I am new enough in my career in TEFL that all experience is valuable experience. I learn just as much from the bad students as the good and sometimes more.
But like medicine, just because it´s good for you doesn´t mean it tastes good.
Today is my last day at Circus Camp, tomorrow I start traveling down to Austria for two weeks of surf & sailing camp and as I gird my loins for the fortnight ahead, I remember the words of wisdom my DoS, Mike gave to us: "When you´re working abroad, look for British Council accredited schools, at least you´ll know they are the best ones."
Well, I forgot those words of wisdom and I´m bitterly repenting now. I am working for a company where I am one of the most qualified! All the rest are glorified au pairs gleaned from American colleges. The one or two who can actually teach are the exception rather than the rule.
I have to teach without a black or white board, only minimal materials and ditto for resources.
Of the three teachers here, I am the one with the most German - hah!
All of this whining is because I am tired. Having already done six weeks of proper summer camp work in England, I had four days vegging out in Edinburgh before hopping a plane to Düsseldorf.
At these camps, I am expected to be a teacher, activity leader, group leader, counselor, translator and basically all things to all men. It´s wearing me out!
I fully intend to suck it up and see out the two weeks in Austria - I keep repeating mantra like that the money goes towards my travel fund.
But I still needed to vent a little (ok, a lot!)
I´m sure I´ll be able to look on the bright side tomorrow, especially after an evening all to myself in Neu Ulm.
In the meantime, thanks for listening!
Thursday 26 August 2010
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Life is a Three Ring Circus
Life is pretty laid back in this camp in the Black Forest, compared to how hectic it was in Mönchengladbach last week.
Yep, that town is a mouthful isn´t it. The only claim to fame the poor place had was as the birth place of Josef Göebbels. Not something to brag about!
Last week, us adults were on duty from 8 in the morning to till lights out at night. This week, while we still have the English lessons in the morning, after lunch the kids are whisked away to learn circus skills like juggling, acrobatics and whatnot.
If I ever figure out how to upload photos on this German computer, I shall show you some examples!
This leaves the other teachers and myself with a WHOLE 90 minutes of free time.
It´s heady stuff I tell ya! Then the kids get to do their chores; some have to feed the Alpacas, some the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pigs, etc, etc. Which gives us another hour all to ourselves.
Add to that the free internet on tap and I am one ecstatically happy camper!
In other news, I found out yesterday that this weekend I am being relocated to the south of Austria, to a surf school for two weeks.
In yet another never before heard of town called ´Seeboden´.
That´s one of the things I´m really relishing about TEFL work. I´ve been doing it since the end of June and so far I have been to four cities - only one of which I ever had any intention of visiting. (That would be Oxford btw)
Now, I´m headed to some obscure corner of Austria, which is a country I´ve never been to, so I´m really excited about that. I´m also having very enjoyable daydreams planning my scenic route home, visiting a few friends along the way......
I´m especially looking forward to taking my cotton picking time to get to Austria, because I seriously need to spend a few hours in a city centre buying soap, socks and Good Sweet Lord some insect repellent!!
Goodnight and Godbless!
Yep, that town is a mouthful isn´t it. The only claim to fame the poor place had was as the birth place of Josef Göebbels. Not something to brag about!
Last week, us adults were on duty from 8 in the morning to till lights out at night. This week, while we still have the English lessons in the morning, after lunch the kids are whisked away to learn circus skills like juggling, acrobatics and whatnot.
If I ever figure out how to upload photos on this German computer, I shall show you some examples!
This leaves the other teachers and myself with a WHOLE 90 minutes of free time.
It´s heady stuff I tell ya! Then the kids get to do their chores; some have to feed the Alpacas, some the Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pigs, etc, etc. Which gives us another hour all to ourselves.
Add to that the free internet on tap and I am one ecstatically happy camper!
In other news, I found out yesterday that this weekend I am being relocated to the south of Austria, to a surf school for two weeks.
In yet another never before heard of town called ´Seeboden´.
