Solo Sensei - Volume #5

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The Solo Sensei - findteacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com Newsletter
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Volume #5 November 13, 2001

IN THIS ISSUE
1. findateacher.Net News
2. Site Upgrades
3. WIN - Longman's Handbook for Teaching English
4a. Power TIP - Choose your places carefully
4b. Pitfalls of Poorly Chosen Places
4c. When Choosing Far Places is OK
5. More Helpful Tips
6. Insult us. Please!

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1. findateacher.Net News
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findateacher.Net and SenseiSagasu.com (where students search for teachers) sites have both had significantly increased visitors in October. Requests for teacher contact information in October reached 600. The first part of this month too, has shown a dramatic increase in orders (390 already). We hope YOU were among those teachers chosen.

Also encouraging is that 229 new teachers signed up in October. The number of non-English teaching teachers who signed up in October is 5% higher than September and is increasing. findateacher.Net currently lists about 300 teachers of languages other than English.

A brief article about SenseiSagasu.com appears in the latest Nikkei Woman (a popular nationwide woman's business magazine). Plus, distribution of SensieSagasu.com advertisements in other print media is expanding and is set to expand further in late November. This will most likely add even more student visitors. (Hopefully........'cause it aint cheap!)

What does all this mean for you? More trust and greater understanding by students of the SenseiSagasu.com system plus higher brand recognition all mean more students for you! So...make sure to log in and preview/update/maintain your record so it looks it's best. Students are looking!

http://findateacher.Net

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2. Site Upgrades
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In order to make accessing the site a speedier and more pleasant experience for the growing number of findateacher.Net and SenseiSagasu.com visitors, we are in the process of upgrading to a dedicated server.

The SenseiSagasu.com side of the site has been redesigned for easier browsing by students. Give it a try by searching for your record at:

http://findateacher.Net/cgi-bin/tsearchJS.cgi

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3. WIN - Longman's Handbook for Teaching English
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This month, 5 of the first 150 teacher who update their records will be randomly chosen to receive a copy of Longman's best selling reference work for English teachers, "The Practice of English Language Teaching" by Jeremy Harmer.

Topics include specific teaching materials and techniques, lesson planning, classroom management and even a section on English language teaching theory. Good luck!

Congratulations to last month's lucky winners! Canada's Tanya Noreen and USA's Jess Paulson have both been sent Longman's photocopiable Game/Activity 4 Book Set.

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4a. Power TIP - Choosing places correctly
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All teachers have the ability to display their record in up to 10 places so prospective students can locate them easily. Choosing these places correctly is VITAL because it is the starting point for students when searching for teacher. Have you chosen YOUR teaching location correctly?

We've noticed that numerous findateacher.Net teachers are listed in:
* too few areas
* too many areas
* areas that are too spread out
* areas nowhere near where they live

As a general rule we suggest that:

A. Teachers living in a city that is divided into ku's (wards) first select the ku of their address (or primary teaching location). Next, select this first chosen ku's contiguous (bordering) ku's. Finally, select any other areas that may be within reasonable reach. Selecting 10 areas works well for some teachers. Many teachers in Tokyo can select 10 ku's with no problem.

B. For teachers living in a shi (city) not divided into ku's, selecting 10 areas will probably be too much - since those shi's are usually fairly large. In that case, selecting just 1 shi OR 1 shi plus the nearest neighboring 1 or 2 shi's may be enough.

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4b. Pitfalls of Poorly Chosen Places
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A. TOO FEW places
Listing yourself in only 1 (or too few) areas eliminates views by students who are browsing in any of your neighboring areas BUT who may be willing to travel to your area for a lesson - if they had only been able to access your record to find out you were there.

B. TOO MANY or TOO SPREAD OUT areas
Teachers who get overly ambitious and list themselves in areas too far from where they live or want to teach, will (obviously) get calls from students who are also too far away. This will lead to numerous telephone conversations with prospective student who, after a few minutes, will realize that they are too distant to be taught, wasting the teacher's time and theirs.

C. NOWHERE NEAR the teacher
One teacher, who lives in Kyoto, recently signed up in Niigata, Okinawa, and Tokyo. Needless to say...this neither attracted many students nor made the teacher look too intelligent. We helped put this person back on the right track but unfortunately; there are more like him in the findateacher.Net database.

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4c. When Choosing Far Places is OK
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There are some cases where listing yourself in places (reasonably) far away from your home/primary teaching location MAY be appropriate.

Several teachers teaching hard-to-find languages or with highly specialized backgrounds or unusual hobbies have explained to us that they chose places a bit far away from where they live because some students looking for a teacher with their qualifications/interests are willing to travel farther to meet them OR are willing to pay to have the teacher come to their location.

As with everything else in findateacher.Net, you are free to select whichever places you want as long as you truly are willing to go there OR if you think there is reason that a student would be willing to come to you.

In short, taking a little time, consulting a map/Japanese friend and being reasonable in deciding where to list yourself should lead to greater success and efficiency getting students.

You can check your chosen places by logging on at:
http://findateacher.Net

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5. More Helpful Tips
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A. Average student visitors spend over 14 minutes looking through the site. Most time seems to be spent browsing through teacher records. Teachers with photo's are much more likely to be looked at AND selected than those with no picture.

B. Log in to keep your record fresh (at least once every 3 months). (http://findateacher.Net) If not, a note will appear to students telling them your record is not up-to-date.

C. Teachers with the most recently updated records get many times more views by students because they are automatically moved to the top of the list for the areas they are listed in. To keep your record on top simply log in (no changes to your record are necessary). Logging in daily will keep you on the top of the list - but may be overkill.

D. If you get to many students or are leaving the country for a while, you can log in and click "Take a Break". This will temporarily remove you from student view until you come back. You can also delete your record on the same page if you are leaving permanently.

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6. Insult us. Please!
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Something about the findateacher.Net site bothering you? Don't like the default duck picture? Can't find data you want to see? Just feel like complaining in general? Anything at all...let us know. No matter how small a problem...we 'll try to straighten it out for you.

Contact:
gripes@findateacher.Net

'till next time,

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

*** Made for Teachers by Teachers ***