It's hard to believe that its down to one week now. The internet went down this week and haven't been able to update much. My two practice teachings went good I thought. After one of the classes that I thought went really my instructor told me all of the things I did wrong. I didn't agree with all of them but I still love her.
The class I had Thursday was probably my best class. I did it on food and the homework is to bring food next week. I think one of the ladies will bring a cake since its our last week. If she does then she gets a passing grade. The teacher who observed that class said he didn't have anything negative to say and it was the best class he has observed me teaching.
Good news! The school offered me a 4 or 5 day teaching gig. The director said that I have had good reviews from my instructors and wanted to offer this to me. A lady from Sao Paulo is coming in for a few days starting next Friday for an immersion course. She'll be taking English 8 hrs a day for a week. I'll be teaching half days for the days that she is here.
The director said if I get good reviews then I may get some other opportunities in the future. It's small but its a good start. I should be getting some interviews lined up next week. A big focus now is getting an apartment. The other guys are really worried because they have to move out of their housing after this Friday. I have until April 16 to move out. I paid for housing for the extra 2 weeks of Portuguese but they chose not too. I'm glad I did.
If you think about it say a prayer for me to find the right place. I have emailed a lot of people and not many will email me back. You would think they would want to rent their place. I know God will open a door.
Today I worked on a little homework and went to the beach and read. This afternoon I went exploring and went to this 8 story mall in Botafogo. It was really nice. I haven't had ice cream since I've been here and I had to get a vanilla ice cream cone from Bob's Burgers. It was soooo good!
Monday I have to teach high intermediates. This is the class I have felt the most unprepared for because we don't have any books that we use for them. We kind of come up with ideas on our own for their lesson plan. I will be telling them about Alabama and doing a slide show with some different pictures and facts about Alabama. At the end I'm gonna play the chorus from "Sweet Home Alabama." I may have to bring my lighter and sway it back and forth.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Halfway Through
Today I had my third teaching session teaching grammar. There are six total teaching sessions so I am halfway there. Grammar is the toughest subject to teach but it was a good class. They were high basic and understood the if conditional sentences using may, might and will.
The teachers talked today about finding jobs. They have a bunch of partner schools that hire students from them and most are close to the schools location. I went ahead and drafted my resume and sent it to a posting I found on the internet last night. We'll see what happens. The first teacher of the day said we should start having interviews next week. She has been around the Rio teaching circuit for years and has a lot of connections. I've talked to some recent students and they found jobs pretty quickly.
I have started being more aggressive with my apartment search. They are a lot more expensive than I was anticipating. Copacabana is where most of the available apartments are and the cheapest I found was R1,400 per month which is around $875. On the surface that doesn't look bad but after seeing what we'll be making to start out with that would eat up most of my earnings not to mention transportation, food and tithe.
I found rooms that you can rent in a house or an apartment for 1/3 of the cost. It will be a 3 or 4 bedroom apartment or house and I'll rent a room and pay R400-R500 per month including utilities and high speed internet. It's basically the same setup I have now. I'm praying for favor to find the right place with the right people. I'll do that to start out and once I have built up a good clientele and some private students I'll get a better place.
Aunt June update: She's in therapy now and today the therapist pinched a finger on her right hand and she flinched which is really good. The speech therapist worked with her a lot too. She's a tough lady and I know that with prayers and her strong spirit she'll get back to her old self again.
The teachers talked today about finding jobs. They have a bunch of partner schools that hire students from them and most are close to the schools location. I went ahead and drafted my resume and sent it to a posting I found on the internet last night. We'll see what happens. The first teacher of the day said we should start having interviews next week. She has been around the Rio teaching circuit for years and has a lot of connections. I've talked to some recent students and they found jobs pretty quickly.
I have started being more aggressive with my apartment search. They are a lot more expensive than I was anticipating. Copacabana is where most of the available apartments are and the cheapest I found was R1,400 per month which is around $875. On the surface that doesn't look bad but after seeing what we'll be making to start out with that would eat up most of my earnings not to mention transportation, food and tithe.
