Paperwork For TEFL Teachers: Admin Tasks

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Are you ready to apply for your first job teaching English as a foreign language (EFL)? Don’t forget that as well as teaching English as a foreign language you’ll also have to do some administrative tasks a.k.a. paperwork for TEFL teachers. And while it might not sound super exciting, paperwork and admin tasks are a necessary evil in order to be an effective TEFL teacher.

So make sure you set aside enough time away from your classes to get these things done. Lesson planning, finding resources, and organising materials will get easier as you gain experience. And as it gets easier, it will take less time – we promise!

Read more: 15 Genius Teaching Tips and Travel Hacks for TEFL Teachers

paperwork for the TEFL teacher

Paperwork for TEFL teachers: admin tasks

Lesson planning

Lesson planning is important aspect of paperwork for TEFL teachers because it gives you a focus when you’re teaching English as a foreign language. It also helps to make sure you teach what needs to be taught that day and it’s a reminder of the methods you’re going to use. You’ll know from a lesson plan whether you are working from just the class book, or if you need to prepare some resources yourself.

Read more: Top Tips for Effective Lesson Planning

Preparing materials

Even when you’re teaching English as a foreign language using a course book, you’ll find your students will be much more interested if you do other things as well. This may mean that you need to prepare things like worksheets, flashcards, games, video and radio recordings. This might mean you need to research and source resources from the internet and then get them downloaded and printed to use in class. Authentic materials are a great resource for your TEFL classsroom.

Read more: Essential Materials for TEFL Teachers

HOW TO MAKE HOMEWORK WORK FOR YOUR LEARNERS

Homework

If you set your students homework, you’ll need to mark it and it’s unlikely you’ll have time to do it in class, unless you let the students mark their own work while you go though it with them. Any worksheets or exams that have been set will have to marked after class. You can either make time to do them in the staff room or take the work home with you and do your marking while you enjoy a nice cup of tea.

Exams

As well as homework, it’s likely that you’ll need to set tests and exams for your students. These might be end-of-unit tests or end-of-term exams. If you can, make use of tests and exams which  have already been prepared for your coursebooks. If not, you’l have to spend some time creating the tests. Afterwards, you’ll have to mark them too!

paperwork for teachers

Reports

Not all schools give a written report at the end of each term to parents, but some do. You might be asked to provide a sentence or two at the bottom of a report card. Even though we recommend you write personalised reports for each of your students, you should find that you create a bank of stock phrases that you will recycle again and again, which will make report-writing quicker and easier.

Registers

You’ll probably be given an attendance sheet to fill in before every class to record who has or hasn’t attended class. This is not only necessary from an attendance staandpoint but it is also helpful for you to keep track of who was present in previous lessons and who wasn’t. This is so you can understand who might need some extra help.

As a teacher – as with any job – there is certain admin and paperwork that needs to be completed. Once you have a system in place which suits your teaching style, your personality and your teaching situation, you should find that your admin tasks are more of a help than a hindrance.

 

Note: This blog post was updated in September 2022.

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