This Thing U Call Work
Well, I accidentally fell into a job this week. Met someone named Natalie out and about and she said that she was returning to the states so asked if I'd take over her position. I was still hoping to be on vacation for most of May, but you can't really beat the work falling in your lap. I'm also elated that I get to skip the searching and interviewing part of the gig.
A few days after I discussed with my new departing friend, I received a call from her boss asking me if he could meet with me after the weekend. I arrived at his house on Monday, gave him my resume (that I had quickly updated while at Jerry's place in Ciudad Real for the weekend) and a quick overview of my education and work history, and he said, "Can you start tomorrow?" I said, "Can I start the next day? I need one day to prepare?" The deal was sealed.
Actually, the classes that Natalie taught had already been taken, so I only have 3 classes, for a total of 9 hours a week. This is about half the workload I was looking for, but probably a good way to ease me into it. I don't know why I had to get stuck with the anxious and ever-worrying mind of a FREAK, but whenever I go through big changes like this or challenge myself to something new, I'm a complete disaster for a while until I adjust. This time was no exception.
I couldn't sleep the night before the first class. Tossed and turned and dreamt crazy dreams all night. I got very little direction from my new boss as to what exactly I should do in these classes, and I have never taught before. I stretched the truth a little and said that I had been a conversational English tutor for 8 months (it was more like speaking a little Spanish at lunch with a friend and coworker). Anyway, he just said that the students were very advanced, and that I should bring in articles for us to read and then just discuss with themm, keep them entertained.
He had given me several articles to start out with, but he only gave me one copy of each. I went to one of the aforementioned internet boxes that say they also have copy service to get them copied, but the copies are 10 centimos apiece, and i needed like 10 copies of several 3 page documents. I was already spending half the money I earned for the day on friggin copies, but I figured it's better to lay out a bit at first than to be unprepared and sweating it. Those damned computer places may say that they have copies, but they are certainly not set up to make mass quantities (or even several). They all use the fax machine, so you get one slow copy at a time. I decided at the last minute to make more copies than I had initially created, so stopped along the way at a place that I thought would be quicker... no. When I asked the woman at the counter if there were places where you could do large quantities of copies yourself, she looked at me like I was green and had antennae on my head... Um, sorry, but just wanted to save your ass from pumping through 90 single fax sheets, sweetie (as she scowled at me after each one).
I brought several outfits of dress clothes with me on this trip, but on the morning of my first day teaching, I realized that I was missing crucial elements in each one... I had brown shoes, but a black belt... my pants and shirts that matched colors were totally wrong together for some reason or other. I finally pulled something together and exited my house wearing long sleeves and pants only to realize that it was the hottest day yet this year - 95 degrees in the shade. I was melting the moment I stepped out the door. I thought I gave myself a fair amount of lost time when I set out for work on my first day, but by the time I waited for each of the copies and really did get lost, I had to catch a cab to get me the few blocks from the metro station to the business where I teach. The cab dropped me off exactly 6 minutes before I was supposed to be in class.
THEN, I had to check in with the security guard at the front desk and give him a copy of my passport. I asked him where the English classes were, and he gave me three different floors where they're sometimes held. I went to all three, and couldn't find any of them. Back to the security desk, and he said sometimes they're held in the basement. I checked the basement and no luck again. Finally, I went up to the 6th floor for the 2nd time, and there was another teacher from my company sitting on the couch who looked at my list of students and said that this class was held on the the 7th floor. By this time, I was 10 minutes late, but the other American teacher said that his students usually didn't show up until at least then. So, I waited... and I waited... Finally, at 30 minutes after the hour, the other teacher came up and asked me if I wanted to join his class just to get an idea of what they did. YES! Thank you.
It was really informative, very nice students, pretty relaxed. A very good orientation. The only thing that sucked was I had another night of anxiety before my chance to teach real students. The next day, I had students that actually came, YEAH! They were all very nice, and everything went fairly smoothly. I will need to keep up with finding interesting stories and activities for them to read and discuss, but I think I'm going to be a good English teacher.
