Sylvan bends over backward for families--by taking advantage of teachers - Teacher Sylvan Learning Centers Employee Review

Everything else about this company has been a professional nightmare. Here are my biggest concerns: INCONSISTENT AND CHAOTIC SCHEDULE Sylvan's primary work hours are after-school, about 3-8pm. Kids are able to reschedule their sessions at a moment's notice, and while it's great that Sylvan accommodates this, the short-notice system totally takes advantage of teachers. For example, though I have permanent weekly hours, I daily receive phone calls asking me to come in early, stay later, or work extra days. These calls come the day before if I'm lucky, and, more often, just hours before I'm expected to be at work. I have also worked several 14-day periods without a break due to all these daily call-ins! I told my supervisor it wasn't possible for me to work so long without a break. She gave me a puzzled look, explained that she had no idea how I'd been on the schedule that long, and STILL proceeded to ask me if I could work for the next three days! Several times, though weekends are the ONLY dates scheduled weeks in advance, I have been asked to come in Saturday mornings to work with students on particular upper-level subjects. Even though the students called in last-minute, the schedule is changed with no consideration for the events and appointments I've had to miss--ones that have been on my calendar for weeks. Again, when I bring these considerations to my supervisor, I'm met with a half-hearted apology and a, "Well...you can still do it, right? We really need you." There have also been several times I arrived to work after a kid had cancelled, leaving me with nothing to do, and I and other teachers had even been sent home early because kids didn't show up! When someone complained to the supervisor that she'd driven half an hour to work only to be sent home, the supervisor said, "Well, it sucks, but that's the nature of the job." Unfortunately, "the nature of the job" always seems to take precedent over employee care. Teachers are expected to bend over backward to serve families who don't have the foresight to plan more than a day ahead, and we're made to feel guilty by supervisors who change the schedule without a thought, then spend half the shift frantically calling teachers to fill in the gaps. In short (and I realize this wasn't short), Sylvan's scheduling system is an absolute nightmare! It seems to work well for retirees or part-time workers who just want to pick up a couple hours a week, but the full-time teachers who follow their school day with night hours at Sylvan are entirely burned out, and those like me (who wanted part-time hours without realizing how very part-time and sporadic they'd be) are sucked dry and expected to give, give, give, even when they have nothing left. TEACHING MULTIPLE SUBJECTS/SUBJECTS NOT QUALIFIED TO TEACH Sylvan purports to provide optimum learning experiences with a 3:1 student/teacher ratio. Sometimes, three kids per table works just fine. Usually, though, the students are of varying ages, working on totally different subjects, and if there's a particularly uncooperative kid at a table--guess who gets all the teacher's time? For parents who are paying over $1/minute for these services, a 1:1 ratio would be much more appropriate! Your child is rarely getting a teacher's undivided attention, and the generic iPad lessons (not to mention numerous iPad glitches) are not targeting areas of children's needs as specifically as the company claims. No, a private tutor might not be able to offer Sylvan's testing, but any perceptive educator could provide a better, more specified learning plan. There's also the problem of teachers teaching outside their subject areas. Math teachers are hired to tutor the upper-level maths, but teachers with inadequate math skills often end up teaching above their ability. Poor writing and study skills students especially get opposing advice from teachers (as they rotate tables with no rhyme or reason, often splitting even a two-hour session between two different teachers). This lack of continuity leads to kids revising papers they've already been revising for weeks, editing out something another teacher just told them to leave in, or having repetitive discussions about clean backpacks and filled-out planners. Several kids I work with get so irritated that their teachers never know what happened during the previous hour! THE PAY This job requires both an education degree and a teaching license (expired or current). Starting pay at our center is $11/hr, hardly competitive against other jobs in the area that require no prior experience or degrees! Add this to the fact that teachers are working only 2-4 hours at a time yet driving to work multiple days of the week, and the pay barely covers gas money. -- As a parent, I feel Sylvan is ridiculously expensive for what they offer and would recommend a private tutor, who'd be much more affordable and give your kid the one-on-one time he/she really needs. As a teacher, I feel completely taken advantage of! I have given a year to this company and feel constantly stressed, underappreciated, and underpaid. I have kindly brought my concerns before my supervisors and was shown little concern, other than a few short-term rearrangements that ultimately did nothing. And this is in a center with low teacher turnover and a very organized boss! Other circumstances have kept me at this job for nearly a year, but I am actively searching for a way out. If you're looking to work with kids a few times a week, have a very flexible schedule, and don't care about the money, Sylvan might be an okay gig. If you're hoping for a steady schedule, free evenings, and supervisors who respect your time, look elsewhere!