That´s one of the things I´m really relishing about TEFL work. I´ve been doing it since the end of June and so far I have been to four cities - only one of which I ever had any intention of visiting. (That would be Oxford btw)
Now, I´m headed to some obscure corner of Austria, which is a country I´ve never been to, so I´m really excited about that. I´m also having very enjoyable daydreams planning my scenic route home, visiting a few friends along the way......
I´m especially looking forward to taking my cotton picking time to get to Austria, because I seriously need to spend a few hours in a city centre buying soap, socks and Good Sweet Lord some insect repellent!!
Goodnight and Godbless!
Monday 23 August 2010
Travelling Wilbury´s
I mentioned in the last post that one of the delights of working this month is the good it will do to my travel fund.
Allow me to elaborate, heh heh! (she says rubbing her hands together gleefully!)
Back in July when I was working in Winchester, my darling sister MsAmused, who is currently living it up in Wellington, invited me to join her in New Zealand in Jan/Feb and the two of us could go travelling together.
Anyone who has known me for more than an hour could probably tell you that the only thing I love more than travel is my family. So you can imagined that I jumped on that invitation like a dog on a ball!
So while I usually live by the maxim: ´if you want to make God laugh, tell him your long term plans!`, I will cautiously propose the following travel itinerary.
If only to give me something to look back on and say ´how did I get it so wrong!!´
I want to head to Sydney, via Mumbai or Singapore, visit my cousin and her husband and their new baby (who is currently still a bump), then fly up to Brisbane to visit one of my oldest, bestest friends, her husband and their little girl, and one of my darling partners-in-crime from my first year in Edinburgh (You know who you are Miss Duracell Bunny!).
Then over to Wellington, where MsAmused will give me the grand tour. We check out the North Island and then head to the South Island.
Which we will work our way around by couch surfing and working on organic farms. I think the highlight of that section of the trip for me will be the 3 or 4 day Sea kayaking trip we want to do.
Once we have visited every plot of earth that had anything to do with Lord of the Rings, we will head to Australia and tour from Sydney to Darwin.
Here we are hoping to get very lucky and charm someone from the Darwin Yacht Club to allow us to work our passage on a sloop sailing to Jakarta.
Ambitious innit?!
So it will be worth following this blog just to see how that works out! (hint hint)
If that works out, then we shall visit a TEFL colleague of mine who works in Jakarta.
Then two months schleppin´ around South East Asia, then back to sunny Winchester for the end of June to work in that TEFL paradise again. (note: this is not sarcasm, it really is a paradise to work in!)
If any of you darling readers have any suggestions as to things to do in New Zealand, Oz, Indonesia and beyond I would really appreciate them!
Next post: Life is a three ring circus.
Allow me to elaborate, heh heh! (she says rubbing her hands together gleefully!)
Back in July when I was working in Winchester, my darling sister MsAmused, who is currently living it up in Wellington, invited me to join her in New Zealand in Jan/Feb and the two of us could go travelling together.
Anyone who has known me for more than an hour could probably tell you that the only thing I love more than travel is my family. So you can imagined that I jumped on that invitation like a dog on a ball!
So while I usually live by the maxim: ´if you want to make God laugh, tell him your long term plans!`, I will cautiously propose the following travel itinerary.
If only to give me something to look back on and say ´how did I get it so wrong!!´
I want to head to Sydney, via Mumbai or Singapore, visit my cousin and her husband and their new baby (who is currently still a bump), then fly up to Brisbane to visit one of my oldest, bestest friends, her husband and their little girl, and one of my darling partners-in-crime from my first year in Edinburgh (You know who you are Miss Duracell Bunny!).
Then over to Wellington, where MsAmused will give me the grand tour. We check out the North Island and then head to the South Island.
Which we will work our way around by couch surfing and working on organic farms. I think the highlight of that section of the trip for me will be the 3 or 4 day Sea kayaking trip we want to do.
Once we have visited every plot of earth that had anything to do with Lord of the Rings, we will head to Australia and tour from Sydney to Darwin.
Here we are hoping to get very lucky and charm someone from the Darwin Yacht Club to allow us to work our passage on a sloop sailing to Jakarta.
