Gringo In Peru

I got the job.

That’s news, but how I was told me is a story in itself.

In class we were about to start the oral examinations when a secretary knocked on the door. She said I had to show up for the teacher inservice Friday. This was a complete surprise. Vanessa and I had planned to spend one last weekend at the beach, leaving right after class Thursday.

I marched down to the administration office and asked them why I was being asked to join the seminar and if I had to go. After all, I had plans.

She was very nice, and explained that all teachers are expected to attend these meetings.

“I’m not a teacher,” I told the administrator.

“Well, congratulations,” She replied. “You are.”

Then she explained to me the decision was made the night before and they waited until I got to class to “invite” me to Friday’s seminar.

I told them in a calm mannor it would have been nice to know this before 5 o’clock. She apologized, adding the school often decides things at the last minute. I should have known better. This whole process has been filled with short notice phone calls and meetings.

We hope to get to the beach for one last summer weekend tonight, unless there’s some meeting I just have to be at Saturday.

The students in my class are taking their final exams this week so I got a chance to talk with my observation teacher about things not covered in training.

She’s been with the school almost three years and still works the 2:30-10:30 shift. She says there are a lot of senior teachers who take all the morning classes, leaving the rest with the scraps. She didn’t seem to mind though, she said this is a good job compared to others out there.

As I’ve said before the class I’m observing is mostly teens and young adults. She told me classes around the after school and dinner hours are usually teens. The later evening classes tend to draw more adults, taking the time to learn English after work.

I also learned a lot about grading at the school. Without going into to much detail, half of their grade is dependant on class participation, with the exams making up the other half. She told me its not unusual for a student to participate and not do well on the tests.

It sounds like perspective teachers training has changed since she started. All the English tests, psychological reviews and interviews are the same, but her “learning to teach” training lasted a month, followed by a month of observation. Then they were hired on month-to-month basis. So the school has cut a month out of the training process, which is fine by me.

We also touched on the time off issue. There are a few days at the end of the month (usually 2 or 3) where teachers don’t have to work. So that’s nice, I guess. But everyone has to work Saturday’s. Apparently Saturday classes are mostly kids classes, we’ll see how I hold up.

I asked her about the campus assignments. In training we were warned that all teachers will be assigned to whichever location had the greatest demand. My teacher told me she has only worked at one location, somehow I don’t think I’ll be that lucky.

There’s two more class days left, then the waiting begins.

First off, sorry for the delay loyal readers. We had some internet issues here that are now fixed.

Now to today’s story.

Monday I gave my dreaded adverb lesson in class. Once again, I tried to water it down as much as possible, in an attempt to make it easy for any student leaning English as a foreign language to understand.

I used different colored chalk to point out how adding “ly” to the base form of the adjective makes it an adverb. I had the students work alone and check their answers with the people next to them,  I modeled the examples in the book and asked for volunteers to come to the board to check their work. All the steps drilled into our heads during perspective teacher training were put on display.

Most importantly, the students seemed to get it. Their questions were good, but nothing that stumped me.

Once again my teacher loved my presentation. She thought my blackboard skills could use a little work, but added that comes with practice. I also made a few minor errors, but it wasn’t anything to stress out over.

After the supervisor left and the students moved on to another lesson we compared notes. She said the supervisor was writing a lot during my presentation and seemed pleased. She told me that the supervisor nodded yes at her and smiled right before leaving. She took this as a “he’s hired” nod. I’ll believe it when I get the call.

Every time I give a lesson, I don’t feel nervous so much, but the back of my neck really sweats. I’m not sure if that’s anxiety or just summer in Lima teaching on the 6th floor with no AC.

The class cycle ends this week. The students have a review day, a final written exam and an oral exam. Then grades are due. So I’ll get to learn the punching and crunching part of teaching as well. Then I’ll wait for the phone to ring.

Technical difficulties snuffed out my lesson.

I was suppose to present a listening exercise Friday in front of a academic supervisor.

These lessons are stored on computers in each classroom. The teacher logs in and accesses them through an internal network. The computer in my classroom was not working and without the computer, there is literally nothing to listen to. My observation teacher frantically tried to find a computer tech guy with no luck.

Then the supervisor came. My teacher explained the situation. The supervisor understood, but she had another observation in 15 minutes so my lesson was sunk. One good thing did come out of this, the supervisor rustled up a computer tech in no time. It always helps to have pressure come from on high.

This means I give a new lesson Monday on adverbs. Fun times. Presenting the listening lesson would have been much easier. But if I’m going to teach, I’m going to be presenting grammar and other delights like adverbs on a regular basis. This is more of a challenge. It could make or break my possible career as an English teacher.

