“All classes must be made up. Generally, if I know I will be absent on a particular date, I try to make up the class beforehand if at all possible. Give the students a choice of when and give the monitor the job of finding the room for you. Be a little flexible as they know their schedule and work load.”

 

“The monitor is in charge of organizing the class. If you need something done, ask the monitor directly and it will be done. If you ask who would like to do it, you will get little response. You also have the vice-monitor who is mainly responsible to get you to sign the attendance sheet every week. Make sure you sign. It is also proof you are teaching your classes.

“The student in charge of study is another. Good person to know. If someone doesn’t hand in the homework, it’s his/her job to see you get it. He/she is also useful for collecting or handing back homework. One of my classes this year has a student whose job it is to keep me up to date about where the class is and who will not attend. These people sometimes change after a term so check. They want to do their job so give them some responsibility to assume.”

 

“Generally speaking the teaching facilities are good. I make sure when I book a classroom it has multimedia equipment. So far I have had no problems in getting these class rooms. I can prepare the class on my laptop and then plug it in when I get to the class.”

 

“I have had to make some trips this year interrupting the classes I teach. This has been easily resolved by rescheduling the class. As the class all tend to have the same schedule, finding another time is never that hard. Getting the class monitors mobile phone number is very important to keep in touch with the class.”

 

“If you teach in the public English department, rescheduling classes can be difficult. Usually there is a monitor for your class, however, this may not be the case for every class, (or maybe the monitor doesn’t want to admit to being monitor for fear of not being able to understand you). The monitor may not be able to speak or understand much English, so be careful, what you think might be a simple instruction may not be so simple for him/her. You need to contact the Head of the public English department firstly to seek permission to reschedule, and then speak to the secretary, who will contact the relevant classes and reschedule your class for you. You need to have dates, times etc. readily available. In my experience I have found the department very flexible with regard to rescheduling your classes, as long as you make up the class there usually isn’t a problem”.