A language school leaders response to teachers' financial difficulties.

Many teachers are struggling to make ends meet. How far should we take responsibility and try to help? What could we do? We're feeling the pinch too. We live in uncertain times and, in many parts of the world, we in English language teaching are in a contracting market. What can we do to help our colleagues and, hopefully, ourselves too?

“Managing in TEFL” is a fortnightly companion for language school leaders. It is brought to you by Active Language Teacher Training, www.activelanguage.net, providers of Trinity Dip and CertTESOL and Teaching Younger Learners courses.

We love our jobs; we care for our students, we're passionate about teaching but is it enough? Financially things feel tougher than ever; many of us are struggling to get to the end of the month, and on top of that, Christmas is coming. Many TEFLers are in trouble. What can we do?

The TEFLer is a fortnightly companion for language teachers, written by Simon Pearlman and brought to you by Active Language Teacher Trainingwww.activelanguage.net

TEFLing is rarely well paid and we accept that. Until recently, most of us have received a living wage, meaning that we can live reasonably well on what we earn but there's never been much wiggle room, very few of us save at all. But now things feel tougher than ever. Why is that? Why do we feel poorer than ever?

Is time flying or is it more trudging along? The end is in sight on this term. Maybe now is a good time to stop and reflect. We might be tempted to reflect on how our school is doing, how our colleagues and our students are doing, and that's all important. But maybe now is a good time to think about ourselves, how are we doing? Like in the safety demos on aeroplanes, put on your oxygen mask before helping other people. If we don't look after ourselves, it's so much more difficult to take care of others.

The TEFLer is a fortnightly EFL teachers' companion, written by Simon Pearlman

How do you feel about your classes being observed? Does it make your stomach churn? Or maybe you're excited and interested in what might come out of it? So much depends on how it's presented to us and even the most experienced and confident teachers’ knees can turn to jelly at the mere thought of it.

The TEFLer is a companion for teachers of English, written by Simon Pearlman

You can take a horse to water but you can't make them drink.

You can take a student to class but you can't make them think.

We really want and need our students to think. If we can get them thinking, we can get them engaged and engagement most surely leads to learning.

Managing in TEFL is a companion for language school leaders written by Simon Pearlman

The learning never stops, does it? We learn from our colleagues, from our students and their families, of course, as well as all the people we work around on a regular basis. With these immediate circles, we're always listening, watching, always learning . And what about our circles beyond the immediate? We can learn so much from further afield, from people in different places, different spaces both in and outside our own profession. Lets take a look at our “circles beyond”.

The TEFLer is an English teacher’s companion written by Simon Pearlman

It’s the middle of October already! We’ve probably spent the best part of a month with our students by now. Hopefully things are progressing as they should but maybe there are some wobbly wheels too. How can we deal with the problems that are emerging in our classes?