Time to polish up on the parts of speech.

As I get ready to go for another day of observation there are a few random thoughs from the 10 day training running through my head.

It was nice to be around a bunch of people who spoke good English for a few days. Even though I’ve realized all this English is making my Spanish suffer. It’s time to get back on the Spanish train. It will help me in class, if I get the job.

Most of the Peruvians who were there had spent some time in the U.S. and can’t wait to go back. There were a handful of Peruvians who grew up in the U.S. but couldn’t stay because of immigration issues they wouldn’t talk about. Strange.

All the Americans had interesting stories as well. Many had spouses who didn’t want to leave Peru. Others have immigration issues of their own. Others saw the economy going bad and took the first opportunity to get out. Most want to go back, but feel OK they are riding out the recession somewhere else.

If we get jobs, we will all start with two classes somewhere between 2:30 to 10:30 p.m. It could be we have one class at 5 and another at 9. So there might be gaps of dead time to start. Only the senior teachers get morning classes, most of those have been with the school for at least seven years. The teacher I’ve been observing has been at the school for 2 1/2 years and she’s still on the second shift.

I’m really glad training is over. Sitting through four hours of teaching presentations was hellish. We all needed the practice though. If I was planning the next round of teacher training, I would do things much differently. Maybe split us into two groups? Present better “learning to teach” seminars? I’m not a big fan of corporate training, but after this experience I totally understand how it can be important.

Enough for now. It’s time to get ready.

Teaching training is over! We graduated without really graduating.

We sat through more presentations and we gained some insight into our futures.

The administrators told us this was the largest prospective teacher pool its ever had. We started with 40 and by the last day there was 35. The school was also impressed so many prospective teachers stayed through the end. They told usually more people drop out. If we don’t make the cut, we can reapply next time there are openings. Apparently, there are teaching training seminars a few times a year, but we’d have to start from square one.

“Most of you will be teaching next month,” the administrator told us. He wouldn’t give any indication who made the cut. He also mentioned the two locations where they needed teachers the most include the one closest and farthest away from our house. Oh joy.

We were told we would get a call if we’re hired.

Later I gave another sample lesson in the actual class I’m observing. I was worried, the unit was on nouns and verbs used in a crime, like alibi, confession, commit, etc.

What I did was ask the class if they watched C.S.I. Luckily many did. That lead to more follow up questions about the show, which dovetailed nicely into my lesson. For each of the words I created a simple definition and wrote them on the board. I could tell the students were “getting it”.

This went much smoother than my last practice lesson, a listening comprehension exercise. Many of the concepts in that exercise the students didn’t get. The school didn’t let me preview the recording before class, so I couldn’t anticipate what might cause problems.

After the class my observation teacher raved about my lesson. She loved my definitions. I thought I used the blackboard too much. She disagreed. I think all those years of broadcast journalism paid off. In front of the class I was like a mama bird, cutting the big worm into chunks for the little birds to eat.

Even though she’s never seen me teach, Vanessa thinks I’m a natural. She’s impressed how I come up with my lesson ideas on my own, without her help.

I have one more lesson on Friday, to be evaluated by the big dogs. Then the waiting begins.

Today finally marks the last day of teacher training. Over the last two days we’ve stopped learning how to teach and watched other perspective teachers give their practice lessons.

It’s been a lot like the speech unit in high school English class. About 1/3 of the students give a solid presentation. They are clear, entertaining and you actually learn something from them. Half of the students do a good job, they may not do everything right, but they show potential. With a little polish and practice they’ll get better. The remaining folks should start looking for another job. They are perfectly charming in everyday conversation, but public speaking (in this case teaching) is not for them.

Yesterday the evaluators announced who they want to see again. I did not make the list. After sitting through all the lessons it seems most of the call backs would fall into the low end of middle category. If these people make a few adjustments or look more comfortable in class they will likely make the cut.

I have no idea where I stand in the possible teaching pecking order.

Today I give an actual lesson in a real class. Then another to be evaulated by the administration on Friday. Wish me luck.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve been off-line the last few days busy learning to teach and practicing the craft.

Wednesday I gave a sample lesson to my teacher’s training class. I felt it went ok. My classmates complemented me afterwords.

I’m happy to report I’m not the only one who’s bored in training. Many of my fellow teachers to be are too. Yesterday a few of us even caught one of the school’s administrators who was there to evaluate us practically sleeping.

Thursday I gave an actual lesson in class and the students really seemed to like it. My observation teacher said I seemed comfortable in front of the class. Sure, I forgot a few of the “here’s how you teach” steps we’ve learned in training, but overall it was good.

