It has been 7 months since I first came to Costa Rica and five months since I first started teaching. I now work full time at Intercultura working 20 hours a week. I just got this about three weeks ago because I was offered a class that meets 4 times a week for an hour. 20 hours may not seem like much, but it’s pretty much the norm and it’s enough to live off and get by on. Anything 18 hours or above is considered full time at Intercultura. With this I can now take Spanish classes for free at the school, however unfortunately it hasn’t worked out with my schedule yet.
Teaching is going great. I like mostly all of my classes. I have a private student 2 times a week for an hour on M and W. He is probably my most difficult and most frustrating class. He is repeating the intermediate book and taking private classes to review it. He has extreme difficulty learning English and nothing stays with him. He’s a great person, super smart and a really talented painter, but he makes the mistakes and has the comprehension of somebody just learning to speak English. It’s difficult to teach him and requires patience like I’ve never experienced before. But it’s a good way to grow as a teacher. Also on M and W I have an 1.5 hour intermediate class. They have their good days and bad days. Since they’re all teenagers and 20 year olds they love to use their phones. They think their sneaky, but they’re not. If I catch them using it I take it away from them. This usually results in some excuse to why they were using and them saying they won’t do it again. They act like they’ll never see it again. I love teaching them but sometimes the class requires more effort than it should. On T & Th I have a 1.5 hour intro class. I enjoy teaching them because they were a new class. I am their first teacher they’ve had at the school so I could mold them to how I like and they behave really well. Monday-Thursday nights I teach a 1 hour class called rock star. It’s a free class and extra practice for any beginning students that want to come. I never know how many students will show up and if they will be different levels, so it’s a little tricky to plan for. It takes a great deal of flexibility. On Friday I have a two hour kids class. Kids are very interesting to teach. Sometimes they behave well and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they sit down listen and are nice to each other, other days they don’t want to listen and are constantly getting up and moving. Also, my kids are around 10,11 and 12 and they all have smart phones! It’s rediculous. I have to sometimes tell them to put their phones away. They’re super cute though and great kids. On Saturday I have two new intro classes. The first one is from 9-12 and I’ve had since the beginning. They are a great class, really well behaved and they understand the information quickly. The second class is from 1-4 and I just got it like 5 weeks ago. Although I haven’t had the for too long they’re also a great class. They’re eager to learn and really well behaved. It’s interesting because it’s a class of different age groups. So far that’s what teaching has been like in Costa Rica.