1. Can I choose which school to work at? 

Teacher Placement Preferences are taken into consideration but cannot be guaranteed because schools have final approval of all teacher placements at their campuses.

- Once the Work Visa process has begun there will be no placement changes as visas are only valid for the schools they are applied through.

- Teachers in Turkey reserves the right to change teacher placements due to extenuating circumstances, though the occurrence is infrequent.

 

2. Where are the schools located?

Our client schools are located in Asian and European sides of Istanbul.

 

3. How old are the students?

Students are grouped as follows: 3 – 6 yrs Kindergarten, grades 1-4 Primary, grades 5-8 Middle School, and grades 9 – 12 High School.

 

4. What are the official holidays in Turkey and other important dates I need to know about?

1st Semester: September – January

Winter Camps : Exact time is announced in the semester. (Late January)

2nd Semester: February – June

Summer Camps: Exact time is announced in the semester. (late June)

 

Semester holiday usually falls in between the last week of January and the first week of February each year. 

 

Offical Holidays

- Labor Day: May 1 (Monday )

- Youth Day: May 19 ( Friday )

 

5. What are the working hours?

School Hours, regardless of your teaching schedule, are from 8:30AM – 5PM. Teachers may need to attend teacher activities after school and on weekends.

- Teacher Trainings, Orientations, and Parent Nights are required by schools and TNT. School in-service trainings, orientations, parent nights and other mandatory staff activities may take place during school, after school and/or weekends.

- TNT Trainings are held after school and/or on Saturdays.

- No additional payments will be made for mandatory staff activities or teacher training.

 

6. Who is responsible for my schedule?

Teacher Schedules are determined by schools and can be changed at any time by department heads, so don’t be surprised by flexible schedules.

- Teachers will be assigned up to 30 regular teaching periods a week.

- Some schools will require you to teach Saturday classes, but you will be compensated on hourly basis for any class taught on Saturday and this happens infrequently.

- Teachers may be asked to teach up to 35 classes a week to cover absent teachers or school programs. If you are asked to teach more than 30 classes, you will be paid extra on an hourly basis.

- Most teachers will be asked to teach multiple grade levels.

 

7.  What will be the classes like?

Classes vary from campus to campus. Most kindergarten classes have between 12 – 15 students. Most primary - high school classes have between 20 – 25 students. Some high school classes are segregated by gender. Students are grouped by age, not language ability, so there will be great variety student ability within a single class.

 

8. Who will be responsible for lesson planning?

Lesson Planning is a basic teacher requirement. Teachers will email their English Department Heads their daily lesson plans at the beginning of each week. All teachers must submit their daily lesson plans to TNT at the end of each month. Most schools will provide a curriculum overview or pacing plan for teachers to base their lesson plans on. Most schools will ask teachers and students to use workbooks and practice books that are part of the school curriculum (or AS the school curriculum). Teachers are expected to be teaching ENGLISH SPEAKING- therefore engaging activities, listening and speaking activities are of great importance.

 

9. Do I need to stay for summer and winter camps?

 

Winter camps take place during the first week of the semester holiday (late January). The Semester Holiday is unpaid leave. There will be no pay for the final week of January. Teachers who work during Winter Camp will be paid their entire salary for the months of January and February. Teachers who do not participate in Winter Camp will not be paid for this holiday. Specific dates and campuses will be communicated in December, but not all campuses will hold Winter Camps. If your campus does not hold a Winter camp you may have the entire Semester Holiday as an unpaid break or may be placed at another campus.

 

Summer camps will take place the week following the end of the academic year. Specific dates and campuses will be communicated in May, but not all campuses will hold Summer Camps. If your campus does not hold a Summer Camp your contract completion date will become the end of the academic year, or you may be placed at another campus. If your campus holds a winter camp your contract will extend to cover the entirety of the camp and teachers will be paid the related contracted salary.