As prespective teachers we are expected to teach teens, adults and kids. Friday was my turn to give a practice lesson to kids. I had to give a grammar lesson, which they tell us during training is one of the toughest things to teach. Grammar is learned by immersion in the native language growing up, not by memorizing rules.  Since my lesson was designed for 5-8 year olds we’re told to try to make it fun. For my presentation I channeled speech 101, dusting off the props.

I used my messanger bag as my “bottomless bag of tricks”. Inside I had a Hello Kitty stuffed animal and  I had the “students” make up a story with things Hello Kitty “had to do” today. Since Hello Kitty was alone we say “She had to…”. Then I pulled another plushie from my bag, a mouse named “Jerry”. Now that Hello Kitty and Jerry were together they had a list of things “They have to do…”. Then we did the exercises in the book.

My classmates really seemed to dig my presentation. I won’t know how well I did. We don’t get feed back, but they did say some of us will be asked to present again. While the trainers didn’t say it outright, they implied those who will be asked to teach again are getting a second chance.

For the most part our training is done, from here on out we’ll be watching presentations, then observing in class.

Personally, I get more out of observing classes than teacher’s training, but its not up to me now is it?

Four days down, six to go.

I’ll admit, I’m finding teaching training to be a little boring.  The presenters go over the material so fast that you can barely take notes. On Monday all of us possible future teachers began giving practice lessons. My big debut comes Wednesday. I’m not that worried. As I’ve said before, there is a methodology to the institute’s madness. I just hope I can demonstrate my skills or lack thereof.

Seriously, after sitting through presentations by my fellow classmates I think as long as I don’t throw-up on myself, I’ll be OK. Some of possible future teachers show legitimate potential. Others really seemed to struggle. I’m trying not to be too harsh on them. We’re all in the same boat, none of us ever trained to be teachers.

One thing I’m learning about the school is its machine-like approach to learning. It is a for-profit institution. Sure, they want the students to pass, but the school packs ‘em in class seeing $$ in each seat. Secretly, if I think if it could find a way to eliminate teachers all together the administration would totally explore the option.

I’ve also been observing in an actual class. I asked the teacher today if there was anything I could do to help, because I’m bored. She was really surprised and ultra enthusiastic about my offer. I feel the only way I’m really going to learn this thing is by doing it myself.

During our training, the instructors talk a lot about moving around to keep the students motivated. I wish they would follow their own advice. It’s 4 1/2 hours with just a few 5 minute breaks thrown in, then another 1 1/2 in class. That’s a lot of sitting.

I’ve always thought of myself as borderline A.D.D., and it is really coming out in my mind. While taking notes, I spent most of the session trying to remember the lyrics to The Smith’s song “Ask”. Chuckling to myself when the line about the “bucktoothed girl in Luxembourg” ran though my head.

Is that a bad sign?

Maybe my teaching career is doomed before it begins.

Another day of teachers training has come and gone.

Day two did not seem as overwhelming as day one. The instructors still moved a breakneck pace though.

Starting next week, we are expected to give sample lessons to the class. We’ll each give a lesson for adults and a lesson for kids lasting 12 minutes each. While we have the materials to base this practice lesson on, we can’t take them home. Which to me seems weird, if they truly want us to succeed we should be allowed to practice.

What I’m getting from all this training is the institute has a specific way of teaching. It’s very methodical like a math equation.

I also found out at least four people in our class of 40 are already teaching. When the school told us we were needed and they don’t want us to fail, they weren’t kidding. There seems to be plenty of students enrolled now and I would believe demand will go up once regular school starts next month.

After training, I was assigned to a class for observation.

I lucked out a bit, I was placed in an upper-level beginners class. My students have studied at least eight months at the school. Most perspective teachers are placed in a mid-level course where students have been studying English for about four months. There were about 20 students in the class. It was made up of mostly teenagers with a few students in their late 20’s.

During my observation, I’m also required to give at three lessons to the class.

I noticed this teacher used a lot of questions to introduce the material and get the students to participate. She also encouraged them to work in small groups. Both of these methods were emphasized during training.

For the most part, the kids were paying attention. Sure there were a few in the back who couldn’t wait to leave, but for the most part they seemed to be into the lesson. Keep in mind, this is a for profit school, classes cost about $90 a month, so they want to get something out of it.

One thing I’ll have to adjust my ears to is the student’s accents. I’ll have to make sure I’m actually listening, not just anticipating the students filling in the blanks.

Two days down. Eight more to go.