Ambitious innit?!
So it will be worth following this blog just to see how that works out! (hint hint)
If that works out, then we shall visit a TEFL colleague of mine who works in Jakarta.
Then two months schleppin´ around South East Asia, then back to sunny Winchester for the end of June to work in that TEFL paradise again. (note: this is not sarcasm, it really is a paradise to work in!)
If any of you darling readers have any suggestions as to things to do in New Zealand, Oz, Indonesia and beyond I would really appreciate them!
Next post: Life is a three ring circus.
Sunday 22 August 2010
Indian Camp - German style!
I have to admit that my first few days of camp in Germany involved quite a bit of culture shock. I had spent six weeks working in camps with about four hundred students and about thirty teachers and activity leaders, not to mention group leaders and centre management.
Then I roll up to the Youth Hostel which is precisely one hour from the middle of nowhere to find that there are thirty students and three teachers. (That´s three including me!)
Added to that the total lack of resources and materials and you´ll understand that I was feeling kinda wobbly for the first day or three.
The other teacher was a lovely Californian girl, Doris, and we had a German native, Kai-Üwe, who was our translator/parent liason and generally worth his weight in gold.
Happily we had really nice kids, which was even more important than usual when you consider that in effect, Doris and I were on duty from 8 in the morning to 10 or 10.30 at night.
The youth hostel itself was a joy to stay at because the staff were friendly and the food was consistently delicious.
(I may in the course of these posts mention food quite a bit: when you are a travelling teacher at the mercy of whatever the canteen throws at you, the quality of the food becomes a major conversation topic!)
On Saturday night we all slept in the teepees. I say slept; I pretty much lay there shivering all night. It was freezing! I have used my sleeping bag in August before with no problems, but in a regular two man tent, not a ruddy great teepee with the top open - my poor sleeping bag just couldn´t cope.
Happily, at one on Sunday afternoon it began to rain.....and it kept raining till after ten that night. The teepee tops weren´t closed off in time, which let the insides get wet, so Doris, the students and I all decamped to the Youth Hostel. Where Doris and I got single rooms with en-suite and a television. I watched CNN International while snuggled in bed on Sunday night, grinning like the cat who got the cream, the canary AND the warm fireside!
And all the while it was still sinking in how quickly I had landed this job, and yes, I was in fact in German for two weeks, possibly more.
Travel fund....ka-ching!!!!
Then I roll up to the Youth Hostel which is precisely one hour from the middle of nowhere to find that there are thirty students and three teachers. (That´s three including me!)
Added to that the total lack of resources and materials and you´ll understand that I was feeling kinda wobbly for the first day or three.
The other teacher was a lovely Californian girl, Doris, and we had a German native, Kai-Üwe, who was our translator/parent liason and generally worth his weight in gold.
Happily we had really nice kids, which was even more important than usual when you consider that in effect, Doris and I were on duty from 8 in the morning to 10 or 10.30 at night.
The youth hostel itself was a joy to stay at because the staff were friendly and the food was consistently delicious.
(I may in the course of these posts mention food quite a bit: when you are a travelling teacher at the mercy of whatever the canteen throws at you, the quality of the food becomes a major conversation topic!)
On Saturday night we all slept in the teepees. I say slept; I pretty much lay there shivering all night. It was freezing! I have used my sleeping bag in August before with no problems, but in a regular two man tent, not a ruddy great teepee with the top open - my poor sleeping bag just couldn´t cope.
Happily, at one on Sunday afternoon it began to rain.....and it kept raining till after ten that night. The teepee tops weren´t closed off in time, which let the insides get wet, so Doris, the students and I all decamped to the Youth Hostel. Where Doris and I got single rooms with en-suite and a television. I watched CNN International while snuggled in bed on Sunday night, grinning like the cat who got the cream, the canary AND the warm fireside!
And all the while it was still sinking in how quickly I had landed this job, and yes, I was in fact in German for two weeks, possibly more.
Travel fund....ka-ching!!!!