I found rooms that you can rent in a house or an apartment for 1/3 of the cost. It will be a 3 or 4 bedroom apartment or house and I'll rent a room and pay R400-R500 per month including utilities and high speed internet. It's basically the same setup I have now. I'm praying for favor to find the right place with the right people. I'll do that to start out and once I have built up a good clientele and some private students I'll get a better place.
Aunt June update: She's in therapy now and today the therapist pinched a finger on her right hand and she flinched which is really good. The speech therapist worked with her a lot too. She's a tough lady and I know that with prayers and her strong spirit she'll get back to her old self again.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Obama in Town & English Translation for Church
I worked a lot of this weekend on a paper that is due Monday. I worked a few hours Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night and this morning. I finally finished early afternoon and then went to the beach to read for a few hours. There were a lot of people at the beach today because it was so pretty.
Obama was in town this weekend. I went to Copacabana beach Saturday and he was supposed to be staying close to that. There was some short of naval boat patroling the beach. Oh yeah, when I was coming out of class Friday night there some people protesting Obama coming and handing out literature. They had signs that said Go Home USA and things like that.
I went to the church I had first visited and asked about english translation. They directed me to go with this guy and they gave me a headset and he translated the service in another part of the church so he wouldn't disturb others. There was one other guy that needed the translation besides me. He was from Bolivia but living in some european country and was here on business.
It was so much better to be able to understand the service. I was just a little delayed. If he said something funny, I would laugh a few seconds after everyone else. The guy who translated introduced his roommate to me. He had studied at Gadsden State Community College for 2 1/2 years and loved Alabama. He said he had visited Minnesota and New York but he loved Alabama the most.
He gave me his email and phone number and said some people from the church hang out at the beach sometimes and do other things and invited me. He really wanted to help me feel included. It was a good feeling. I only had to walk about 8 blocks to the church and it only took me 10 minutes. Last week I left the apartment at 4 pm to go the church in Recreio and didn't get home until 10:40. This was much better!
I teach two more times this week and in two weeks I will be TEFL certified. Now I'm starting to check out apartments. I checked on one from Craigslist and the guy emailed me back saying he was in Africa now on business with UNICEF and said he had the key with him and would only rent to someone who would take care of the place and he had no pictures. Something just didn't feel right about it. I started thinking, if he has the key he will probably want me to send him money first and then send me the key. I don't think that's gonna happen.
Obama was in town this weekend. I went to Copacabana beach Saturday and he was supposed to be staying close to that. There was some short of naval boat patroling the beach. Oh yeah, when I was coming out of class Friday night there some people protesting Obama coming and handing out literature. They had signs that said Go Home USA and things like that.
I went to the church I had first visited and asked about english translation. They directed me to go with this guy and they gave me a headset and he translated the service in another part of the church so he wouldn't disturb others. There was one other guy that needed the translation besides me. He was from Bolivia but living in some european country and was here on business.
It was so much better to be able to understand the service. I was just a little delayed. If he said something funny, I would laugh a few seconds after everyone else. The guy who translated introduced his roommate to me. He had studied at Gadsden State Community College for 2 1/2 years and loved Alabama. He said he had visited Minnesota and New York but he loved Alabama the most.
He gave me his email and phone number and said some people from the church hang out at the beach sometimes and do other things and invited me. He really wanted to help me feel included. It was a good feeling. I only had to walk about 8 blocks to the church and it only took me 10 minutes. Last week I left the apartment at 4 pm to go the church in Recreio and didn't get home until 10:40. This was much better!
I teach two more times this week and in two weeks I will be TEFL certified. Now I'm starting to check out apartments. I checked on one from Craigslist and the guy emailed me back saying he was in Africa now on business with UNICEF and said he had the key with him and would only rent to someone who would take care of the place and he had no pictures. Something just didn't feel right about it. I started thinking, if he has the key he will probably want me to send him money first and then send me the key. I don't think that's gonna happen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)