Yesterday, I started working at a prívate technical institution a good friend of mine is directing.
It had been more than two years since I last taught a face-to-face class (I'd been teaching online classes only since we moved to Caracas) and there were some significant challenges to face, but I decided to give it a try.
The unofficial deal was to teach three ESL courses on Saturdays, over the course of 14 weeks.
Classes start at 7:30 am, so we left at about six forseeing some public transportation delays. The institution is about 45 minutes away by bus.
My girls decided to accompany me for emotional support (I think the real reason was to have all day for themselves at a mall a block away 🤭🤫).
It was darker than we thought at that time of the morning and a bit cold.
We did not have to wait much for the bus and it was not as crowded as I had anticipated.
We walked some five blocks from the bus stop and were there at 7. I wanted to be early to take time to install the devices I had requested.
They have not updated their tech, despite being a prívate institution, but again, this is part of the overall crisis. My friend had a family issues to attend and was not there to welcome me. He had offered some markers and eraser. I had to make do with used ones, speakers did not sound sharp and the keyboard was missing the letter i!
Students arrived a bit late, but class was ok.
One big issue, though, is the lack of continuity in terms of the content of each previous course they have had since they do not follow a textbook series. I will have to make additional adjustments to the planning to accomodate students with different backgrounds and proficiency.
In a 50-point placement test I applied, the results were like these in each class.
By 5:00 pm everyone was exhausted. Like me, most students had been there since early in the morning. The lunch break was less than an hour. I have never been fan of intensive teaching. It is rarely conducive of meaningful learning, but it was fun to face students again. This batch seems to be willing to learn and some of them are highly motivarse, so, let's hope things work out. 🍀🤞🏽
