The teacher is not an official. Do I need a teacher
Alisa Reznikova
School leader foreign languages, teacher, author of the program for learning spoken English and French in three months.
You pulled yourself together and once again decided to learn English. You are in search of a teacher, and your eyes dazzle from the abundance of options. You are promised a tutor with many years of experience and three educations, instant results, royal pronunciation, preparation for Cambridge exams and training for your pet dog. Before you the first difficulty - the choice of the teacher. However, if the right decision is made at this stage, the same difficulty will be the last one on the way to the long-awaited understandable English.
What to look for when choosing a specialist? Here are 11 main aspects.
1. Education
International diplomas and certificates really confirm an excellent level of proficiency in modern English, but a linguist diploma can often be an alarming bell. It is important to understand whether the teacher is interested in the development of the language or is he limited to what was learned from the textbook many years ago.
Remember when you were taught in school to say we shall to represent the future tense? In modern English, this form has long been considered obsolete and is practically not used. Unfortunately, with the teaching of English in many universities, the situation is similar to that in schools.
At the same time, if your teacher has a psychological and pedagogical education, this can be a tangible advantage, since the teacher will better feel the peculiarities of your perception and will be able to find an approach to you, regardless of personal sympathies.
2. Experience
No diploma can guarantee that the teacher will hear your questions, sensitively adapt his materials and quickly find solutions to non-standard problems that may arise during the course of training. It comes with practice. In addition, only an experienced teacher will be able to determine what exactly is hindering you on your way to mastering the language, and select materials that exactly meet your goals.
Even if you choose a teacher whose native language is English, his work experience is still one of the most important criteria. Especially now, when any native speaker can start teaching simply because it is in demand in the education market. But it is much easier for a person who thinks with you in the same language to understand your problems and offer ways to solve them. Try to figure out for yourself how you would explain to a foreigner studying Russian the pronunciation of the sound [ы]? And the fact that the almost identical phrases "I'm coming from the office" and "I'm coming from work" need different prepositions?
A native speaker always uses its rules intuitively, without thinking about how they actually work. Keep this in mind when it seems to you that an all-English course with a foreigner is an easy solution to all problems.
3. Honesty and professionalism
gifphy.com You should not refuse a teacher who answered one of your questions: “I don’t know.” After all, you do not speak your native language perfectly. Do you know the meaning of these primordially Russian words: locker, belongings, orarion? Unlikely. But these gaps in knowledge, rather, are your opportunities for growth and certainly do not prevent you from freely communicating, working, and getting an education in Russian.
An important correction: a good teacher will never leave you alone with a problem, and after his “I don’t know”, “I will clarify the information and answer you next time” will definitely follow.
4. Engagement
Any popular language in modern world changes rapidly. Even 15 years ago, we would have been perplexed when we heard phrases like “We went out for soap” or “Throw money on a mobile phone.” Now they are the norm of our daily life.
FROM English situation is even more interesting. Due to the fact that it is the language of international communication, it changes even more rapidly. Every year, about 4 thousand appear in the English language! Moreover, the changes are happening so quickly that the Russian school does not always keep up with them: until now, in English classes, you can find the use of the word supper to refer to dinner, although in reality it has long been supplanted by dinner.
The teacher may be fluent in English, but if he is not in love with this language, he will only be able to teach you what is written in the textbooks, and not the living language that you will encounter at the end of the class. Ask a potential teacher about new trends in vocabulary or grammar. And be sure, if the teacher not only learned the language once, but really lives it every day, he will have something to tell you.
5. Training program
It is obvious that the promises from the series “learn English while you sleep” do not correspond to reality. If there was a universal method that works easily, quickly and for everyone, the whole world would have long been speaking English.
The bottom line is that there is no perfect method, but there is always a method that will suit you.
Agree, it would be useless to teach snakes to swim breaststroke. However, snakes are excellent swimmers, despite their "flaws" in the form of a lack of paws. The situation is exactly the same with English: anyone can learn to communicate, despite their “shortcomings” in the form of personal characteristics of information perception. Your task is to find a teacher who is ready to adapt his course for you, and not convince you of the need to follow a clear structure.
6. Specialization
There is a very popular saying in English, “Jack of all trades, master of none”, which describes a person who takes on everything, but is not a master of anything. Very often, in their announcements, teachers indicate that they can prepare you for the Unified State Examination, and for international exams, and for entrance to a medical university, and for a business trip, and for a tourist trip to South Africa.
