun thing about teaching is you get to get direct feedback from students every day.That’s a big reward from teaching jobs, considering the low-paid, time-consuming and mind-exhuasting nature of teaching. The students acoomplishment is the biggest reward for teachers.

Anyway… I’m still searching for a better job. Meanwhile, I’ll keep serving limited-English-speaking Mandarin speakers, and keep learning from them.

On-Line Interpreting Test

October 16, 2007 (old blog entry)

After nearly 5 hours of practice within 1 week, I passed the test on the phone this afternoon. It was a great relief considering I was not with my best physical condition, and my mind went blank a few times during the test.

My testing supervisor was very nice to me. She said she saw my potential being a great on-line interpreter even though I didn’t do a good job today. And she gave me some great feedback and professional advice. Truly appreciate it.

On-Line Interpreter Training

October 9, 2007 (old blog entry)

Spent 2 and half hours on the phone for the training course today.

It's a good learning process... dreadful though.

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Beverly Hills language school

October 6, 2007 (old blog entry)

Had an interview with the director of a language school in Beverly Hill this afternoon.
I have a great feeling that I will work very pleasantly there.

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p.s.: I didn't hear back from the director at all by the end of December as she promised. I guess 2 reasons I didn't get the job.

1. When she asked me this question during the interview:

"How would a teacher from Taiwan like you can really present Chinese' culture? "

I was kinda stunned at that time. I didn't expect a seemly sophisticated language school director like her would ask, and had prejudice against "Taiwanese" Chinese.

And I know I should have had answered something like:

• "Not only people from Taiwan can present 'Chinese' culture, but they actually preserve more 'Chinese' culture since they are NOT Communists and had not suffered from the disastrous 10-year Cultural Revolution in 60's..."

Instead, I had only responded to her question saying something like:
"If you''re worried about the accent issue, I can tell you that both my Chinese teachers in elementary school were from Northen China. I have pretty 'standard' accent. At schools, we had learned everything related to China, the mainland, not the tiny island, Taiwan, we live....You name it, history, geography, social science, Mandarin... blah blah blah..."

I knew my answer wasn't good enough to clarify her doubt.

2. After the interview, she kinda chat with me about my personal life... I should not tell her that my husband and I are thinking about having a baby... And then the female director rumbled "Hmm... want a baby...." and put a note on my resume... D&**! So what? I was surprised that a female directer would have such prejudice on another female teacher candidate...

UCLA Confucius Institue

October 4, 2007 (old blog entry)

Today is my momentum.

After completing 2 phone interviews this morning, I got a physcial interview at a language school in Beverly Hills tomorow. And later when I was preparing for lunch, I got a very late reply from San Francisco State University regarding my request about 3 months ago.

The good news is, Confucius Institute is recently open at UCLA, which is only about a 20-minute bus ride from my place. If I ever consider pursing a Chinese teaching credential, that will be a good place to go. The 1st Confucius institute was open in Soul, Korea in 2004. Within 3 years, the Chinese Language office has promoted up to 120 institute around the world. Even though I’m from Taiwan, and always a strong advocate of traditional characters, I’m afraid that Taiwanese government has lost the battle of promoting Traditional character in this movement.

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CarneySandoe & Language Line

October 4, 2007 (old blog entry)

Done 2 phone interviews this morning.

The 1st

(unfinished....lazy...)

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Lindamood-Bell Learning Process

October 4, 2007 (old blog entry)

Went for an interview at Lindamood-Bell Laerning center this afternoon.
The rate is horrible, begin in $20 an hour, which is pretty low for a job like this. You need a lot of patient, personal, psychologial and linguistic skills for helping those children who suffer from language problems...

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CarneySandoe.com

September 26, 2007 (old blog entry)

My mom-in-law hooked me up with my brother-in-law’s ex-step-sister J (yeah… a bit too many hyphens here) for my job inquiry. It turned out J doesn’t work on the recruitment side for the private schools in L.A. area; she places the students to their suitable schools. So, it’s on the other side of the system.

Anyway, she told me this website– carneysandoe.com–that most private schools in L.A. will list their openings there, so I tried to apply myself on their website. Gosh… It took me just a little shoter than posting on Monster.com.

J also suggests me that I might consider persuing a teaching credential for my future career, since most schools (even private ones) in L.A. request their teachers have one.

Follow-Up Letters

September 24, 2007 (old blog entry)

Both my husband and mom-in-law suggested me to do as much as possible follow-ups after I send out my 1st job inquiry to the potential future employer. It is kinda hard for me to do that. Maybe it’s the buddhist thing in me, I’d rather have some dignity to NOT beg people giving me a job than constantly bombarding them with e-mails…

Some family members even advise me to “drop in”, and introduce myself to the right contact… Gee… I’m not sure about this either… It feels like a Avon Lady, or a door-to-door vacumm sales. Sigh… I can’t belive finding a job this time will be difficult. And the magic Craig’s List has not do any wonder on me yet.