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The Solo Sensei - findteacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com Newsletter
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Volume #7 January 31, 2002
IN THIS ISSUE
1. findateacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com News
2. Not Getting Contacted?
3. What Does "Views by Students" mean?
4. Power TIP - Messy Record as Harmful as Bad Photo
5. WIN - Longman's H. Douglas Brown Teaching Series
6. Is your Photo OK?
7. More Helpful Tips
8. What can we do for you?
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1. findateacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com News
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Thanks to your participation, there are presently 2024 active English teachers in the findateacher.Net database and 2376 active teachers overall. Once again, we have more teacher members than most of the four letter language schools in Japan.
As before, we are experiencing a steady and increasing flow of requests for teacher contact information. In December 2001, 543 teachers' contact information was distributed. The total for 2001 (June - December) was 2720 teachers. So far in 2002 we are giving out about 300 teachers' contact info/week. Hopefully you are included in these orders.
The power of having a photo is being realized by teachers - there's been an impressive increase in photos received by teachers this month. In January, over 117 photos were added. Currently 33% of teachers have photos, up from 28% the previous month.
If you were one of the teachers who received the "Please update your record" note in error, we'd like to offer a final "SORRY". We isolated the problem and have put it out of it's misery.
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2. What does "Views by Students" mean?
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A few months ago, we added a counter to each teacher's record to display the number of times each record was getting viewed by students (or other onlookers). However, there is still some confusion about what this statistic means. Each month we get a few emails asking something like, "My record has been viewed 213 times by students but I have only been contacted 2 times. Why aren't more students contacting me?"
To clarify - the number, "Views by Students", is designed to show the number of students that have taken the time to go from the browse page:
http://findateacher.Net/cgi-bin/tsearchJS.cgi
into the teachers full record to see it's details.
It does NOT mean that they have access to those teachers' contact information. Students must pay a small fee to get teachers' contact information (3800 yen for 5 teachers). This is used to pay for advertising (to attract students), administrative and other findateacher.Net expenses.
"Views by Students" does not count the number of times that a record appeared on the browse page.
To see how many times your record has been "Viewed by Students", please log in at:
http://findateacher.Net.
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3. Not Getting Contacted?
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Each month we get a couple of notes asking, "Why isn't anyone contacting me"?.
In most cases, the answer is obvious, like; "You have no photo" OR "You aren't listed in enough places" OR "Your record is only half filled in". But sometimes further consultation is needed.
If you are worried there is something wrong with your record or just want some advice on how to improve it, please ask us directly. Consider us your co-workers. Actually, most of us are teachers who work at findateacher.Net between teaching private lessons.
Before asking us for a consultation on how to improve your record (because we are already buried in work) please do 2 things:
1. Make sure that the so-called "obvious" items mentioned above are taken care of in your record
2. Please consult the Solo Sensei archives index at:
http://findateacher.Net/archive.html
to see if there is a topic that's already been discussed that will help you.
If, after doing those 2 steps, you feel that you still need help, please direct help requests to:
help-me@findateacher.Net
We will handle these on a first-come-first-served basis and may not be able to respond immediately.
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4. Power TIP - Messy Record as Harmful as Bad Photo
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If your record is filled in as if "you just don't care", (with typos, misspellings, half-filled in fields, improperly capitalized words, etc.) students may think "you just don't care".
Entering data neatly increases the likelihood of your getting chosen. (No, we do not compile statistics on this, BUT I'll take my chances and assume it is true.)
Remember that most Japanese students have had fundamental English grammar rules pounded into their heads since elementary school, so mistakes like these give them an easy way to make a first impression of you - almost like having a second photo in your record.
To make sure the text in your record is as presentable as it should be, please browse for your record in the English version of the browse page.
http://findateacher.Net/cgi-bin/tsearchJSE.cgi
If it needs a touch-up please log in and clean it up at:
http://findateacher.Net
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5. WIN - Longman's H. Douglas Brown Teaching Series
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Next month, 2 teachers who log into their records will be randomly selected to receive a copy of Longman's H. Douglas Brown Series (worth 15,000 yen/each). Titles include "Principles of Language Learning and Acquisition", "Readings on Second Language Acquisition", PLUS the new "Teaching by Principles" and "Strategies for Success". For details on any of these helpful titles and more please consult http://www.longman.com
Congratulations to last month's 5 winner of Longman's multimedia video & workbook combo "True Voices". Winners were:
1. Elliot Finn (Australia)
2. Paul Taylor (England)
3. Norman Bussman (Canada)
4. Sun-ae Lee-grunden (USA)
5. Michael Tunnah (Australia)
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6. Is your Photo OK?
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Make sure your photo is decent. One teacher recently asked why they were not getting chosen. We looked at her record and everything was almost perfect; significant teaching experience, ivy league education, record displaying in 8 of Tokyo's ku's. She had been viewed by students over 150 times but had not been contacted once.
We suggested that her photo was not effective as presenting her as a friendly positive teacher. She agreed and changed the photo and was contacted a few days later.
findateacher.Net does not care what kind of photo is used, but judging by the teachers being selected, photos looking "teacher-like" or "smart-casual" seem to be getting chosen more than the "casual" photos.
In general, here are some other things to note about the photos of teachers who are getting selected repeatedly.
A. Eyes are open and alert
B. Facial expression isn't too serious, but also not too relaxed
C. Photo somehow shows personality
D. Photo is clear
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7. More Helpful Tips
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1. You can register in up to 10 places. If yo live in a highly populated area (like Tokyo) you are limiting your exposure by listing yourself in only 1 place.
2. Logging-in moves your record to the top of the list for each area in which you are registered. Teachers at the tops of the list are selected more often than those lower in the list.
3. Members of findateacher.Net wishing to study Japanese get free access to Japanese teachers in their area. For details contact jake@findateacher.Net
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8. What can we do for you?
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Is there a magazine you think we should advertise in? Something you think looks funny or out-of-place on the site? See something that is outdated or not working? Please let us know.
Also, let us know of any questions or issues you'd like to see addressed in future versions of the Solo Sensei Newsletter (this newsletter). We are always glad to hear from you.
admin@findateacher.Net
Jake Rollins
Solo Sensei, Producer
Teacher Helper
jake@findateacher.Net
http://findateacher.Net
http://www.SenseiSagasu.com
*** Made for Teachers by Teachers ***
Copyright 2002 FindaNet, Ltd.
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