Yes, indeed, in all these cases, you will need one language - English. But the difference can be significant, both in terminology and grammar. If a teacher has such a range of programs in his resume, be sure to specify whether he teaches all these specialties himself or collaborates with other teachers. If he works alone, ask about his experience in your target area.
7. Price
The cost of English classes can vary from $5 to $225 per academic hour. Paradoxically, it is not at all a fact that expensive classes will lead you to your desired goal. The main criterion for you should not be the cost of education itself, but the value for money. It is unlikely that you want to learn English for many years, even if it will be classes for only $ 5.
8. Timing
This criterion is very often not indicated in the announcements of teachers for a simple reason: they are not ready to take responsibility for your result. Most likely, when asked about the terms of training, they will answer you that everything is very individual, because everyone has a different learning ability. This is true, but the trick is that your ability to learn will become apparent to a good teacher in the first 2-4 meetings. Therefore, it is ideal if, when asked about the duration of the course, the teacher names the approximate dates and indicates that he will be able to tell you the exact numbers after about a week of classes.
9. Results
An insecure teacher will move away from discussing your results into lengthy reflections about how much they will depend on you, on the frequency of classes and on the position of the Moon in the third house. An experienced teacher will briefly introduce you possible options development of events: what efforts and for how long can lead to certain results.giphy.com
A good teacher will not make you blush for not knowing simple things - instead, he will make them so for you. Do not look down, be understandable and intelligible - the norm of communication of such a teacher.
11. Love and hate
It is just as important that you are attracted and inspired by the personality of the teacher, just as important that it is easy and pleasant for you to study with this teacher. A true teacher will not try to please you, will not follow your whims. He will do exactly what will help you reach your chosen goal. In the process, you may not understand his motives, you may be annoyed by his pickiness. But you will laugh at all this together when, by the end of the course, you will discuss in English how your classes began.
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of a conscious choice of a teacher for the effective learning of a foreign language. After all, it is here, at the very beginning of the journey, that it is decided whether you will waste your resources, falling in your own eyes and harboring resentment against the teacher, or fall in love with the language, reach the intended level and, with the help of a new powerful tool in your hands, achieve the goals about which previously only dreamed of.
Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia dated August 10, 2015 No. 08-1240<О квалификационных требованиях к педагогическим работникам организаций, реализующих программы дошкольного и general education> clarified, in particular, the following.
In accordance with part 1 of Article 46 federal law dated December 29, 2012 No. 273-FZ "On education in Russian Federation"the right to engage in pedagogical activities are persons with a secondary vocational or higher education and meeting the qualification requirements specified in the qualification guides and (or) professional standards.
At present, the Unified Qualification Handbook of the positions of managers, specialists and employees (section "Qualification characteristics of the positions of educational workers"), approved by order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia dated August 26, 2010 No. 761n (hereinafter referred to as the handbook), is subject to application. From January 1, 2017, for similar purposes, the professional standard "Teacher (pedagogical activity in the field of preschool, primary general, basic general, secondary general education) (educator, teacher)", approved by order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated October 18, 2013 No. 544n ( hereinafter referred to as standard).
Both the handbook and the standard state that a person applying for a teaching position must have a higher professional education or secondary vocational education in the direction of training "Education and Pedagogy" or in a field relevant to the subject being taught, without presenting requirements for work experience, or higher professional education or secondary vocational education and additional professional education in the field of activity in an educational organization without presenting requirements for work experience.
Thus, according to the above regulatory legal acts and explanations to them, it should be considered that persons who have, for example, higher professional education in the field of study "Education and Pedagogy" (qualifications - "Philologist. Teacher of Russian Language and Literature", "Historian. History teacher", etc.) and (or) in the field corresponding to the subject taught (specialty - "Russian language and literature", "History", etc.), meet the qualification requirements for Russian language teachers and literature, teachers of history and social studies, etc.
In addition, it must be taken into account that the lack of education in the profession of a teacher (in the direction of training) in itself cannot be the basis for recognizing a pedagogical worker as inappropriate for the position held during his certification if the submission of the employer, on the basis of which the attestation commission makes a decision, contains a positive, motivated, comprehensive and objective assessment of professional, business qualities, results professional activity pedagogical worker to fulfill the duties assigned to him by the employment contract.
Thus, you may well become a teacher at school, but what depends on the specialty you have received. In addition, in the course of work, you are likely to be able to pass professional retraining, that is, roughly speaking, to retrain as a teacher in another subject. For example, at my school, half of the teachers had diplomas from a classical university, and for some reason they impressed me more, but this is purely IMHO.
