Saturdays are good. Always have been, always will be.
This morning I woke up for my Saturday morning student, a guy who likes his classes out on the balcony with a view overlooking the Ocean. Good stuff. It's a great complex he lives in and one I'm seriously looking into renting myself.
I love teaching this way. I believe I really lucked out when it came to getting good work with a great school(s). The type of teaching I do is exactly what I wanted. I looked into a lot of different options (and all of the schools for sure - Ibeu, Wizard, CCAA, CNA and the list goes on) but when I found New Start I knew that I hit the jackpot (at least in terms of job satisfaction (well, and pay)).
The school gets students who want English classes at their place of business. The school then has a teacher travel to their work to teach them a private class (which is, in my case, never more than 2 students). I love this method for a few reasons.
1. In some cases, the student buys a reputable book from the school and our classes are based on the workbook topics. In the case a student doesn't buy a book, I can teach whatever I want/the student wants. Flexibility mixed with structure.
2. I get the opportunity to see more of the city. I have students in Barra da Tijuca, Ipanema, Flamengo and Centro so I get a lot of practice taking the bus, communicating on my own, and walking around these parts of the city. Gets me out of the house.
3. I can also include my own private students along with the school's students. The pay of the school is very good compared to that of schools like Ibeu and the aforementioned. Not even comparing, the pay is very good. The school is guaranteed income for me, they GIVE me students, and when I find other students on my own I just add those to the guarantee. Allows me to have a good handle on my monthly income.
4. I absolutely LOVE teaching. I love meeting new students, finding out why they want to learn English and then structuring classes around their needs. I love to see them improve and see that they are understanding more of what I say. (on that note, I teach levels from true beginner to upper intermediate - if you speak Portuguese this will obviously help you take on more lower level students). Amazing job satisfaction!!
Yeah, teaching English is damn awesome. I've only been teaching for the last 3 months and I'm up to about 20 hours per week + 15-20 hours of planning/travel time. Some of those are school hours, some are private. Just to share, in case anyone is curious about how much money you could expect through teaching, I am making around R$2500 per month (about CA$1500). It's not a lot in North American standards but the beautiful part? I am not stressed. At all. I love every minute of it and I feel like I'm being paid to do something I would do for free (shh just don't tell my students that).
Anyway, this Saturday turned out to be a lovely day for reflecting on everything that's going well. As I sat at the padaria eating a misto quente and drinking fresh suco de laranga, I thought 'yeah, I like this... this'll do'.
This was such a nice post to read, since I'm probably going to Brazil later this year to teach English. I know it won't always be easy, but you reminded me of why I want to do it in the first place. Glad it's going so well for you!
ReplyDeleteTeaching is very rewarding. I also love having the smaller classes. For the last few years i was teaching classes with anywhere from 10-30 students. But now, having classes of 1-3 students is pretty different. I find I have to have more energy for the smaller classes, as I can't give my students lots of pair and group work to do, but it's less formal, which is nice. Time flies in smaller classes, too. And I get to know my students better.
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