My Guide to Being a Good Teacher

After I wrote my last post (about my *ahem* PORTUGUESE-TEACHING HUSBAND *ahem*), I obviously started thinking about ways I could help him optimize his teaching career.  I started thinking about teaching in general, and about what makes someone a 'good' teacher.

A lot of people assume that   

Moving to another country = Teaching *insert native language*.

  
A lot of speakers of said native language (let's be honest, the native language is often English) believe the following mathematical equation.

I speak English ∴ I can teach English. 

Many disgruntled, certified teachers of English would disagree with this, including myself to an extent.  Problem is that many people don't even like teaching and can't really teach!  But my latest epiphany might suggest otherwise (or at least suggest that you don't necessarily have to be certified to enjoy and be a good teacher).   

Ok, I agree that you need to have knowledge of your language (and it's certainly helpful to have knowledge of the student's native language, but not totally necessary).  English speakers united know that we didn't learn grammar in school in the same way that, let's say, Brazilians learned it.  That means that when you suddenly try to teach-up some English grammar to a non-English speaker, you're gonna get served.

Understanding your own language is key, but there are also other ways to be a great ESL teacher, even without the years of formacão, or even without a CELTA certificate (neither of which I have and my crappy 40 hour TESL Certificate was completed about 6 years before I started teaching).  P.S. I would consider myself a good teacher because a) I love teaching and b) My students told me I am.  That's proof enough for me!

So some tips, if I may.....

Tip #1:  PREPARE.  Research as much online about parts of a sentence, tenses and forms, conditionals, modals etc etc as you can.  You don't wanna look like a dummy.
**Side Note I knew none of these terms prior to teaching English.  At least I'd forgotten ALL of them, except for maybe adjective, adverb and noun, but that's because I used to play hella MadLibs as a kid. 

Tip #2:  NEEDS, GOALS, TIMEFRAME.  Always do a Needs Analysis with your students to find out why they need English, in what contexts they will use English, and what they are interested in.  Then follow through with subjects and topics that are interesting to them.

Tip #3:  STRUCTURE.  Ok, some people want conversation classes.  Great.  But I can guarantee they will learn less by ONLY having conversation classes than they would learn if they used a book.  Books are your friends.  Teachers (especially un-certified ones) are not lesson writers, they are not syllabus creators, and you are doing your students a disservice by not following an order in which they learn grammar.  A trained and qualified person has already created an awesome way to present a lesson, why not use it??  (I love Oxford books, Danielle uses Cambridge - you get to choose!)

Tip #4:  BE A PERSON.  This is a biggie - While I realize that being structured is important (your students pay you to learn English) they also don't want a classroom setting (or they'd go to Cultural Inglesa).  Be a person, people!  Be fun.  Be funny!  Talk about your weeks together.  Talk about your plans.  Share with them and let them share with you.  Care about your students.  Recent feedback from a couple of my students is that this is one of the best parts about learning private English.  

Tip #5: NOW BREAK THE STRUCTURE.  Break the structure once in a while (ooo que taboo!) and learn music and songs that THEY like (the temptation to give them music that YOU like is strong, but it's their class, not yours).  Here's a website to give you some ideas.  Have a conversation class that lets them vent about their boss or their job.  Make sure you always write down their mistakes, though, and give corrective feedback.  This is still a class.


Tip #6:  GIVE CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK.  Another reason they're paying you.  I divide a sheet of paper into three sections:  Vocabulary; Pronunciation; Grammar.  I use the phonemic chart to illustrate proper pronunciation.  You can download a super app to your iPhone called Sounds.  I write their mistake (the way they say it) and ask them to try to understand the mistake before correcting it for them.

Tip #7:  IF YOU DON'T KNOW, SAY THAT.  Don't give false information.  Just say you're not sure and that you'll find out.  And then do it and follow up.


Tip #8:  BE ORGANIZED AND PROFESSIONAL.  Decide on your goals.  I give everyone a FREE experimental class to talk about information and rates.  I give them a copy of the information and rates.
Do you care about a consistent income and schedule?  I do.  I schedule my students at a regular time.  They have the chance to reschedule (not cancel) only one class per month.  I charge a monthly price (depending on # of hours per week).  I calculate # of hours/week x 52 weeks/year ÷ 12 months/year = avg monthly price.  My students pay their monthly rates up in their first class of the month.  