That is, it turns out that you can learn, for example, to be a teacher in a college, and then just go through professional retraining in half a year and become a teacher of mathematics or geography? Wow... But if a person is a cook or an engineer, can he, having undergone professional retraining, become a teacher, for example, a labor worker?
The teacher is still one of the most sought-after professions, despite the endless reforms and the demographic "pit" of the 90s.
According to Rosstat, 14 million children study in the country's schools, while there are slightly more than a million teachers themselves, that is, there are an average of 13 students per teacher. But many say that these figures are underestimated. There are about 6 million students in Russia.
Pros and cons of work schedule
Polina Mokhova now works as a teacher of literature and social studies in one of the schools in St. Petersburg. Prior to that, she studied at the graduate school of Moscow State University, where she taught students about world journalism.
“The working day at school starts at eight or ten in the morning and ends at four in the afternoon, if we are talking about six or seven lessons a day. But you still need to fill out a journal, check your homework, and if you are a young teacher, then prepare for the next day,” she says.
The last two circumstances are already an abnormal load. You can check notebooks until two in the morning, and you need to prepare for lessons constantly if you are conscientious.
There is an advantage to working at school - long vacations. Teachers rest, and this time is paid.
Konstantin Bulish teaches English at the RANEPA under the President of the Russian Federation, and has previously been in private practice for many years. He says that the workload of a teacher at a university depends on whether it is a specialized university or not. If yes, then a lot of attention is paid to the language, the level of teaching is higher, the workload is also higher. Some universities can give only six pairs a week. Preparation for lectures takes as much time as the lectures themselves, but these hours of preparation are not paid. Only lecture time is paid.
High salary or stability?
Salaries are a critical issue for the education sector. All interviewed by the site said that it is almost impossible to live on income from one source, whether it be school, university or private practice. depends on the number of hours. And if at school the load is large due to the number of students of different ages, then at the university it is the other way around. Polina Mokhova says that with a full load (15 classes) and work 6 days a week, you can earn 45-50 thousand rubles a month. At the university, due to the lack of hours, even a professor can receive 30,000 rubles a month.
“As a result, both those and others live by tutoring. But not at the call of the heart, but at the call of the stomach. What affects the quality of work in general,” says Polina.
Salary levels may vary from university to university. According to Konstantin Bulish, one can earn more in private practice than in a university.
teacher of English language at RANEPA
A qualified person will not work for less than 1,500 rubles for two academic hours. Those who prepare students for specific exams or have advanced degrees charge more. But if you work for an organization, then you have a strict work schedule, paid holidays, and it is unlikely that 15 students from your group will fall ill at the same time. This is a more stable option. While private students work or periodically go somewhere. In the long run, it is difficult to say which is more monetary.
At the university, you can spend 2-3 couples a day, and sometimes you need to travel to private students from one part of the city to another, so many tutors prefer to give lessons at home.
Psychological comfort and the ability to create
At the university, Konstantin Bulish works with groups of six to 15 people. And he sees the advantage of the group in that often its internal dynamics encourage students to work better, to compete. There are also more opportunities for games, discussions, discussions, joint movie viewing, reading reports. And if you study one on one, then you become dependent on the mood of the teacher and the student.
There are groups with not very good dynamics or badly arranged. For example, there may be strong and weak students, the weak need to reach out, and the strong should not be allowed to get bored.
“One-on-one work is energetically less expensive, but it can be boring. Whereas with a good band you will never get bored. If you have been tutoring with someone for more than one year, then you already know each other so well that even with interesting classes it is difficult to keep the student in good shape. Therefore, the majority with one student does not study more than a year”, - says Konstantin Bulish.
Daria Nasakina, who taught typography classes at one of the capital's universities while working in large advertising agencies, sees great opportunities for creativity in the teaching profession.
It begins where you can write your own program, organize information, and come up with an interesting task. And it continues with every lesson. During the lecture, you monitor the reaction of the audience, whether the students understand or not, whether they fell asleep or not, whether they have questions (sometimes they are embarrassed to ask), it happens that the lecture has to be changed in the process. It is also interesting after the lecture, when you need to achieve a result from each student, understanding his difficulties and suggesting solutions.
teacher of literature and social studies at school
In my opinion, the audience at the university is more interested and mature, it is quite easy to motivate them. Schoolchildren can be scared of the exam, but this will not work for everyone. It is more interesting to communicate with a student audience, and the level of responsibility for them is much less. If you take schoolchildren on an excursion or on a trip, then you are responsible for them with your head. And they themselves are less responsible. A student can rehearse a performance for two weeks, and the day before the performance, say that his parents are taking him to the country.
