Private Class Surge?
In just a week's time, my private class demand has doubled. Everyone wants a piece of the English pie, it seems. I have been regularly meeting with Adrian, my favorite twelve year old on the planet, twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. During this time, I have literally gotten down on my knees and begged his mother to let me teach his brother, Jose, who is eight and spends most of our class time strutting around the house singing songs to himself and playing make-believe games in his room and peaking curiously into Adrian's session with me. One time, we humored him and invited him in to play an English game and it was too cute for words.
His quota was filled, however, by the classes that he was taking at an English academy twice a week, but yesterday his mom told me that he was sick of going and asked me what my availability would be for tutoring him directly after Adrian. Joooo, it's a dream come true!
Of course, Wednesdays are reserved for my classes with Nacho, Natalia and Sergio otherwise known as the cookie monster. His mother has limited him to two cookies per session, down from the previous 20 that he used to consume in my presence. But he knows the word for cookie, now, which is good. I'm a little disillusioned with the session, though, because the levels between cookie monster and his sister are so different that now they just act goofy in the class because the material is either way too hard for him or way too easy for her. We've got to find a balance here.
My newest charge came strangely enough from the jerk in my French class who told me that all Americans were "direct and rude" at the beginning of the course. I later found out that he speaks perfect English (and I mean perfect) and that he travels to the US all the time for work. He started talking to me a lot more so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and accepted his offer to teach his neighbor, who I had my first class with today. She is super nice, but also the most stressed out Spaniard I've ever met. I don't blame her, because it seems like she has a pretty time consuming job (her phone was ringing off the hook from work all throughout our class- so much so that I had to teach her the expression "You're blowin' up!") and her family situation is really stressful, also. But she's really eager to learn English, and I think that it's something that she really enjoys and something that might take her mind off of the "eh-stress" of life. She told me that she wants not one, but two private sessions per week, filling up my two free nights.
I'm not sure how I'm going to do this in May- it's going to be insane- but in June I think that things will be better since our school day gets shortened to 9:30-1:30 and then the rest of the day is free. I guess that I can do anything if its only one month, even though that month will be five 10-12 hour days per week. But the money will certainly be worth it, and I really love all of the people that I work with, so we shall see.
His quota was filled, however, by the classes that he was taking at an English academy twice a week, but yesterday his mom told me that he was sick of going and asked me what my availability would be for tutoring him directly after Adrian. Joooo, it's a dream come true!
Of course, Wednesdays are reserved for my classes with Nacho, Natalia and Sergio otherwise known as the cookie monster. His mother has limited him to two cookies per session, down from the previous 20 that he used to consume in my presence. But he knows the word for cookie, now, which is good. I'm a little disillusioned with the session, though, because the levels between cookie monster and his sister are so different that now they just act goofy in the class because the material is either way too hard for him or way too easy for her. We've got to find a balance here.
My newest charge came strangely enough from the jerk in my French class who told me that all Americans were "direct and rude" at the beginning of the course. I later found out that he speaks perfect English (and I mean perfect) and that he travels to the US all the time for work. He started talking to me a lot more so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and accepted his offer to teach his neighbor, who I had my first class with today. She is super nice, but also the most stressed out Spaniard I've ever met. I don't blame her, because it seems like she has a pretty time consuming job (her phone was ringing off the hook from work all throughout our class- so much so that I had to teach her the expression "You're blowin' up!") and her family situation is really stressful, also. But she's really eager to learn English, and I think that it's something that she really enjoys and something that might take her mind off of the "eh-stress" of life. She told me that she wants not one, but two private sessions per week, filling up my two free nights.
I'm not sure how I'm going to do this in May- it's going to be insane- but in June I think that things will be better since our school day gets shortened to 9:30-1:30 and then the rest of the day is free. I guess that I can do anything if its only one month, even though that month will be five 10-12 hour days per week. But the money will certainly be worth it, and I really love all of the people that I work with, so we shall see.