I already told you that I would try to earn a bit of extra money by teaching English. Within the limits of my ability, that is, because working full-time has become out of the question for me. And I've also already inquired what is legally possible of course because I wouldn't want to risk losing my pension.
Since I haven't heard a peep from the Castelnovo ne' Monti council anymore, I went back there yesterday in order to ask if they had already considered my proposal. Eventually I got to see the head of the department of education and to my disappointment he wasn't all that enthusiastic. Although after I explained that all I needed was a classroom and some publicity from the commune, he already seemed a bit more interested. Especially when I said that if there would be, let's say, 10 people subscribing to the course, I could offer it at only a few Euros per lesson. So in the end he did take note of my name and number. On the other hand, he mentioned that there already existed a private school in the commune which offered English classes to children and adults. He gave me the address and said that I would find the contact number of the head teacher there. So off I went, to the "Euroschool".
When I arrived, however, the office was closed. Not surprisingly because after all it's the summer holidays. But nevertheless I tried the mobile number which I found on the door. I got to speak to a very nice lady who happened to be... thrilled because of my call. She said that she had been looking for a teacher already for quite some time and that she wanted to meet me. "Would tomorrow be ok?", she asked. "Sure, I'm always available", I replied. "But... you told me that you're at the office now, right? Would you mind waiting 15 minutes? I'll come down there as quickly as possible!". How about that? 15 minutes later she arrived indeed and greeted me like if I were a king. She said that I was "the cheese on the pasta"! :-) It's her intention to expand her school because demand for language courses (and especially conversation) is huge and there are no opportunities at all, unless you're prepared to travel to Reggio Emilia or Sassuolo, 45min away. She was already planning some summer courses so I may be able to start as a teacher much earlier than I expected. Again... given that this would not be a problem for the Belgian social security. On the other hand, I've always been fair with them and I do hope that they understand that my condition does not allow me to do a full-time job anymore. Still this wouldn't impede me from contributing to society at my own pace, would it? Even if it's for just a couple of hours per week, I wouldn't be as much of a burden to society anymore, now would I? We'll see. The lady was also going to make some inquiries with her accountant in order to see how I could fit in. I'd probably need a tax registry number too because I would be hired as a freelancer. Which actually suits me fine. A couple of hours here and there... Just perfect!
Since I haven't heard a peep from the Castelnovo ne' Monti council anymore, I went back there yesterday in order to ask if they had already considered my proposal. Eventually I got to see the head of the department of education and to my disappointment he wasn't all that enthusiastic. Although after I explained that all I needed was a classroom and some publicity from the commune, he already seemed a bit more interested. Especially when I said that if there would be, let's say, 10 people subscribing to the course, I could offer it at only a few Euros per lesson. So in the end he did take note of my name and number. On the other hand, he mentioned that there already existed a private school in the commune which offered English classes to children and adults. He gave me the address and said that I would find the contact number of the head teacher there. So off I went, to the "Euroschool".
When I arrived, however, the office was closed. Not surprisingly because after all it's the summer holidays. But nevertheless I tried the mobile number which I found on the door. I got to speak to a very nice lady who happened to be... thrilled because of my call. She said that she had been looking for a teacher already for quite some time and that she wanted to meet me. "Would tomorrow be ok?", she asked. "Sure, I'm always available", I replied. "But... you told me that you're at the office now, right? Would you mind waiting 15 minutes? I'll come down there as quickly as possible!". How about that? 15 minutes later she arrived indeed and greeted me like if I were a king. She said that I was "the cheese on the pasta"! :-) It's her intention to expand her school because demand for language courses (and especially conversation) is huge and there are no opportunities at all, unless you're prepared to travel to Reggio Emilia or Sassuolo, 45min away. She was already planning some summer courses so I may be able to start as a teacher much earlier than I expected. Again... given that this would not be a problem for the Belgian social security. On the other hand, I've always been fair with them and I do hope that they understand that my condition does not allow me to do a full-time job anymore. Still this wouldn't impede me from contributing to society at my own pace, would it? Even if it's for just a couple of hours per week, I wouldn't be as much of a burden to society anymore, now would I? We'll see. The lady was also going to make some inquiries with her accountant in order to see how I could fit in. I'd probably need a tax registry number too because I would be hired as a freelancer. Which actually suits me fine. A couple of hours here and there... Just perfect!
Do you still work at Euroschool? How was your experience there? I would like to start a collaboration with them (but not as teacher, of course) :)
ReplyDeleteHello! Actually, my collaboration with them never materialised, probably because they didn't have enough classes in order to be able to afford an additional teacher. But I can confirm that the headmaster is a very kind lady and in the end she got me the teaching jobs at the secondary schools.
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