Preparing for university lectures and seminars is more interesting, because the material is deeper, and the author's approach is welcome. At school, the teacher is obliged to give only what is indicated in the program. And if you want to do more, then you need to be prepared for bureaucracy. Endless trips to offices and filling out forms will discourage the desire to do more.
At the university, there is a high probability of meeting interesting people among colleagues, because the level of education of the team is somewhat higher. The school in many ways remains a refuge for those who went to teach in the 90s simply because there was a guarantee to receive at least some kind of salary, and have stayed until now. I remember the hero of the book “The Geographer Drank His Globe Away” Sluzhkin, who got a job as a geography teacher. In the classroom, he read paragraphs from the textbook, periodically interrupted by a cry to calm down the disobedient schoolchildren. At the university, teachers undergo a more stringent selection.
Public approval and career ladder
Being a teacher at a university is still very prestigious. This can bring additional points in the interview.
“This does not affect career growth in an advertising agency, but it raises your authority, be healthy,” says Daria Nasakina. Teaching provides food for the mind, promotes personal growth, and helps develop the skill of managing people.
According to Konstantin Bulish, tutors are also treated with respect, although he saw other examples in his practice: “It happened that rich and very busy people treat you as a person providing a service for which they pay. In their eyes, your status is no higher than that of a plumber or a computer technician.”
According to a good tradition, a school teacher is respected in Russia, but it is still impossible to call this work prestigious. In the eyes of those around today, a teacher is a person who accomplishes a personal feat, but by no means an ambitious one.
Is career growth possible? Polina Mokhova believes that it is possible, but internal competition is very high, especially at a university where there can be only one rector. Many teachers and heads of departments have been working in the same place for decades, it is not so easy to replace them. There is more turnover in schools, and it is very difficult to find teachers in some disciplines. The school needs a teacher, there are more students than students.
Many educational institutions strive to keep up with the times, modernize programs, develop new teaching methods.
“Our university is trying to qualitatively and meaningfully improve the teaching of English. In my opinion, it is more promising to be part of a large organization that wants positive change. In the case of tutoring, over the years you can acquire connections and a reputation that will give a stream of private students,” says Konstantin Bulish.
How to get a job
Getting a position as a university teacher is not easy, while the market for private tutoring is more open. To get into a university, you need to have good work experience, but if vertical career growth is important, then you need a degree. And the salary of a teacher with a degree is 30-50% higher. But it all depends on the profile of the university.
Daria Nasakina says that it is not very difficult to find a job in this area, because demand is much higher than supply, most graduates of pedagogical universities do not go to work in their specialty. To work at a university where design, cinema, and journalism are taught, you need to have a good portfolio, work experience in a specialized specialty, recommendations, and know your schedule for several years in advance. Those who change jobs once a year are not liked in such professions. In addition, due to staff turnover, universities and schools are losing their competitive advantages. If we are talking about classical specialties: physics, mathematics, history, then it is desirable to complete graduate school and have a degree. You can get a job in a school with a higher non-core education.
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For a more successful start in the musical world, it is desirable to have a good teacher, with whom learning will be controlled, and it will be much easier than without him.
But before we continue, let's clarify. If the limit of desires in your musical career ends with the ability to play simple popular songs on the guitar by the fire, then, of course, the need for a teacher is not so high, or even an extra expense. And for those who have plans to develop well in the field of art or simply make their skills more perfect and developed than at the moment, then this article is for you.
What for? After all, many did without a teacher!
Many aspiring guitarists base their beliefs on the success of some professional musicians who have achieved unprecedented heights in their careers without learning from any teachers. And it would be reasonable to ask the question: “So, why do I need it, if someone could, and I certainly can.” Yes, there is indeed a possibility that you will turn out to be a talented self-taught musician, and you can do without anyone's help. But at the same time, one should not forget that, nevertheless, a personal teacher will speed up the learning process, even the most talented and independent students will have less time to study, and the process itself will become easier, according to a confident, proven method, which, to In addition, it was improved by the teacher himself on personal experience. In most cases, self-learning is hindered at a certain level, above which a potential guitarist may not “jump” without the help of a professional instructor. Mostly people who decide not to study with a teacher:
1) There is no interest in their own musical development, and they are not willing to invest time and finances in their prosperity.
2) Due to significant financial problems (does not have enough funds to pay for personal guitar lessons).
3) Probably does not realize the importance of the professional supervision of a personal instructor who could ensure the implementation of many goals.
