Solo Sensei - Volume #8

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The Solo Sensei - findteacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com Newsletter
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Volume #8 March 12, 2002

IN THIS ISSUE
1. findateacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com News
2. Site Upgrades
3. Three Notes You'll Be Getting Soon
4. Power TIP - Are you Reachable?
5. Question of the Month - Can I get fired from findateacher.Net?
6. Log in and WIN
A. Longman's - Cutting Edge Video/Workbook (2)
B. Macmillan's - American English Learners Dictionary (8)
7. More Helpful Tips
8. What's on Your Mind?

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1. findateacher.Net/SenseiSagasu.com News
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In January and February 2002, 1425 teachers' contact info was sent to students. We hope you were among them.

Advertising to attract new teachers has been slightly scaled back to allow us to focus more strongly on ads attracting students. Nevertheless, the teacher sign up rate remains constant. 320 new teachers signed up in February 2002.

Teacher photos continue to flow in. Currently, 33% of all records contain photos. 81% of January and February orders were for teachers with photos. Photos work.

February 11th, Shibuya FM conducted a interview with findateacher.Net's Mark Evans. The interview focused on the advantages of SenseiSagasu.com vs. language schools and how students can use the web site.

A top language school in Japan has proposed working with findateacher.Net to provide teachers with private work (if desired). If implemented, this will be done in a way which will not compromise the independence or privacy of findateacher.Net members. More about this later through copies of the Solo Sensei Newsletter (this newsletter).

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2. Site Upgrades
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A. "A Student Has Selected You" Email
As part of our continuing effort to keep you informed about what is happening with your record, we have set up an emailer to let you know each time a student requests your contact information (see sample "A" in the next section).

B. Students Reporting Unreachable Teachers
Upon receiving their list of 5 teacher's contact information, students are now being requested to inform us of any teachers in the list who are not contactable. If we (findateacher.Net) are also unsuccessful in contacting the teacher, we will either put the teacher's record on "Break" or delete the teacher - depending on the circumstances.

C. "Have You been Contacted?" Email
One week after your contact information has been sent to the student, an email will be sent to you asking if the student has contacted you. Answering this is optional but very helpful to us in evaluating who is getting contacted, by whom, when and why. This, in turn, is information we plan to share with you to help you improve your record (see sample "C" in the next section).

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3. Three Notes You'll be Getting Soon
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A. "A STUDENT HAS SELECTED YOU" EMAIL SAMPLE
This is the note which will come to you occasionally when you are chosen by a student. If you get this note two or three times in one day, it's because you have been chosen two or three times (not because our program is malfunctioning). Here's what it looks like:

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Congratulations!

This is an automated note from findateacher.Net / SenseiSagasu.com to let you know that a student (STUDENT NAME) has requested your contact information. You were 1 of up to 5 teachers chosen by the student and may be contacted shortly.

If for any reason, you are unable to take new students, please login IMMEDIATELY and put your record on break or remove it from the database by deleting it.

Please understand that students pay a small fee to obtain your contact information and it is our job to make sure that the database stays up-to-date with teachers who are willing to teach. This enables us to maintain a free and efficient service for our teachers. Thanks for your help!

The student may contact you by email OR phone (if you provided a phone number). Please be aware that the student may:

* Be calling/writing from a number/email address you do not recognize
* Sound unsure of what to say at the beginning of a phone call
* Speak/write in broken/poor English (for example)
* Speak/write ONLY Japanese

If you are unsure how to handle calls coming to you in Japanese, please visit:
http://findateacher.Net/handlingcalls.html

This is a bilingual (English/Japanese) guide with common phrases which might help you during a phone contact.
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B. NOTE FROM STUDENTS
The following link brings you to a note we recently added to the SenseiSagasu.com side of the site for students of low English ability. They can cut and paste it into as a message to send you. You may get it (or some variation of it created by the student) repeatedly. It is NOT junk mail:
http://findateacher.Net/firstemailj.html

C. "HAVE YOU BEEN CONTACTED?" EMAIL SAMPLE
This note will come one week after your contact information was sent to a student:

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Your contact information was sent to a student named (STUDENT NAME) seven days ago.

We appreciate your help in keeping findateacher.Net an efficient and free service for our teachers.

You will be sent one of these surveys each time a student asks for your contact info. If you haven't been contacted, please just send back an e-mail saying so.

If you were contacted by this student, please help us improve findateacher.Net by answering the following:

I was contacted by:
(Please enter an 'X' next to your answer)

______ An Individual Student
______ The leader of a study group
______ A school (School name: )
______ A teacher/student introduction service (Name: )

Comments:
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4. Power TIP - Are you Reachable?
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Each month we get several letters from students asking why they can't get in touch with one of their 5 chosen teachers. Many students think that because the internet is lightning fast that they'll immediately be able to contact their teachers.

One student even wrote us after only six hours of placing their order complaining that NONE of their five teachers were reachable by phone. However, most students are more realistic and wait about 7 to 10 days before letting us know.

To improve your own reachability, please do the following:

a. Add a note to your comments section informing students when the best times to contact you are. However, please do NOT include your phone number or other contact information here or your record could get automatically deleted.

b. If your phone has a number display, be responsive to unknown incoming phone numbers. Especially after getting an email from us telling you that "A student has selected you".

c. If your findateacher.Net record uses an email address you check only infrequently - please try to check it a bit more.

In any case, if you are contacted by a student, we ask that you reply in some way (ANY way) so that the students know you are in fact a real teacher (or person willing to teach) and not a mere fabrication of text created by us to fill the database.

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5. Can I get fired from findateacher.Net?
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No. Since you were never hired by findateacher.Net, you can not get fired. findateacher.Net is a meeting place for teachers and students. Signing up simply makes your information available to prospective students. They are the "employers".

However, if there are verified and/or repeated complaints that a teacher single-mindedly opted out of a scheduled meeting time OR a teacher is uncontactable, we certainly will have to consider deleting that teacher's record.

Our job is to keep the findateacher.Net database clean for students. All we ask of you is to use findateacher.Net to your advantage.

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6. Log in and WIN
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A. This month, two of the first 150 teacher who update their records will be randomly chosen to receive a copy of Longman's Cutting Edge Video/Workbook set (worth 15,000 yen/each). These use a documentary style approach focusing "on different aspects of the English speaking world, with young presenters to introduce each topic".

B. 8 teachers will be selected to win MacMillan Language House's American English Learner's Dictionary (worth 3200 yen/each). It is a "detailed and informal" dictionary with 35,000 meanings, 22,000 main entry articles, 72,000 example sentences, over 1000 pages.

Good luck!

Congratulations to last month's lucky winners! Canada's David Royer & Ireland's Margaret Grant. Each have won a set of Longman's H. Douglas Brown Series (worth 15,000 yen/each)

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6. More Helpful Tips
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1. Teachers with phone numbers displayed are more likely to get contacted first than those with just an email address.

2. A phone number is required (in case we need to contact you). If you have not included your phone number in your record, please log in and do so soon. If you do not want this data to be shown to students, click "Do not show to students".

3. Especially after getting the "A Student Has Selected You" email, be careful how you answer the phone. If you sound too casual, belligerent, hung over, drowsy, etc. the student may hang up and never call or email again.

4. Past issues of Solo Sensei newsletter contain lots of tips on improving your record. They can be seen at:<br>
http://findateacher.Net/archive.html

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7. What's On Your Mind?
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Does anyone read this far? Wish this newsletter had photos? Anything at all...Drop us a note. We promise to reply.

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

*** Made for Teachers by Teachers ***