Solo Sensei - Volume #14

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**** The Solo Sensei Newsletter - Volume #14 ****
April 23rd, 2003
Over 5000 Readers Japan-wide
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You are receiving this newsletter as part of your membership in findateacher.Net. If needed, see remove instructions below.

IN THIS ISSUE
1. FindaTeacher.Net / SenseiSagasu.com News
2. Site Upgrades
A. Students Can Now Give You Their Contact Info
B. Add Credibility to Your findateacher.Net Record
3. Responding to Prospective Student Email
4. Suggestions For Ending Classes on Time
5. Tips/Miscellany
6. Tell us

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1. FindaTeacher.Net / SenseiSagasu.com News
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We are currently sending out over 850 teachers' contact information per week. We hope that you are getting enough students. More are on the way.

A few teachers are being chosen over 15 times/week, several over 10 times/week, many daily. Many teachers, mostly those who are not "refreshed" or without photos - are still not getting chosen at all. Students seem to have the most confidence in the freshest records.

Currently, 4080 teachers are actively accepting students while 620 are taking a break. If you are too busy to accept new students please put yourself on "Break" and "Refresh" your record later when you are ready for more students.

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2. Site Upgrades
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A. Students Can Now Give You Their Contact Info
Students now have the option of providing their 5 chosen teachers with their name, email address and/or phone number. This contact information (if provided) will be included in the "Congratulations!" note that is automatically sent to you when you are chosen.

Please use this contact information to facilitate correspondence between yourself and the student. The quicker you respond, the quicker they may become *your* student. However, please *do not* use this contact information in an overly aggressive manner (or you could be permanently auto-deleted). If the student does not provide their contact information to you in this note, please do not write findateacher.Net asking for it because we won't be able to give it to you.

B. Add Credibility to Your findateacher.Net Record (Optional)
Despite the increase in orders recently, numerous students browse the SenseiSagasu.com database but can't muster the courage to make the final purchase of your contact information. To help some of these fence-sitters over the top, we have come up with an optional way to help make your record more "credible".

Any teacher who sends in a *clear* copy of the front and back of their gaijin card (also called "Certificate of Alien Registration" or "Gaikokujin Touroku Shoumeisho") together with the downloadable findateacher.Net Teacher Contract (available at the link below) will receive a small "Certified" symbol next to their summary record on the page where students browse
( http://findateacher.Net/cgi-bin/tsearchJS.cgi ) and on their full record.

This symbol will let the student know that your signed findateacher.net Teacher Contract is on file in our Yokohama headquarters and that you legally reside in Japan.

Students will not have access to copies of either gaijin card or contract copies. The "certified" symbols will begin appearing in teacher records after the first 50 sets of contract/gaijin card copies are received.

For details please visit:
http://findateacher.Net/links.html#credibility

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3. Responding to Prospective Student Email
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A teacher recently replied to an inquiry from a prospective student with:

"Hello, I am an English Teacher in Fukui. How can I help you?"

Yes....that's all. The student then wrote to findateacher.Net asking what the teacher meant.

Answering prospective student email too hastily may result in thier giving up on you and choosing another of their chosen teachers. Unlike this reply, informative tactfully written replies will work much more to your advantage.

It might be a good idea to have a pre-made copy of a note ready to send inquiring students. In this pre-made email, you might include some of the info that is already in your findateacher.Net record (times, prices, meeting places, phone numbers) and definitely information about what to do next to start the lesson. Having a copy of this pre-made reply ready in Japanese is also helpful.

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4. Suggestions For Ending Classes on Time
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Several teachers have written in over the months asking what they can do at the end of a lesson to help with "straggler" students. That is, those students who seem to have a hard time standing up after the lesson and finding their way to the door when the designated class time has finished. Jim from Osaka wrote "When the class ends he seems to get even more comfortable on my sofa and won't leave until the doorbell rings and I let the next student in. What should I do?"

Here are a few tips we have gathered from some of findateacher.Net's private teachers. If these suggestions sound mean or anti-social; remember, they are not direct advice from findateacher.Net, but from your peers. (WARNING: Use of white lies encouraged).

A. Tell the students that you have a class immediately after them
B. If #1 doesn’t work, tell the student that you would like to use the bathroom before the next student arrives and say "OK...see you next time". Chances are they'll choose to go out the door rather than wait for you to finish or follow you into the bathroom.
C. Guide yourself and the discussion you are having with the student in the direction of the door.
D. Stop talking (especially asking questions) as much as you did during the lesson.
E. Tell the student that you have an outside lesson and have to get ready for it. Simultaneously acting as if you are getting ready to go out (packing your backpack, putting on your jacket, etc.) helps. Be careful as this may backfire if the student tries to wait for you to go out the door with you. If this happens, tell the student that you'll either be going in a different direction OR using a different means of transport than them (bus, bicycle, skateboard, stilts....whatever).
F. After an evening class, explain that you have a very early class the next day so "...have to end this lesson on time and go to sleep".
G. Tell the student that you have a telephone lesson that begins exactly at the time their class is scheduled to end. Holding the phone as if you are ready to make a call helps.
H. Tell the student that your next student may be waiting outside the door and sometimes doesn't ring the doorbell because (s)he worries that it will disturb the lesson in progress. This gives you a reason to open the door for a pretend peek outside but also provides the "coincidental" opportunity to helpfully hold the door for your departing student.

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5. Tips / Miscellany
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A. Can you translate? We are looking for people who can translate the English side of findateacher.Net into other languages so that non-English speaking teachers can sign up more easily. Any of the languages listed on the findateacher.Net homepage is OK. Please let us know if you're interested.

B. Browsing SenseiSagasu.com the old-fashioned way is still available in English at:
http://findateacher.Net/cgi-bin/tsearchJSE.cgi

C. Bored? Check out the Solo Sensei Newsletter archive for other tips on keeping students coming your way:
http://findateacher.Net/archive.html

D. If you are teaching on your own you may need to consider your health insurance options. Reasonably priced, zero deductible, complete healthcare coverage is available from Global Healthcare/Banner. For information about the new "Teachers Plan" see:
http://www.globalhealthcover.com/teachers_plan.htm

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6. Tell us
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Findateacher.Net is interested in hearing from you. Anything is OK:
* How many students you've gotten through findateacher.Net?
* Are you satisfied/dissatisfied with findateacher.Net?
* Any unusual students?

Until next time....Sayonara, Sayonara, Sayonara!

Jake Rollins
Solo Sensei, Producer
Teacher Helper
jake@FindaTeacher.Net
http://www.FindaTeacher.Net
http://www.SenseiSagasu.com

*** Made for Teachers by Teachers ***
Copyright 2003 FindaNet, Ltd.