Faster result
The article is directed mainly to the third category of people. Since most beginners to practice playing the guitar refer specifically to it. Let's start with the most simple and logical. Without good teacher, Your work, measured in a large amount of time spent, will lead to a mediocre result, while a lesson with a teacher ensures the correct training, you will be shown WHAT and HOW to do it right at the same time, in a short period of time. Musical progress will not be long in coming, and it will soon become noticeable that development is moving much faster with an instructor than without one.
Any athlete depends on his coach
Consider another type of non-musician who works hard to achieve excellent results in an activity they revere. Even the greatest athletes cannot do without coaches who help them learn and improve, and encourage them to become better than they are now. If you pay attention to professional football coaches, it turns out that most of them are not athletes, but at the same time, the skill of a coach lies in stimulating a football player to become better, their essence is that they are trained to teach and they know how to do it well. Think about how many Olympians in the world take lessons and do preventive training with their mentors, and yet these coaches with their physique will not be able to repeat half of what their athletes can do. And yet, they are preparing athletes for the Olympic Games with great success. From all this we can conclude that any athlete depends on his coach. For some, the analogy between athletes and students who study music will seem wondrous. Music teachers and ordinary teachers are similar in that they impart knowledge, knowledge of music theory, improvisation, scales, ear development, composing, chords, and so on. It is not always correct to search for this information on the Internet, as a lot of the information you find may be incorrect or incomplete! What about practice? How to learn how to save movements when playing, and how to control tension, how to ensure the autonomy of each of the fingers - its independence of action. All these things and many more are not subject to home study using textbooks or the Internet.
The teacher will help point you in the right direction
It is good when the student has a clear idea of the goal and understands which path is best to choose in order to best achieve it. But, unfortunately, many do not understand what they should study. And engaging in a practice that has no specific goals can become a tedious and frustrating thing, it comes to the point that achieving the plan may turn out to be unrealistic or it will take tens of times more time spent to implement it. Learning with a good teacher will help determine the gradual development path, the weaknesses of the teacher that need to be corrected. Many learners do not realize the magnitude of the consequences of some bad habits, such as tension in right hand or too protruding fingers on the left hand (which are currently not involved in the game). And those who are aware of the wrong actions - do not understand how to correct them. This is exactly what professional guitar teachers do. They make sure that the student does everything correctly and does not allow significant errors, growing into bad habits which are then difficult to part with.
Incentive to work harder
In addition to the obvious benefits of learning the musical plan (learning theory, songs, techniques, explaining how to play sheet music and tabs), there are also non-musical benefits, many of which are incredibly valuable. For example, a student of a musical institution who takes guitar lessons may not always be able to fully learn the material for the next lesson. For such a student, the teacher will become a mentor, he will inspire an incentive to study more and diligently in order to master the previous material. Here the task of the teacher is not to transfer some knowledge, but to interest the student in working and helping him reach a new level of self-learning, helping to learn more and harder. Such a student eventually begins to master large amounts of information with more difficult tasks.
New opportunities
Working with a teacher gives you an invaluable number of opportunities that, with independent learning, could not have been achieved or would have been mastered over a relatively long period of time. The experience of a teacher is invaluable and worth the money you spend on training. Teachers usually have a lot of connections in the music business that can affect your musical life, whether you want to become a teacher, a studio musician, compose your own music, have a successful career in music as a player, or just for fun. By establishing good relationships with teachers, you will be able to secure a further musical career. Basically, students are grateful for their success to teachers, without whom their thorny musical path would not have been so fruitful and easy.
After a long but exciting activities with teachers you are involved in the music industry so deeply that over time you yourself will become able to train people to achieve professional heights in music.
Conclusion
Do you need a teacher - it's up to you. But, once you decide to learn from a professional, you will forever understand the difference between self-study and learning with a teacher. Classes with a teacher will ensure the ease of passing the material, and most importantly, the gradual adherence to the established plan, from which you will only enjoy, noticing how your skill grows.
Learn how to choose the right guitar teacher
You can also sign up for individual guitar lessons with me via Skype.
The Village continues to find out how the budget of people of different professions works. In the new issue - a university teacher. Every year, the compilers of the QS World University Rankings choose the best educational institutions in the world. The assessment is based on six indicators: academic reputation, reputation among teachers, the ratio of teaching staff to the number of students, the citation index, the proportion of foreign students and teachers. This year, a total of 68 Russian educational institutions, including Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, MGIMO, Higher School of Economics and RUDN University. We learned from a teacher at a Moscow university, which is also included in this rating, how much she earns and what she spends money on.