Better late than never, chapter two
The update continues.....
On Thursday the 12th of August I had been home in Edinburgh for four days and was beginning to feel human again after two and a half days of solid vegging.
I met up with my friend Stephen and his visiting couch surfers for a drink in The Albanach, a lovely pub on the Royal Mile.
That night, feeling all kinds of restless, I turned off the T.V at 10.30 and headed upstairs. I decided to check my email to see if I had anything new from my sister.
There wasn´t, but what there was was a job alert from a German Summercamp company called Lingolino. The job had been posted two hours before, and remembering what my pal Lori had told me about some TEFL jobs only being posted for a few hours, I decided to apply right away.
I had to faff about updating my CV, referees and whatnot, but I sent off the application at about 11.30 and headed off to bed.
At 8.30 the next morning I stumbled out of bed to answer the phone, thinking all the while, ´this better not be a b"$&/%d of a telemarketer.
It wasn´t! It was Stefan, the founder of Lingolino. My interview went thusly:
Stefan: "From your CV you clearly have a lot of experience. How soon can you get here?"
So nine and a half hours after applying for the job, I was booked on a Saturday afternoon flight to Düsseldorf.
To say I was shocked is putting it mildly!
I actually jumped around the bedroom yelling with delight! More experience to add to my CV, more cash to put towards my backpacking fund and ....also importantly, as I had to wait another week to be paid by Isis, getting fed and found on someone else´s expense was very appealing!
Now came the hard part: organising everything!
I phoned home to break the news to my brother that he couldn´t come visit me next week as I would be in Germany. He was off gallivanting to Castlebar for the weekend, so I told the Parental Units my news.
Then I had my Isis mate Rosie coming for the weekend. I was meeting her off the train at Waverly at 3. So I called other Isis mate, Ronan, asked him to come with me and tried to fit a weekend´s worth of visiting into one afternoon and evening - and somewhere in the middle of all of this, pack!
Thank the good sweet Lord that with my first Isis paycheck I had splashed out and bought a brilliant rucksack to celebrate/mark my decision to go backpacking with MissAmused after Christmas. It made my life much easier! Especially, since arriving in Germany I have had no end of trucking about the place on trains!
That´s plenty to be going on with for now, and I´m only one week behind, so I´m catching up fast! ;)
Next post: Life in the Tipidorf (Teepee Camp)
On Thursday the 12th of August I had been home in Edinburgh for four days and was beginning to feel human again after two and a half days of solid vegging.
I met up with my friend Stephen and his visiting couch surfers for a drink in The Albanach, a lovely pub on the Royal Mile.
That night, feeling all kinds of restless, I turned off the T.V at 10.30 and headed upstairs. I decided to check my email to see if I had anything new from my sister.
There wasn´t, but what there was was a job alert from a German Summercamp company called Lingolino. The job had been posted two hours before, and remembering what my pal Lori had told me about some TEFL jobs only being posted for a few hours, I decided to apply right away.
I had to faff about updating my CV, referees and whatnot, but I sent off the application at about 11.30 and headed off to bed.
At 8.30 the next morning I stumbled out of bed to answer the phone, thinking all the while, ´this better not be a b"$&/%d of a telemarketer.
It wasn´t! It was Stefan, the founder of Lingolino. My interview went thusly:
Stefan: "From your CV you clearly have a lot of experience. How soon can you get here?"
So nine and a half hours after applying for the job, I was booked on a Saturday afternoon flight to Düsseldorf.
To say I was shocked is putting it mildly!
I actually jumped around the bedroom yelling with delight! More experience to add to my CV, more cash to put towards my backpacking fund and ....also importantly, as I had to wait another week to be paid by Isis, getting fed and found on someone else´s expense was very appealing!
Now came the hard part: organising everything!
I phoned home to break the news to my brother that he couldn´t come visit me next week as I would be in Germany. He was off gallivanting to Castlebar for the weekend, so I told the Parental Units my news.
