Yes, I know, I haven't written anything in ages. Quitting jobs, getting new jobs and still running to interviews kinda makes you tired.
Well, let's start with the old jobs. I quit my job at that supposedly so prestigious school. Well, it may look fancy from the outside, but it defenitely was not fancy in the inside. Classes with 30 students without respect for the teacher or their classmates, without motivation and no will to participate in anything made me wonder why this school has such a great reputation. I also was tired of fighting about their grades: They expected an average of 95 for not doing anything! I am sorry, but in a conversation class you actually have to say something to get a good grade! And in the 8th grade I was teaching I felt like a lion tamer! Oh yeah, and then there was this English festival. Well, in Germany we also have project weeks where the actual classes do not take place, but the teachers make you work on some kind of other academic projects. New Hope had a whole project months and it was mostly not academic because all my classes decided to do a dance for the talent show of the English festival. So, instead of having classes they were dancing all day (for a whole month). One might think that I must have been very happy because I had nothing to do and got paid for watching them dance. Well, not quiet so. Yes, I was getting paid for not doing much, but I was also always in trouble: the director was complaining that the 11th grade had the music too loud while they were practicing, the English coordinator was complaining that I wasn't far enough in the book .... Furthermore, I have never felt so uncomfortable with collegues at other working places. I don't know why, but I simply couldn't build any friendship or even comradeship with them. I totally felt out of place! So, one day I went to school (was being late) and I was pretty sure they would fire me anytime soon anyway because also the school knew that I was out of place there and I went to the accountant and told her that I know that I cannot continue working there. She agreed and told me that the English coordinator was going to fire me on that day anyway! That's what I call perfect timing! :-P Why did they fire me? Well, I was late very often because the school was very far away and oftentimes the San José traffic was not on my side: busses were late or full and wouldn't stop at my bus stop or there were accidents and the bus took forever to get into the city and so on. Plus they saw that I am not somebody who gets all excited because I was able to watch the kids dancing for a whole month!
But don't worry: I was not out of a job! I had already taken over quite a few courses at a language institute teaching German. The German teacher had to go to Germany because of a sick grandfather and decided to stay for a long time. However, the courses at those institutes are very unstable because they are very small and the whole institute lacks organization. So, one month you might have 8 courses and the next only 4.
But don't worry: I am still not out of a job! In June I started working for Centro Goethe: the most amazing work place ever with a very good salary and super nice collegues and managers! I love love love that job!!! Right now I only have 2 courses. I might get one more in July and for September I already gave my availibility for many more courses.
However, although I have two jobs, I still have lots of free time. So, right now I am looking for an English teaching job that can give me 10-12 hours working in the mornings. I have already been to quite a few interviews and guess what? All of those institutes want to give me courses, BUT not like I want them. Some only have one or two courses for me, others only want me to work in the evenings where I already teach Germans, others don't want to pay enough, others want me full-time for which I do not have enough time.... So yes, I am being picky. I would like to work for 2, maximum 3 companies, and get a decent salary from that. If I work for 5 or 6 different institutes and only have 2 or 3 courses each, I will lose the overview where my money is coming from and the locations where I have to go to to teach.
On Tuesday I have an interview with an institute that offers English courses for companies. And although I do not have a TESL certificate or am a native speaker (two of the requirements for that institute) they called me after I sent my resumé and seemed to be very interested. Let's see how it goes! It would be too nice to be true if I get that job!