Profession
Senior Lecturer
Income
60 000 rubles
spending
4 000 rubles
communal payments
15 000 rubles
products
2 000 rubles
clothing and personal care
working expenses
savings for an apartment
How to become a university teacher
I started working when I was still in college. There were not enough teachers in the college at our university, and I, a fifth-year student, was offered to conduct seminars there for a year. I liked it, and I decided to go to work already at the institute, which by that time I had graduated from. To become a teacher, you must first spend several years in the status of an assistant professor or associate professor, who is considered your mentor. He can lecture himself, and entrust you only with seminars. After three years of work as an assistant, you become a senior lecturer, after another three years of teaching experience and a PhD degree, you become an associate professor. I am now 25 years old, I am a senior lecturer, I teach programming classes for students and applicants and at the same time I am writing a PhD thesis.
Now they have introduced a system of bachelor's and master's programs, and it turns out that after six years people are already tired of studying and do not want to spend another three years in graduate school to go to teach. Because there are not so many young teachers. Their number often depends on the industry. For example, in less applied areas - chemistry, biology, higher mathematics - it is more difficult for people to find a job after high school, and they remain teaching. There are also many young people in the departments of foreign languages. In IT disciplines, we really need fresh blood - those who are well versed in new technologies. I often consult with my former classmates who work in their specialty, find out what they are currently using, go to various courses, and look for relevant topics. After all, if you teach something outdated, students get bored very quickly. They must be shown where this knowledge can be applied. We also try to invite current employees of large companies to conduct classes. Usually they work during the week, but they come to us only on Saturdays.
Of course, it is not always easy for young teachers. When I first started teaching, my students didn't homework, but I attribute this to the fact that in college there is no special discipline and motivation among students. I try to immediately make it clear to students that I don’t have a freebie: I tell them that I will teach them couples for a whole year, for admission to the exam I need to write three control papers, then in the third year we will meet again - and I will have to pass my term paper. I also usually take younger groups so that we have a larger age difference, otherwise the current third-year students entered the same year when I graduated from the institute.
Features of work
Each year, a contract is concluded with the teacher, which specifies how many hours of study he must work. Usually there are couples three days a week, and the rest of the time we have to update curricula and programs, prepare materials for lectures and seminars, and create tasks for students. The very first class starts at 8:30, but I'm fine with such early classes, because I like to work in the morning and be free as early as 13:20. We spend three, maximum four couples a day. They don’t even put more, simply because the teacher gets tired and becomes inattentive.
There are no requirements for appearance at our university, the only request is not to wear torn jeans to work. But there is a special department that monitors what is written about our university on the Internet. Somehow, students posted on one site an article about a very picky and strict teacher, who also teaches a complex subject. They ridiculed his appearance and voice, speculated about his sexual orientation, added all sorts of obscenities to the photo. These students had completed profiles with personal information on the site, so they were very quickly identified and kicked out, because this teacher was also a vice-rector, that is, he was responsible for all enrollments and deductions. Oddly enough, this article has not yet been removed from the site.
In my social networks there is no extra information. I once had a student in the group - a former friend of mine, thanks to him my social networks instantly scattered throughout the university. I understand that it is not difficult for students, especially those specializing in IT, to dig up a lot of information about you on the Internet. In addition, now you can simply take a photo of a teacher from the official website of the university, and then find this person using special services and programs. But even if your social networks become known to students, no one will annoy you, at most they will ask something about the case a couple of times. They don’t get teachers on the Internet - they’re just afraid of deductions, but memes with our faces and catchphrases immediately fall into groups and publics.
I teach classes for schoolchildren in preparatory courses, students of the day and evening departments, and the most difficult of all, of course, schoolchildren. Their discipline is lame, you need to constantly monitor that they do not play on the phone during class. In addition, there are many among them who are sure that immediately after graduation, success and wealth will fall upon them. In the daytime department, as a rule, we have ordinary students from families with an average income, many from other cities.
Our university is more focused on the financial sector, rather than programming, so Muscovites usually choose the more prestigious Moscow State University, HSE, Baumanka and MEPhI. But there are majors at the economic and law faculties. After the exam, the brains of students are tuned to solve the same problems according to a given formula, but it’s worth changing something, even transferring the numbers to examples from real life, and a stupor and exclamations begin: “It’s difficult!”. It turns out that after the Unified State Examination, we teach students anew to apply knowledge and look at the world more broadly. Somewhere half comes with burning eyes and really wants to learn, and the other half just sits back. Perhaps the parents sent them to get a higher education - or the students themselves heard somewhere that IT is prestigious.
