Thinking about teaching in Asia? What about China? Many people think teaching English in Asia, means only Japan or Korea, but there are one billion Chinese people who want to learn English. So why not teach a few of the brightest young language students China has to offer?
Update:
CRIS Elementary School has moved to TEDA and is known as Harbor View Elementary School. Please direct all questions to their e-mail address, schooloffice@binhaielementary.com. The information below is likely to be outdated.
Mission Statement
The CRIS Elementary School believes that teaching English to the next generation of Chinese is important because it will contribute to China's development and bring modern standards to its population. CRIS feels that the students are their top priority and that American teachers will expose the students to real western culture through their teaching. CRIS offers English classes taught by native American-English speakers starting from the first grade, instead of the third grade with only Chinese English teachers like public schools. We stress oral competency as part of the Let's Go curriculum to complement the standard British-English coursework. The American teachers use Total Physical Response, and other modern teaching methods to facilitate absorption of English language skills.
Duties and Benefits
The American teachers work full time, forty hours and five days a week. The normal workday lasts from eight in the morning until five thirty with lunch lasting from noon until one thirty. The American teachers are also expected to teach evening classes twice a week, on those evenings, the day is over at four, excluding the night class. Depending on the number of American teachers, they are expected to teach on average two or three periods day (or fifteen periods a week including evening classes), the rest of the day should be spent in their offices making preparations for class, grading papers, and the like.
American teachers are given some freedom in their use of the Let's Go curriculum but are expected as a whole to stick with the subject matter provided as each successive grade builds on material from previous years.
On Mondays work begins a little early with the teachers greeting students at the gate (indoors during the winter) as they arrive, and Friday afternoons they spend time with the students as they wait for their parents to pick them up. Monday is Flag Ceremony day, the students meet outside, listen to announcements, and sing the national anthem and school song. The American teachers are not expected to sing the anthem nor the school song but are to be present and respectful of this tradition. It is strongly encouraged for the American teachers to spend extra time speaking English with the students outside of class, especially during the two daily recesses or lunch.
Any time after work and on the weekends is free time to shop, sleep, or play for the American teachers, but they should try to be back at the school by ten in the evenings so the gatekeepers can get some sleep. Also teachers should inform the school a little bit ahead of time if they will be gone overnight or are expecting visitors.
The current salary for American teachers at CRIS is 2500 RMB or about $330 a month plus a nice bonus for traveling. This salary will be raised when the school moves to Tang Gu to stay competitive with teachers in that area. This salary may seem low but the average taxi-driver makes 700 RMB a month and this is considered decent. 2500 RMB a month affords a nice lifestyle in China and there have never been any complaints about running out of money. During Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival (Chun Jie) as it called here, the school is given a month off and the American teachers are able to travel where they please, whether that be within China, Asia, Russia, or even a visit home. With a little bit of saving and the New Year bonus, it's easy to have a fun and interesting vacation (see a trip taken by two teachers), but please plan early as this is a busy traveling season. There are also other smaller holidays throughout the year, as well as days off for Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
The teachers are also provided with free housing in a dorm style apartment, with a room to themselves, AC-heating, their own bathroom, a telephone, a kitchen with the basics plus a small oven (about 9x9), blender, microwave, personal as well as a shared kitchen refrigerator, a lounge area, TVs, furniture, a DVD/VCD/CD player for the lounge, a small library of English books, a bicycle, access to a free up-to-date computer with a cheap internet connection fee and a printer in the American Resource room, and easy access to free washers and dryers. Just about the only thing the school lacks is twenty-four hour hot water in the bathrooms. Hot water is available in the morning from 6:30 until 7:10 and in the evenings from 9:50 until 10:30. Special arrangements can be occasionally made but this is the exception rather than the rule.
Location
CRIS Elementary School is located in Tianjin, China. Tianjin is the fourth largest city in China and located an hour and a half by train from Beijing. From colonial times it has been a center of shipping and commerce for northeastern China, serving as a point of entry and exit for manufactured goods.
Samples of Tianjin's history can be seen and bought at Ancient Culture Street and the nearby Antique Market. Tianjin also boasts the second tallest tower in Asia (the TV Tower or Dian Shi Ta), surrounded by the pond upon which many locals skate on during the winter months. Tianjin has three regional culinary specialties: Gou Bu Li Baozi (a meat bun), Mahua (fried sesame twists), and Zhagao (fried cakes).
CRIS Elementary is located in the southern end of Tianjin Proper on Hei Niu Cheng Dao, a ten to fifteen minute taxi-ride from the city center.
CRIS in currently in the process of building a new campus outside of Tianjin Proper, in the Tianjin Economic Development area (TEDA). This new school is to be much more modern than the current campus and will eventually expand to include a Junior High/Middle School and a High School. The move is planned for October or November of 2002.
Faculty and Staff
CRIS Elementary currently has a faculty of about forty devoted teachers, teaching Chinese, math, civics, art, history, science, music, and English. Six of those are full-time Chinese English teachers who aid the American faculty in and out of the classroom as well as teaching their own classes.
There is a staff of about six friendly Chinese administrators who, along with their own work, are always willing to help the American teachers in whatever they may need.
There are also about thirty "class-mothers" who teach and care for the students in the evenings and throughout the night.
Student and Student Life
There are about four hundred students currently enrolled at CRIS Elementary School. They are divided into two classes of first through sixth grades totaling twelve classrooms. CRIS is a private boarding school, students live on campus from Monday morning until Friday afternoon when they are picked up or dropped off by their parents. Their days are filled with challenging classes and in the evenings they are provided with additional studies and homework time. They are provided with three meals a day plus fruit and milk snacks. The students sleep in dormitories with class-mothers available at all times. Living at school is difficult for some of the students in the beginning but soon they enjoy spending the week with their classmates and friends.
Adapting to China
China is different from the United States, some of these differences can seem daunting but living in China for a year or two can provide some great experiences and opportunities. To many Americans the language barrier seems like the biggest impediment to teaching in China. With no 'alphabet', only thousands upon thousands of all different characters, communication with the Chinese sounds impossible. However, there are teachers on campus who are willing to help the Chinese language novice learn Chinese, starting with the words and phrases used everyday. With a little dedication and practice, even the beginner will be able to speak with the locals.
Another impediment to some is the Chinese food. If you hate Chinese food with a burning passion, maybe China isn't the place to teach, but for the rest of us, there is a wide variety of local, national, and international foods and restaurants to try. There are an infinite number of small Chinese restaurants in the city. You can find several restaurants that serve western food, as well as the ever-present McDonalds and KFC. Starbucks is making its way into Tianjin and has just opened its second store in the city. There are also Korean, Japanese, and western-Chinese food restaurants.
Lastly, the air quality can be a problem which many prospective teachers do not think about. Tianjin is an industrial city and many households still burn coal for heating and cooking. Consequently, the air can be quite polluted but most teachers adapt to this. Fortunately, the air in TEDA is much nicer than the air in Tianjin Proper because it is near the ocean, and should not pose such a problem.
Questions? Email the school