Well, I accidentally fell into a job this week. Met someone named Natalie out and about and she said that she was returning to the states so asked if I'd take over her position. I was still hoping to be on vacation for most of May, but you can't really beat the work falling in your lap. I'm also elated that I get to skip the searching and interviewing part of the gig.
A few days after I discussed with my new departing friend, I received a call from her boss asking me if he could meet with me after the weekend. I arrived at his house on Monday, gave him my resume (that I had quickly updated while at Jerry's place in Ciudad Real for the weekend) and a quick overview of my education and work history, and he said, "Can you start tomorrow?" I said, "Can I start the next day? I need one day to prepare?" The deal was sealed.
Actually, the classes that Natalie taught had already been taken, so I only have 3 classes, for a total of 9 hours a week. This is about half the workload I was looking for, but probably a good way to ease me into it. I don't know why I had to get stuck with the anxious and ever-worrying mind of a FREAK, but whenever I go through big changes like this or challenge myself to something new, I'm a complete disaster for a while until I adjust. This time was no exception.
I couldn't sleep the night before the first class. Tossed and turned and dreamt crazy dreams all night. I got very little direction from my new boss as to what exactly I should do in these classes, and I have never taught before. I stretched the truth a little and said that I had been a conversational English tutor for 8 months (it was more like speaking a little Spanish at lunch with a friend and coworker). Anyway, he just said that the students were very advanced, and that I should bring in articles for us to read and then just discuss with themm, keep them entertained.
He had given me several articles to start out with, but he only gave me one copy of each. I went to one of the aforementioned internet boxes that say they also have copy service to get them copied, but the copies are 10 centimos apiece, and i needed like 10 copies of several 3 page documents. I was already spending half the money I earned for the day on friggin copies, but I figured it's better to lay out a bit at first than to be unprepared and sweating it. Those damned computer places may say that they have copies, but they are certainly not set up to make mass quantities (or even several). They all use the fax machine, so you get one slow copy at a time. I decided at the last minute to make more copies than I had initially created, so stopped along the way at a place that I thought would be quicker... no. When I asked the woman at the counter if there were places where you could do large quantities of copies yourself, she looked at me like I was green and had antennae on my head... Um, sorry, but just wanted to save your ass from pumping through 90 single fax sheets, sweetie (as she scowled at me after each one).
I brought several outfits of dress clothes with me on this trip, but on the morning of my first day teaching, I realized that I was missing crucial elements in each one... I had brown shoes, but a black belt... my pants and shirts that matched colors were totally wrong together for some reason or other. I finally pulled something together and exited my house wearing long sleeves and pants only to realize that it was the hottest day yet this year - 95 degrees in the shade. I was melting the moment I stepped out the door. I thought I gave myself a fair amount of lost time when I set out for work on my first day, but by the time I waited for each of the copies and really did get lost, I had to catch a cab to get me the few blocks from the metro station to the business where I teach. The cab dropped me off exactly 6 minutes before I was supposed to be in class.
THEN, I had to check in with the security guard at the front desk and give him a copy of my passport. I asked him where the English classes were, and he gave me three different floors where they're sometimes held. I went to all three, and couldn't find any of them. Back to the security desk, and he said sometimes they're held in the basement. I checked the basement and no luck again. Finally, I went up to the 6th floor for the 2nd time, and there was another teacher from my company sitting on the couch who looked at my list of students and said that this class was held on the the 7th floor. By this time, I was 10 minutes late, but the other American teacher said that his students usually didn't show up until at least then. So, I waited... and I waited... Finally, at 30 minutes after the hour, the other teacher came up and asked me if I wanted to join his class just to get an idea of what they did. YES! Thank you.
It was really informative, very nice students, pretty relaxed. A very good orientation. The only thing that sucked was I had another night of anxiety before my chance to teach real students. The next day, I had students that actually came, YEAH! They were all very nice, and everything went fairly smoothly. I will need to keep up with finding interesting stories and activities for them to read and discuss, but I think I'm going to be a good English teacher.
posted by Chromest*r at 2:47 PM
1 Comments:
Awwww come on--can't I at least get mentioned by name?! It sounds so much cooler than "the other American teacher!" I've read bits and pieces of your blog--very well done--kudos!
Post a Comment
<< Home