Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Day 65 // A Normal Teaching Schedule (Or what will inevitably change 6 times)

I'm about 7 weeks in, and getting more and more used to the new schedule of teaching, lots of sitting, and almost too much free time at work.

At the beginning it was a challenge.

Going from 10 hour non stop shifts at a bar where my only free moments were spent shoveling food into my face in the kitchen or complaining about weird customers... to a job where I actively teach/do something for only 1-4 hours a day, was a drastic change. Put that on top of moving to a new country to do a new job with new people and new hours and new food and my first weeks felt kind of like.....


I received an email today from someone who will be teaching abroad in October, and she asked me what my normal schedule looks like. 


So as you can see here, any of the white blocks are free time. Sitting. Facebook. Reading. Being really bored. Getting lost on Buzzfeed for hours. A 4th cup of coffee. Reading the world's longest joke (try it, I dare you). That youtube video one more time. Thinking about the weekend.  Oh and lesson planning...sometimes.

Obviously my Fridays are awesome and I'm ready for the weekend on Thursday night. 


This is an average week of 16 classes, some of my friends here have 14, others have 24. 16 to me is perfect. Other teachers took on more for a pay raise, good luck guys. 

The best part about getting this little slip of paper of your PERMANENT SEMESTER SCHEDULE is that it probably (no it definitely will) change a few times. You'll come into work on Wednesday morning and be told at 8:20am, 'Oh by the way, you teach this class at 8:30am now...on Wednesdays... khavefunbai." 


But that's all a part of learning this culture. You try to not smash your head into objects (see above) when THINGS KEEP CHANGING AND NOBODY TELLS YOU. 

So you get some free time as a teacher. It gives you moments to decompress from the excessive amount of energy you use to control a classroom of pre-teens and teach them grammar at the same time. It lets you browse the dark and twisted corners of Facebook for hours on end and develop an even deeper love/hate relationship with your online-self. It also lets you find a super awesome archive of perfect gifs to accurately describe all of the feelz you have.



But most of all it let's you really appreciate where you are and what your doing, and how this experience is really freaking awesome, not matter how many times your schedule changes. 

Shoot me an email if you have any questions about Teaching Abroad: amyskinner05@gmail.com

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