I will stop there, because those are what I consider to be the basics.  Everyone has a different teaching style, and you'll definitely learn through trial and error.  You'll look back at when you started and realize how little you knew.  That's ok.  Everyone has to learn somewhere.  

Not everyone is certified, or a linguistics master, or even loves the language.  Sometimes it's your best option in a foreign country.  The point of this post was to encourage people who are teaching, or thinking about teaching, to give English the respect it deserves by being a responsible teacher.  We are lucky to have our language and are in powerful positions to share it!  

Now I know you will all have some additional tips to offer, so post them in the comments!  If you're a student of English, post your ideas about great teachers too!  The other beauty of teaching is the sharing.  Everyone has something different that works for them, and I'm always looking for new innovative ways to do what I do!


Happy Teaching and Peace Out!

Here's to Hoping the World Doesn't End!

Well, almost a month has gone by since my last post and so much has happened.  It's not fair for me to keep it all to myself.

Side note** I imagined that moving to Botafogo would have given me more time - more time for blogging, class prep, and all of the indoor activities I was used to doing.  Our move has done the exact opposite (not complaining) but more time outside and spent with friends means less time for blogging.

In the past month since my birthday I've:

Had 4 visitors
Taken the train to the Cristo
Rode the bondinho  to Pao de Acucar
Taken 1 trip to the Tenda Espirita de Umbanda
Read 2 books
Done 5 consecutive days of yoga (dotted with several other days)
Gone to the beach 3 times
Bought a ticket to the Carnaval Parade

That's of course not even everything but that's what has taken up the majority of my time for the last few weeks!  So far 2012 is off to a great start, with no apocalypse in sight!  

My first two visitors were my mom and sister.  It had been a year since I'd seen them and while the year went fast, so much can change in that time.  I notice the changes in myself so much more when I am reunited by my family and friends from home.  You might say I've become more 'Brazilian' - I don't know if that's necessarily true but I guess we are all a product of our environments.  I certainly like to shower more and clean my house more, wink wink (but I still ALWAYS take my shoes off when I enter the house, because shoes in the house is just gross to me!)

I wouldn't say I'm becoming more 'Brazilian' because there are so many things about Brazilian culture that I still don't identify with, and probably never will, since I didn't grow up with the same understanding of the world from Brazilian eyes.  Now my eyes are broader (in terms of cultural experiences) than those of my (my specific) Canadian peeps and of my Brazilian peeps.  That makes me neither more Canadian nor more Brazilian, it just makes me 'me'.  A combination of experiences that could relate with both sides, but at times makes me feel very removed.

I have big fears of our inevitable move back to Canada.  It's taken a long time to 'assimilate' into Brazilian culture.  To learn the language, the general rules of society, how to get around, what the prices of a pineapple should be.  A lot of blood, sweat (a freakin' LOT of sweat) and tears (also, a BUTT LOAD of tears) have gone into getting myself to the point I'm at today - a point where I feel I'm actually growing as a person: not standing still, or worse, moving backwards.

I feel like it will be difficult to find common ground with people once I'm back home since this huge period of constant adjustment has been the centre of my life for so long.  It's the first time in my life that work, money, clothes and 'things' have played so little importance to who I am.  


I know these things are very important to Canadians (whether they like to believe that or not).  

They were very important to me, too.  They are still important to me, to my happiness.  But they aren't the centre of my happiness, like I always felt was the true race to life.  To work as much as possible, to make as much as possible, to have a big house, to buy a lot of things, to have a car, to travel everywhere... I feel like I can see things with clearer eyes now.
 
Maybe I can say that because I've found my true calling with English teaching - my job doesn't feel like I'm torturing my soul, like it used to.  My true love of language, of teaching others, of sharing information, connecting with people, seeing the product of my work... What if I can't find that again when we move back to Canada?