The most responsible and corrosive students in the evening department, because they have excellent motivation - financial. Preparatory courses for schoolchildren are expensive, but everything is paid from the parent's pocket. In the daytime, students are just starting to earn money themselves, but the evening students went to study of their own free will, work and pay for their studies. They always ask a lot of questions, they will write to teachers in instant messengers and social networks if they don’t understand something. We have this rule: if the group does not like the teacher, the students report it to the dean's office, and then someone else will teach them. In this case, the teacher will be punished: he can simply write an explanatory note, or he can get to the point that his contract will not be renewed for the next year. In the full-time department, such complaints are very rare and they are not related to the incompetence of the teacher, but to the fact that he is strict and gives a lot of bad marks. But evening parties often complain, for example, if outdated material is read to them.
Now we have online education: the teacher uploads recordings of his lectures, students are given some time to watch these lectures, solve problems on them, and pass tests. During the exam, the student sits at the computer and answers the teacher's questions via video link, the defense of the diploma is also held online. Of course, cheating can be very simple, but we don’t see what is happening on the screen of the student, even if he is currently looking for answers on the Internet. The only way to understand whether a student has learned or not is to ask a question that is slightly different from the standard one, where knowledge must already be applied.
Of course, students continue to cheat, but they do it in a completely different way than before. Everyone knows: while you are preparing a cheat sheet, at least something is deposited in your head. Now there are no cheat sheets, they come to the exam with headphones. Who long hair, just cover them, but there are also wireless earpieces that are placed in the ear so that they are not visible at all. The microphone in such a device looks like a chain with a pendant, and on the other end of the wire, someone dictates the correct answers.
Previously, before the exam, we issued lists of tickets with questions that would be in them. Now, in order to write off less, they simply made a list of questions, and students do not know how they will be combined into tickets. But even here they came up with a way out: the assistant simply reads out the entire list of questions and, when he calls the right one, the student gives some kind of signal - clicks his pen or coughs. So, if someone makes a lot of strange noises in an exam, there is reason to suspect that he is cheating. We are fighting cheating with the same methods that are used on the exam - we put means of jamming communications. This is such a small box that blocks the operation of all cell phones for the radius of the cabinet, but at the same time it buzzes rather disgustingly. There is a theory that these jammers are bad for health, so we cannot use them if there are pregnant students in the group, someone has a pacemaker or a hearing aid.
About 50 percent of those who entered reach graduation. Some drop out due to poor progress, and someone simply understands that the IT field is not for them, and leaves on his own. There are those who finish their studies, but only for the sake of crust. They come to exams practically without knowing anything and ask to put a three. In general, it’s still difficult for me to slap a failure, even if it is well deserved. At the exam, I can sit from morning to evening, but I will stretch all the losers into triples - I give them simple tasks, I chew on the material. Sometimes it seems to me that I am wasting my time on those who do not need it at all, so in this session I will definitely try to learn how to put fair deuces. After a failure, the student goes to retake. In the case when the grade does not get better on the retake, a commission of three teachers gathers, and if the student fails the exam again, then this is followed by immediate expulsion. When they prepare orders for expulsion, there are simply queues in the dean's offices to tell their story and pity the dean. As a rule, students succeed, and the dean or even the vice-rector allows them to try again to retake everything, especially if the applicant has come for the first time.
After the third year, the curriculum necessarily includes an internship, and I advise all students not to put stamps in their report somewhere with their parents in the company, but to really go to work - even as an intern, even for very little money. In the fourth year, it is already quite possible to combine study and part-time work. The institute gives a broad outlook, but there are no specific deep knowledge and skills in one area that can be obtained only in practice.
Income
The senior teacher has a fixed monthly salary - 40 thousand rubles, it is written in the contract along with the number of hours to be worked. In general, the higher the position, the higher the salary and the less you need to work. So, for an assistant, the norm is 850 hours, for a senior teacher - 800 hours, for an associate professor - 700. In addition, we conditionally divide the teaching load into light and heavy among ourselves. A heavy load is lectures and seminars, and it is considered easy, for example, to take practice from students. They bring you a report that you can read in 15 minutes, and checking the report of one student on working hours counts as about eight pairs worked out in the classroom. We also refer to the light load check term papers or participation in the commission during the defense of diplomas. As a rule, such loads are taken by professors. Teachers are also paid extra if they conduct classes with masters or evening classes. There is an order that 80% of couples in the magistracy should be taught by professors, so this burden also goes to them.
