The First Full Weekend

So naive of me, former office 9-to-5 office drone that I am, thinking that it would be a good idea to update this blog on Sundays. That is not going to fit into my new life as an ESL teacher at all. I will always be run completely into the ground on the weekends. Wednesdays it is.

To clear up some confusion, I do not teach at a public school. I work at a private language center, so the majority of my hours are on nights and weekends. (Mostly weekends). I just experienced my first "real" week of teaching, clocking in at 19 hours. I taught one teenage class (3 hours) last Thursday, and then 9 hours of classes on Saturday and another 7 on Sunday. As a new teacher, this is daunting. During the CELTA, I had endless hours (even days) to plan 45 minutes of a lesson. Obviously, teaching 16 hours in 2 days, I do not have this luxury anymore. As a brand new teacher, I do not have the "stalling" -- or "expansion"-- skills to make class exercises longer yet. I do not have an arsenal of classroom games stored in my head to eat up minutes at the end of class where a bunch of teenagers just want to play on their mobiles and make fun of me in Vietnamese.

To begin with, I was pretty sick this weekend. I am not sure if it is the pollution or my increasingly worrisome smoking habit, but I was in the throes of a pretty serious sinus infection. I was exhausted because I couldn't sleep on Friday night due to nerves. I lost my motorbike keys, so I had to take Grab to work. I barely made it through Saturday. Espresso kept me going all day, I didn't even get to eat until I got home at 10 pm.

On Sunday, I nearly lost it. I was scheduled to teach a class at 7:40 am. I got to the language center at 6:40 am to prepare, but the printers, air conditioner, copiers, and internet were not working. I didn't have the book for two of the classes I was supposed to teach, and the office staff did not arrive until 7:35 am. I didn't have the supplementary materials (puppets, posters, etc) required by the books that I did have. I couldn't even print coloring or "hidden pictures" pages for the students to do. I made it, though, just barely.

I learned more in those two days than I did in the whole month of the CELTA. I now know how to entertain a bunch of 5 year olds for 2 hours with a big soft number die and a few flashcards. I know not to let 23 teenagers stand up during class, because they'll never sit down again. I learned a game called "Sumo," that 6-10 year olds love, and will, in fact, chant and whine for until we play it. I actually have sore quads from doing so many rounds of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" with the little kids (and running up and down the stairs because I can't handle the banshee-style screaming in the elevator).

Despite my complaining, I am happy. I survived the worst-case scenario weekend. I earned double my rent working for 2 days. I feel myself improving. This weekend didn't feel any worse than working 2 doubles in a row at a restaurant (ESL teaching feels a LOT like working in the service industry, actually!) I can do this.