Living in another country is like being on a permanent holiday.  Everything is different and new every day, even if you're doing it for the 100th time - it's not the way you grew up doings things.  No matter what level of Portuguese you are, you are always hearing a foreign language on the street.  Drinking coconut water at the beach still feels like a special event.
There is something very exciting about living life this way.  Even when nothing really happens, so much is happening every day. 

I think that's why my husband would prefer to live in Canada.  If it gave him the same feelings it gives me living in Brazil, I can't blame him.  Although for him, it's a much different sensation, I'm sure.

The reality is Canada is easier.  Canada is more organized.  Canadians are polite and they look out for each other, in general.  In Brazil, you're fighting the fight alone, give or take a few specific situations that bring the community out in people (Danielle and I talked about this exact topic while at the Farmer's Market by my house - the Market is a place I see a lot of community, but step outside the streets of the market and a car is sure to run you down).

Anyway, I didn't even get into more details of what I've done the last month but it has generally been a great month of reflection for me.  I also want to talk about the Centro of Umbanda that we went to, which was very interesting and awesome.  If you haven't heard of Spiritism in Brazil, or Umbanda (which is not the 'black magic' one) check out the wikipedia def that I linked up above.

Other than that, my cats are lovely, my friends are lovely (Danielle and Alex's weekend here was GREAT GREAT GREAT), and JIM has totally made it possible for me to experience my first Sambodromo during Carnaval!  Woo!  2012 is looking fine!  (as long as the world doesn't end!) 

P.S. We aren't moving back to Canada any time soon but we have been doing some life planning which has got the question coming up in my mind... Never hurts to think about it. 

Does anyone else have the same fears about re-assimilating into your own culture?  Or have the experience of actually doing it? 

I am alive!

Still exist!  Just incredibly busy working.  It's what I need to do to match Ro's ridiculous amount of time spent working so that I don't disappear into a lonely oblivion. 

Class update - I'm now up to 21 students both private and through my school.  It's pretty much right down the middle and while private teaching is more profitable, I really love the relationship I have with the school.  I was working at another school too but it was ridiculous and unprofessional so I quit last week.  Thank God I have the strength to get out of bad situations.  God, what a nightmare.

Anyway, loving teaching and loving my students, btw!  Seriously, I am sooo lucky to have some freaking fantastic students.  

So my friend Laura came last week.  We stayed in a hostel in Ipanema and met an awesome Brazilian girl who stayed with us in the hostel.  She speaks English too so it was a lot of fun speaking in both languages and also teaching her some very useful words!  We reviewed 'puke', 'hangover' vs ' hungover', 'break the seal' and many others related to very real situations we experienced, including the former.

Laura was so impressive with her bravery to try speaking Portuguese (even though she was literally learning on the spot).  She got down 'chopp', 'banheiro', 'obrigada' and 'desculpa'.  Any guesses as to what we did for 6 days straight???

That's right.  Drank and peed. 

Last Saturday we all went to Lapa and met up with Blog Molly and her fiance (Molly, from here on in you are known as BlogMolly) as well as another girl and her bf from my Good School and another friend and his bf from the Bad School.  Ro came too and gave us all a reeeeal entertaining night (considering he doesn't drink very often and he drank 4 'street' caipirinha's ie. Do you want some ice and lime with your giant cup of cachaça?")

Then I proceeded to sneak him in like a bull in a China Shop quiet as a mouse to our Girl's Only Room in the hostel, nurtured him through a particularly traumatizing bout of vomiting, got one hour of sleep and then got back up to go to work.  Crazy.

Let me just say that I do not party like this.  I know I've made some jokes about drinking in the past but they really were slight exaggerations.  I was not prepared for this night. 

Anyway.  Those are the basics.  Tomorrow it's back to work.  I am counting the days until I go home for Christmas.  Today officially marks one more month.  Can't wait.  I haven't been home once in an entire year.

Saturdays & Teaching

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'.