Once every few months we have bonuses, at the end of the year they give the thirteenth salary. Teachers also have a paid vacation of 56 days. The awards depend on the intra-university ranking, and it is compiled separately for professors, associate professors, senior lecturers and assistants. Those who fall into the top three dozen receive an increase in salary for the next year. That is, we, like many corporations, also have a KPI index (Key Performance Indicators - key performance indicators). This rating is calculated taking into account many factors. They even look at what students write about you in the “Overheard” group, how they evaluate you on special sites. Therefore, some even specifically ask students to write good feedback may even start with this workshop.
Also, when assigning a rating, they pay attention to how often the teacher appeared in the media. It is believed that the best PR for the university will be provided by its employees, who will act as experts and give comments. So, the university constantly flashes in the press, and this acts on our potential applicants as the twenty-fifth frame. Therefore, many teachers do not always speak out even on the topics of the subjects they teach. You can, for example, tell in some report what you think about the views of the younger generation or the demand for certain professions, the main thing is to indicate which university you are from.
The rating is positively influenced by publications in scientific journals. There are Russian magazines, you can still get into them, although it is not easy, but it is considered especially cool to publish something in an international magazine. Also, when compiling the rating, they look at how the teacher participates in research work, how much he takes part-time jobs within the university, what students answer about him in anonymous surveys.
The teacher has many opportunities for additional income. Someone works in several universities - three days here, three days there. Often students come with requests to work with them additionally, but I always refuse. We are very strict with corruption, and if they find out that I work with my students for money, I will have problems. So I just advise some courses where you can improve your knowledge and not be financially connected with me.
It happens that a company that sells online education sends a request to the university that they need to develop an entire course in programming. I can prepare it in a month, record lectures and make assignments, complete and hand over all the work. The company fully buys the copyrights, a certain amount is credited to the university's account, and then this money is transferred to me. This is beneficial both for the company that sells online education, because they have entered into an agreement with a well-known university, and for us, since you can get 250 thousand for the development of the course. At the Department of Marketing, some research can be commissioned. In addition, conducting surveys and processing the results is often entrusted to students as a learning task. Sometimes some part-time jobs can be found inside the university, for example, to develop or update a website. Together with various part-time jobs and additional payments, I average 60 thousand a month.
Expenses
Fixed expenses are 4,000 for rent and 2,000 for travel. Another 15 thousand is spent on food. Around the university there are many places where you can go to eat and coffee shops, I usually go there. We have a canteen at the university, but the prices there are not at all student prices - lunch costs 200-300 rubles, almost like a business lunch in a cafe.
I have small but fixed work expenses. On average, they spend about a thousand rubles a month. In graduate school, I study for free, as an employee of the university, but during the preparation of a dissertation, you need to publish articles about your research, and you already have to pay for this. They can print for free only in three cases: you are a doctor of science, you have made some important discovery, or your article is perfect for the topic of the issue. If you go directly to the editor of the journal, then the publication will cost 800 rubles, and if through an intermediary, you can give 5 thousand.
Almost all the books I need are on the Internet in the public domain, I don’t have to spend money on them. But according to the Unified State Examination, manuals and collections are updated every year typical tasks that I buy. We also have Olympiad Programming classes for schoolchildren. It has little to do with real work, but there are children who are interested in it. There are no open access materials on it, so I also buy books. Now at our university all the boards are metal, on which you can write only with markers, but the university does not buy these markers themselves. Without a marker, even a couple cannot be drawn, because you constantly need to draw something. They are cheap - 100 rubles, but I'm more concerned not with the costs, but with the need to remember to buy this marker in advance, because they are not sold anywhere within the walls of the university. I usually buy several at once and carry with me in case someone forgets.
At least another 15 thousand is the cost of appearance, that is, cosmetics, personal care, clothing. In our cynical world, you will always be greeted by your clothes. In Russia, there is already a stereotype that teachers live in poverty, and if you also look like you have little money, then you will not be able to gain credibility with students. Here I am a programmer, talking about IT, and students are well aware that salaries are high in this area. If I do not maintain the image of a successful person, interest will immediately fade away. As the saying goes, "if you're so smart, why are you so poor?". Therefore, one way or another, all teachers create a certain image - many drive a car, all women, even young ones, wear fur coats. Someone may think that this is just throwing dust in the eyes of students, but it is necessary to do so in order to confirm one's status.
I save all the free money. Of course, at my age I want to spend money on entertainment, but now I'm planning a big purchase. According to May decrees, teachers should receive 200% of the average salary in Moscow by 2018, and our salary is gradually growing. Even now the mortgage rate is falling, it was 12%, and has become 9.5%. At some point, I will reach the peak of my salary and the mortgage rate will drop to a minimum, and this will be the perfect moment to buy an apartment.