Yesterday I received a message through skype requesting English Classes. I referred the student to edufire. He signed up. Brought in his cousin. Both began to take classes today.

I’m extremelly upset to know, that out of 4 classes, 3 teachers did NOT SHOW UP. Yes, I’m talking here of TEACHERS NOT SHOWING UP.

What’s going on?? We’ve complained, and complained about students not showing up………And??? Look at this!

Of course, I’m not talking about everybody. Its just that my blood is boiling now. The student/s have called me 3 times through skype, asking me what the H—-l is going on. I referred them to skype in the first place.

Please, lets keep our professionalism for our own good, and for everybody’s good.

I apologize to those many professional teachers. Unfortunately, its the rotten few that cause these situations.

I will not post the teacher’s names here. But, I have notified the admins privately.

By the way, I personally registered in one of the classes. I’m writing this message while I’m waiting for the teacher.

Thanks to edubody.

I am very sorry to hear that, Enrique. Teachers should ALWAYS make time for every class and even if they can’t, then they should at least inform the students first that the class is cancelled.

I hope that those 2 students will still come to EduFire and participate in some more classes. We have always been complaining (including me!) that students never show up to classes, but teachers? Come on!

Sometimes, the best we can do is try to set ourselves apart from those who don’t have the same professional standards.

Thanks Enrique. We’re working on some stuff right now to ensure that teachers who do not show up will be heavily penalized. We keep track of these things on the back-end so we’ll likely be able to make this retroactive as well. Scheduling a class and then not showing up is unacceptable.

i have never missed class except when i am disconnected from the internet and it happened yesterday. after like 35 minutes of the class, my internet went down, and it came back after one hour or so, i re-entered the class and the students were gone of course, i sent an email apologizing for that, even though it was not my fault. it happened another time about 2 months ago with a free class i am offering and i did the same thing.
what i really like to have on edufire is a variety of methods to pay the tutors like international money order, a check, or bank transfer specially with those who can not have an account with pay pal like the people in the middle east and Latin america {everybody in the world today is not happy with the middle east} . i do not mind being paid every couple of month or so if that would make it easier for you. i hope in the near future you can do that.

Perhaps those that teacher is not really interested to teach or do you think something unavoidable happend to him/ her?… it is good also to hear his side….. but the first time for the students to have the class then turn into this? hmmm not good….

Can I safely assume that if no one has registered within 4 hours of the class then the class can be canceled and I therefore don’t need to showup?

@Dave. I’d rather have a policy implemented, and not follow personal assumptions. Although a time limit could be a good starting point.

Yes, if there is a policy in place I would rather use it but as I understood Marco there wasn’t any so I had to draw the lines myself. I tried to be reasonable and avoided any confusion by enumerating where those lines were in my portfolio.

“If no one registers 4 hours before the class is scheduled to begin the class will be canceled at my discretion.” (excerpt from my portfolio)

Always showing up if at least one person has pre-registered seems reasonable to me.

If you haven’t noticed I like to have potential points of contention laid-out in black/white so everybody can be held to their word and nobody can complain that they didn’t realize they were goofing up.

Please let me know of any formal policy I am not aware of.

Dave. I don’t know of any formal policy. And if you have it specified in your profile and class description, that’s a good notice for your students

I have noticed some teachers change the name of the class to ‘cancelled’ when it isn’t going to go ahead. Seems a good idea to me – then no more students would sign up…..

Mair. Yes, its a courtesy. I like that

Same here. But, I have never used that when cancelling a class before.

I don’t even bother coming to my classes if they only registered people have never shown. If any penalties for poor attendance are done automatically, that might be a problem.

I’m excited to see more penalties levied on no-show teachers. If we can cut down on class saturation at eduFire, then I think everyone will maintain the positive experience!

Kevin. I would still notify the students that the class will not take place.

@Sean…liked your point of view…there should be a way we can all have a little bite on the big cake!!

Exactly Juan. Everybody should get a say! :)

@Austin…I have just checked your profile and I was really impressed…I mean you can teach anything….Sure, be checking in for one of your “free” or better “prepaid” classes…just kidding!

Ha! Thank you very much! :)

Hi Enrique, I can actually relate to this experience, I think I could not attend my one class because I totally misunderstood on timings, my daughter usually sleeps through the night thats when I prefer to take classes, well last night I completely forgot that I had to take a class. I apologize for my little bit clumsy attitude of not writing down the time, well it taught me big time……

I do agree that teachers have to be responsible.

Stuti

Well, this is the 2nd time I am waiting in the classroom after accepting a request for class…….can you hear the echo? Still waiting. Ok, I think I should take it as no show and leave the classrom now, I have waited long enough.

Annie Cook I am sorry to hear that…..this is definitely not very professional thing to do…..I hope this problem gets sorted out…

Hi, my student did not turn up and its because my student got very sick and was sent to emergency. I only knew about it 4 days later. Just thought of sharing. (Definitely a good student)

@Stuti Pardhe: The student did not respond to my message either. I did learn a bit more about using the classroom while I was in there though…..waiting. Conducted a class this morning, and that I thought went well. Thank you kindly.