...my shelf in the fridge is still mostly filled with cheese.
...I always find myself to be a super busy bee.
The last time I posted about my classes, I had just obtained some more work. Well, as this crazy month is already flying by, I have actually ended up with a lot more work.
So here's an update on my current job status:
At the moment, I have three different types of classes...
The first type is with an organization called Get English, which I started early January. With this job I have 8.5 hours, and the classes are mostly with kids.
The second type is with an organization called the English Centre, which I just started this month. It is similar to Get English, except the classes are with adults at their place of work either in the early morning or over their lunch hour. I originally started with 3 hours, but my boss offered me another class for a new total of 6 hours of class per week. This new class is with a woman who is the CFO at a major internet communication company. She has a fairly high level of English already, and simply wants some more practice to brush up on her skills three mornings a week.
Finally, my last type of work is private classes. In late January I put a personal ad on a language learning website which is specifically for "clases particulares" which means "private classes." I learned about the site in my TEFL course, and decided to give it a try. It turned out to be quite effective, and I actually received lots of messages from interested students. After some back and forth, working out price negotiations and scheduling conflicts, I ended up taking on three new classes. One class is every Wednesday for two hours with two girls who are friendly and really fun to chat with. Another is two hours per week with a slightly awkward but nice, young businessman. The last one I took after much thought and a little arm twisting. A very persistent student is studying for the First Certificate English Exam, which is a well-known English fluency exam. He is taking the exam in the middle of March, and wants a sort of tutor to help prep him for the exam during the next 4 weeks. This particular class took some arm twisting because he wants to have the class two hours per day, Monday through Friday. My first thought was "Absolutely not." as I already have plenty of hours to keep me busy and pay the bills, and taking on this amount of class time would really push my teaching limits. But after a second thought, I decided that I should take the opportunity. Although it will make me extremely busy, it will only last for 4 weeks, so at least the madness would end shortly. Also, it occurred to me that it would be a good way to make some extra Month of Molly spending money. So I finally accepted the challenge. As a side note, all of these classes have an extra convenience as I will teach them at home in my dining room. So that's definitely a bonus.
Additionally, I have also obtained some other private classes on my own. I made one contact for another private class while tutoring Gina, one of my students from Get English, at her residence hall. One of her fellow classmates approached me during our lesson and asked if I could also do class with her once per week. Of course, this class would be quite convenient for me since I already go to the residence hall twice per week to tutor Gina, so I accepted that one as well. Also, I am now teaching a class to my roommate, Laura, once per week as well as two other separate classes to two friends of my roommates (apparently my roommates were talking me up to their friends at school, insisting that they should take English class with me. And Laura says that she has to take advantage of me while I'm here so she can improve her English. Talk about good (and useful) roommates!).
Well, all of that craziness adds up to a grand total of almost 35 hours of class per week. Phew! That's a lot. Especially when you consider travel time (it takes me up to 50 minutes to travel to a few of my classes) and lesson planning time.
...and so wait...how did I get this busy?
Seriously busy. Sounds like you are a hit!
ReplyDelete