Pros
The basic reading instruction techniques have some merit and it is always good to work one one one with the children. Depending on your center the center director and mentors can be terrific people to work with on a daily basis. Generally the center is a friendly and welcoming place. Training in proprietary techniques is frequent. Session monitoring and feedback are well done. You can learn alot from weekly feedback. Very useful.
Cons
The corporate culture is what I call "the fast food of instructional services". The contract is written so that the company has all the advantages and the clinician gets jerked around. I was hired to work part-time which in my book is half-time - up to 20 hours per week. I was scheduled initially for 30 hours per week which is almost full-time ( 31 hours is full-time). The company wants you to be 100 percent available but they won't guarantee you any hours. I could not get a commitment from the company as to my regular working hours but they wanted me to give them a schedule of all my available hours in advance. My working schedule was recieved on Friday or Saturday for the week beginning the next Monday ( 2 days advance notice). In one day my work schedule changed 4 times. I was asked to come in, my first hour was cancelled, I was asked to stay an hour later and then that lesson was cancelled sometime while I was at work. There was no policy about getting paid when there were cancellations. It was impossible to have regular hours and a regular weekly income. The pay rate is very low - 15 - 17 dollars per hour. No consideration is given for an advanced degree or educational background. In my center I was the only trained and certified teacher but I was paid at the same rate as recent college grads with no teaching experience. This is not a good place for professionals and the majority of staff are recent college grads or retirees. The company is run by very young 20 somethings verging on 30. They know the company routine but they are very green and don't know what they don't know about teaching and student behavior. I had one 22 year old supervisor undermine my teaching efforts I had set some behavioral standards for a young learner and the supervisor told the child that she did not have to do the task that I had set out for her rather than checking in with me about how and why I had set this task. She let the child manipulate the situation instead of working together with the teacher On several occasions supervisors told me that students needed to sit in their seats and made this a behavioral goal of the session. Many of the students had attentional difficulties and sitting in their seats just made this worse. Students worked in open rooms where they were often distracted by the sights and sounds of other students. I found the company is insensitive and unresponsive to the special needs of the children they serve - students who have dyslexia, autism and ADHD are not well served by the environment even though the reading technique is very good for them.
