These days teaching English isn't going well for me anymore. It's rolling like a train! After the first school there soon followed a second one, where I now go to every Saturday morning to teach for four hours. And I've also already given two hours of "trial" lessons at a third school. The teacher there said she would also be very happy to have me to assist her, but I'm afraid that this school doesn't have the budget for this school year. Perhaps next year then? And two days ago I was contacted by school number four. This school (in the town of Ramiseto) in fact falls under the same management as the first secondary school where I now teach (in the town of Busana). It was the original intention that I would teach at both of these schools for a total of sixteen hours for the rest of the school year. But then I got the unfortunate message that the Ramiseto school had already found someone else in the mean time and so the sixteen hours were split between me and the other English mothertongue teacher. However, the real (Italian) English teacher of the Ramiseto school has now contacted me in a kind of panic. It seems that the English lady who signed up for the 8 hours there, suddenly doesn't want to come anymore and she begged me if I could take over in stead. Which I obviously gladly accepted. I found it a bit shocking that when you've not only given your word to a school, but when you've also signed a contract, a so-called "teacher" says after only one or two hours that she's not interested anymore. Not only is she letting the school down, but more importantly the kids who are so eager to learn because they realise all too well how important English has become. A real shame, that is, but on the other hand it's all the better for me.
The Italian teachers already told me how difficult it is to find an English mothertongue teacher because most of the English are either not interested or give up after a brief period. On the other hand I can understand this because teaching has to be in your blood. It's not without reason that so many teachers get a burn-out after ten or twenty years. It's very energy-consuming and at times it can be frustrating as well. But in the end, when you've managed to get something across and you feel the appreciation of the children (sometimes even with applause!), it's ever so rewarding. Yes, to my own surprise, teaching must truly be in my blood. Then again it's not so big a surprise because when I was a teenager I already taught Astronomy to younger children at the Urania observatory in Hove, near Antwerp. I really loved it back then, and today I love it just as much.
I also try to make my lessons a bit funny and to include as much interaction as possible. After all, the most difficult bit is to get the children to speak so I try to "force" them a bit. Either with the aid of games like "who am I", word riddles, bingo etc, or role plays. Lately I made a whole Powerpoint presentation about airports, from check-in to boarding and everything in between. At the end, I invited one student to be e.g. the check-in lady whereas another student had to play the passenger wanting to go to Chicago. In order to spice things up a bit, I joined the passenger queue, holding a big student's desk. I explained - and very nicely too - that I wanted to go to Chicago as well with my precious table. The check-in lady then had to try to explain that it was too big and too heavy and that I had to pay an overweight fine. Which was obviously a very unpleasant message for me so I insisted she'd call the manager. And so on... Or when we played the security screening, I suddenly became John Wayne with his gùùùn (trying to imitate a heavy cowboy's accent). And I just walked through the beeping security monitor without a care in the world. "Oh... this gùùùn? That's only for shooting pigeons. It's completely harmless..." :-)
Only the "crown jewel" is still missing on my list of schools and that is the higher secondary school of Castelnovo ne' Monti, where all the kids of the whole region go to as from the age of 15. I already had a chat with the (very friendly) Headmaster who was so sorry to inform me that she had already found someone for this school year. Indeed, just before Christmas the original teacher suddenly left for England (there you are...) but they had immediately contacted the local ministry of education in the city of Reggio Nell'Emilia and they had already found someone for them. Nevertheless the Headmaster kept repeating that I had done a very good thing by presenting myself and she definitely gave the impression that she was most interested. Perhaps for next year? A nice thing she told me was that she's a close friend of the Busana English teacher, who will undoubtedly tell her about my exploits and make some very good publicity. In the mean time I can also already present a very nice CV with references from three different schools and, of course, my TEFL licence. I WILL add that school to my list as well. It's only a question of time... hehehe... :-D
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