English is AWESOME

WOW, How much do I love teaching English?  THAT MUCH!  I feel like I have really found my calling!  It's like everything I ever wanted wrapped up in one job.  I get to be the boss.  I get to correct people.  I get to be the expert. I get to make the rules.  I get to explain things.  I get to charge what I want.  Hahaha, it's everything a bossy know-it-all girl like me could ask for. 

But seriously, it's HELLA rewarding.  I really really like seeing the progress of my beginner students and because my Portuguese is good enough to be able to explain things, I'm able to teach these beginner students.  I really try hard to have the whole class in English but, having been there myself, sometimes you just NEED clarification to make sure you know that you're on the right track. 

In Canada and the States they don't teach formal grammar so that has been my biggest struggle - figuring out how to explain WHY we say this and WHY certain prepositions go with certain words and WHAT a preposition even is!  But I've been reading all of the books and manuals I have, researching online all of the parts of speech, verb tenses & forms, etc and I find this 'English' stuff really really interesting.  

Also, it's totally helping my understand Portuguese on a whole other level.  For a long time I was frustrated because thing's just didn't translate and certain expressions just made no sense to me.  Obviously, you can't translate things word for word, but analying my own language has really helped me understand that we have so many of these phrasal verbs and expressions ourselves that I can't be all frustrated and judgey about things not making 100% sense to me in ENGLISH.  I am speaking Portuguese and what makes you fluent is understanding which situation to use said phrases in.

I'm honestly a bit surprised with myself for coming into this situation (moving to Brazil) with an as close-minded attitude as I did.  I'm disappointed in myself for holding onto my own culture for so long and having that superiority-complex that so many foreigners have when they move to another country.  The feeling of "things are done better in my country."  While that may be true in SOME cases (with reference to administrative procedures and certain social norms) I have to remind myself often (and Ro helps with that) that I am in a city that is MUCH bigger than the one I'm used to and there are MANY MORE people that what I'm used to.  Also, the reality is Brazil is still technically a 3rd world country so many things are not up to 1st world 'standards'. 

It's time to let go of my expectations of how things 'should' be done.  If I wanted things that way, I could always go back, right? 

But I'm here for the long run and now that things have started to take off with my work I'm even more determined to give things a real legitimate chance.... next step, our own apartment, but that is for a future post. 

Teaching update

Who ever knew that working out could feel so freaking great?  I'm working on a program from Oxygen magazine right now that is one month long and I'm already feeling great effects only a week in.  Damnit it's wonderful. 

Now, on the other hand, what to do with this extreme boredom?  Ro got a job (!!!) which means he has been understandably absent for the past week at work.  I am trying really hard to get more hours but so far it seems that I will need to be patient and let them come to me.  There are several prospects on the horizon, two of which I am pretty happy about.

I want to take it back to the gym now for a second.  When we first arrived, I was bothered and irritated by the methods they have at the gym.  Every gym you join (at least the one's I'm familiar with) have trainers that walk the floor, helping you out with your workouts.  I didn't find this awesome, simply because I couldn't speak Portuguese and they approached us every time we went asking if we wanted help.  I think I was more frustrated with the fact that I couldn't respond, couldn't accept the help anyway and wanted to be left to do my own circuit. 
Now my Portuguese is much better so when people talk to me, I can actually respond in my broken Portuguese.  So yesterday, while doing some one-armed rows on the seated row machine, a trainer approached me to help me position myself better.  We spoke a little before he commented with certainty that I was not Brasileiro.  (It really only takes about one or two sentences)  I asked him how he knew (obviously)... because of my sotaque.
We spoke a little about why I am here, I told him what I did in Canada, I told him what I do here.  He was really interested to hear that I am an English teacher because he has been *gasp* wanting native English classes!  My first potential aula particulare!!  The best thing is that the gym where he works is right across the street from our house so there are no transportation or time costs involved.  It could be really great to start teaching private students close to my house and I really hope the gym opens up some more opportunities for me.  Private and business teaching is where it's AT!
 