Then I had my Isis mate Rosie coming for the weekend. I was meeting her off the train at Waverly at 3. So I called other Isis mate, Ronan, asked him to come with me and tried to fit a weekend´s worth of visiting into one afternoon and evening - and somewhere in the middle of all of this, pack!
Thank the good sweet Lord that with my first Isis paycheck I had splashed out and bought a brilliant rucksack to celebrate/mark my decision to go backpacking with MissAmused after Christmas. It made my life much easier! Especially, since arriving in Germany I have had no end of trucking about the place on trains!
That´s plenty to be going on with for now, and I´m only one week behind, so I´m catching up fast! ;)
Next post: Life in the Tipidorf (Teepee Camp)
Saturday 21 August 2010
Better late than never?
I hardly know where to start this post as I return from the longest hiatus in Blogging history! My last post being April 3rd.
I think I´ll work on the maxim ´Least said, soonest mended.´
Ironically, I´ve had a lot happen to me since April, plenty of blogging material that just went to waste!
But to summarise briefly, last Ash Wednesday I posted that I was circling a cross roads in my life about where I should go career wise. Should I get an office job, start my own business or pursue a career in TEFL.
As you may recall, I started volunteering as a TEFL tutor for East Lothian Council. Partly to get me out of the house and partly to get some TEFL experience on my CV.
That was one of the smartest moves I ever made as I quickly discovered how much I loved teaching English AND having volunteer TEFL on my CV got me work pretty quickly.
On Thursday, April 8th, I was applying for tefl summer jobs online. About 90 minutes after I began I got a phone call from the first company I had applied to. I had a great conversation with the most jovial interviewer it has been my pleasure to encounter and we set a date for a phone interview the following Monday.
That Thursday evening, Best Friend went into labour and in the early hours of Friday morning I became a GodMother to a beautiful baby girl!
Best Friend and baby came home on Saturday and on Monday I had my phone interview.
The upshot was I got the job! Joy was unconfined - I was on my way!
My contract was to start on June 29th so I went home to Ireland for 3 weeks before that. Dad was having chemo and Mum was laid up with a foot injury so I went home to spoil them rotten.
Then followed five weeks of the most amazing work experience with Isis Education and Travel in Winchester. It was the friendliest staff room I have ever been in and the only way the management could have been more supportive would have been to teach my classes for me!
After Winchester I taught in Oxford Isis for one week and then it was back to Edinburgh to sleep for four days solid and catch up on my laundry.
The adventure continues in the next post.....
I think I´ll work on the maxim ´Least said, soonest mended.´
Ironically, I´ve had a lot happen to me since April, plenty of blogging material that just went to waste!
But to summarise briefly, last Ash Wednesday I posted that I was circling a cross roads in my life about where I should go career wise. Should I get an office job, start my own business or pursue a career in TEFL.
As you may recall, I started volunteering as a TEFL tutor for East Lothian Council. Partly to get me out of the house and partly to get some TEFL experience on my CV.
That was one of the smartest moves I ever made as I quickly discovered how much I loved teaching English AND having volunteer TEFL on my CV got me work pretty quickly.
On Thursday, April 8th, I was applying for tefl summer jobs online. About 90 minutes after I began I got a phone call from the first company I had applied to. I had a great conversation with the most jovial interviewer it has been my pleasure to encounter and we set a date for a phone interview the following Monday.
That Thursday evening, Best Friend went into labour and in the early hours of Friday morning I became a GodMother to a beautiful baby girl!
Best Friend and baby came home on Saturday and on Monday I had my phone interview.
The upshot was I got the job! Joy was unconfined - I was on my way!
My contract was to start on June 29th so I went home to Ireland for 3 weeks before that. Dad was having chemo and Mum was laid up with a foot injury so I went home to spoil them rotten.
Then followed five weeks of the most amazing work experience with Isis Education and Travel in Winchester. It was the friendliest staff room I have ever been in and the only way the management could have been more supportive would have been to teach my classes for me!
After Winchester I taught in Oxford Isis for one week and then it was back to Edinburgh to sleep for four days solid and catch up on my laundry.
The adventure continues in the next post.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
