my first week teaching

So here is picture of the view from my school, which is at the top of the city on a hill. The city slopes downward to the ocean. You can see part of the castle walls. I have yet to see the castle, but hopefully soon. Anyway, this first week teaching was fantastic!! I really enjoyed it! My schedule of teaching is Mondays from 7-9 pm, Tuesdays from 5-10 pm with an hour break halfway through, Wednesdays from 4-7, Thursdays also from 4-7, and Fridays are free. I love the schedule! At first, I didn´t know if I would like teaching in the evenings, but I have the mornings free to do whatever and it´s actually really nice.

I teach alone, which is not common. All the other people I´ve talked to doing this, teach with another professor. I´m just in charge of speaking and getting the students to talk and express their opinions. So I don´t have to teach any grammar, give howework, grade papers, or anything like that. I still have a designated subject to talk to them about, but it´s a lot more relaxed. I teach the higher English courses and have 12 different classes total so I never have the same student twice in a week. That way I only have to prepare once a week. That means I have about 250 students or so. And learning names is difficult enough, but with Spanish names...a lot harder! I have 6 classes of level three, 4 classes of level four, and 2 classes of level five. Most of my students are older, in their 20s to 40s, and I have some high school students as well so it´s a good mix. They all pay attention to me and hang on my every word. It´s great! I´ve never had that before, especially not at Thatcher HS! Haha! I think they are excited to have me here, but are also a little nervous and scared to talk. Not so much in the higher courses, but definitely with the third level. It´s funny cause I´ve noticed some things that I never have before. For example one class pointed of that I always say "you guys" and the professor thought that was typical American. We have some weird phrases in English if you think about them as well. For example "to do the splits." Where did that come from?´

Anyway, I´m really enjoying teaching and glad to finally start. I was getting a little anxious there with nothing to do for a week. Hopefully I will be able to start giving private lessons as well to make a little more income. We´ll see if there´s any interest... Next week, I get to talk about Halloween so that should be fun!!