Quicky update

Well, either I don't have too much to share or I'm not really in the mood to write this blog right now.  I'm going to write it anyway, mainly because I woke up in a bad mood today and combined with having cramps, bloating and muscle pain, Im bored.
I always kind of wonder how I can just wake up already in a bad mood.  Clearly nothing happened - it's just my hormonal imbalance showing up for the party.  And well, I'm not in a very bad mood - I'm just feeling impatient and irritated.
So, just a little update into my life right now - the first week back from our trip was not good.  For both of us, but I'm only speaking for myself right now.  I was feeling completely useless, with no purpose in life, wondering what we were even doing here in the first place?  It's just that, Ro and I are used to having responsibility.  I managed a fitness club before coming here and he managed an office building.  We lived in a condo close to the lake in downtown Toronto.  We exercised everyday (at least tried to), we cooked our own meals, we paid our cable, cell phone, internet, hydro, grocery bills with our hard earned cash.  At night, we sat down in front our TV in the living room eating dinner and watching whatever we liked.  We really like working, making money and being able to support ourselves and live comfortably.
We don't have any of that now.
While it may seem like a dream to some (the taking 6 months off of work, not having to pay rent, cook for ourselves, clean our own bathroom etc.), it's causing a little cabin fever and lack-of-anything-to-do anxiety.  That and we're out of money.

Obviously, in the beginning, it was pretty sweet because frankly we were tired.  We had all of this responsibility but we were really overworked.  Ro's family has been nothing but supportive of us, financially and otherwise.  We're just ready to get back into a routine. 

So, we started looking for jobs immediately because that's the number one thing that will give us our financial freedom - having an income.  My dream, since I was in university, has been to teach English abroad.  I've never really had another set, established dream like this so THIS IS WHAT I'M GOING TO DO.  That, and I don't really have another option anyway hehehe.  Anyway!  Applying for a job has been beneficial for me in a few ways - first, it forced me to speak in Portuguese over the phone.  Second, I was able to learn my address and postal code!  (like a baby)  Third, it has given me something to focus on and get my brain back in action (but c'mon, you know it never stops ;))
So, with my efforts I was able to snag two interviews.  One with a school called New Start which caters to Business English specifically.  They also pay more than most of the other schools.  The other school I had an interview with is Wizard, a school I see around pretty often.

The lady at New Start was a little hesitant because I only have a TESL certificate and she is used to hiring people with CELTA (which is more intensive and longer).  BUT (and this is the only benefit I can foresee to me living in Recreio, aka NOT where foreigners live) because I live in the far west end of Rio and she needs someone out here, she agreed to give me a try.  I did a day of training with her and she gave me 3 classes to teach (the same group).  After the 3, she is going to get their opinion and if they like me, she is going to hire me on for that class!  YAY!
The first class was this past Monday and oh my god.  Yes, I have the TESL cert. but I did it seriously 5 years ago.  I remember nothing.  I literally planned for this class (on my own) for 10 hours.  I mean, I totally had to catch up on grammar, verb tenses and parts of speech, otherwise known as the basics.  Then I planned the lesson (almost word for word, haha, what can I say, I like to be prepared).  When I got there, only one guy was actually at work that day so it ended up being a one-to-one which was ok anyway because I was able to relax a little.  His English is intermediate/advanced so that certainly made it a lot easier.  Anyway!  It went pretty well I thought!  I definitely need to work on my explanations and timing but I think at least that I made a good impression.

Oh, and the Wizard interview?  How about halfway through the woman said,
"Ok, now we're going to see how your Portuguese is and do the rest of the interview in Portuguese."

Seriously?  Thanks for the heads up.  I kind of stumbled through but it wasn't so bad... let's say it wasn't a train wreck.  Anyway, I should be hearing from them this week!

So yay so far for some progress.  The next big exciting news is that my mom and sister are coming to visit on Saturday!!  I'm really excited to see them and our families will be meeting for the first time!  A little nervous about the communication, but at the same time I'm not.  I made it through and barely spoke anything in the beginning.  Ro is a very good translator and now I can help too.  So, if I have time, I will update to let you know how it's going.

Until then, that is my update!  Ohhhh and Nina is getting so big!  God, she's sooooo long!  I think she's going to be the longest cat in the world.  Here are some cuuuuuute pics to keep you interested...

Haha sleeping with her tongue out!!