My decision to create a new resource for English teachers came from my own experiences in China. The first school I worked for ripped me off to the tune of 15,000 rmb, forged my signature, threatened blacklisting and refused to release my cancellation documents in an attempt to keep me from finding employment. The last point of the story had a happy ending from an unexpected point. After they hired a police officer to harass me, I managed to memorize his badge number (of course he refused to give his name).  The company that was helping me at that point was "friends" with that officer's superiors, and were able to convince the former employer to surrender the documents.

This experience showed me that teachers have no real way of knowing whether or not the schools they are applying for are good. Even references tend to be faked by the bad schools, and blacklist websites tend to allow schools to remove the postings by asking nicely. My solution was to create a site where only verified and checked schools can join. They pay a small subscription fee, and that allows them to advertise to a community of teachers who know that they can trust the employers. Additionaly, teachers can verify their own information such as certifications and degrees. Hopefully this will help end the wild west mentality that has dominated the ESL market in China.

In the near future the site will also include a free utility for sharing lesson plans, and teachers will retain ownership of all material they post. They can cross reference by age and ability, and rate the lesson plans they download. Teachers who contribute a lot of content will have a note included in their job applications stating that they create superior lesson plans.

The ultimate goal is to reform the culture in which ESL exists. There are many jobs boards, but until something is done to make the market safe and free of scams then qualified teachers will keep leaving the market. The jobs board and resume blast are completed, and I will post more once the lesson plan board is finished. You can view what we have now at http://www.eslready.com. If you have any suggestions on how to make the ESL community better let me know using the contact us form at the bottom of the page.