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Two weeks at An English Camp

Two weeks down two weeks to go.

I’ve just spent two weeks in the north of Madrid teaching fifteen Spanish children how to speak better English. Throughout the two weeks we covered everything from present continuous-irregular past tense-Simon Says-pronunciation-the superlatives/comparatives-to somehow creating a play about The Simpson while throwing in a song by Avril in the mix. I remember thinking that it wasn’t going to be a lot of work. I only had to teach for five hours a day and then I would be free to go hiking in the mountains, practice capoeira, kick back and have a couple beers with my new friends. Man, was a little bit mistaken. First I didn’t realize that they were not going to really help us plan what we were going to do for five hours. Yes the company gave us several worksheets and basically said “have fun”. Spending five hours with fifteen children is difficult let only being in the summertime and let only spending it with fifteen children who don’t even speak the same language as you. My only form of relief throughout the three hour blocks in the morning was saying something very fast in English with a lot of slang about some of the students knowing that they wouldn’t understand. But on the flip side I think about what they must have been saying about me.
The truth is it wasn’t that bad now that I’m sitting here drinking my red wine and enjoying my only task of the day of going to the grocery store to pick up some bread and apples. It was just the fact that the children were place in a classroom setting with classroom tasks but it didn’t have the luxury of being a legit school. For example I had a special needs student, an ADHD student, two bilingual students and eleven other students that tried to learn some bits of English. In a regular school with Special Education Teacher that child would have been able to leave the room when he didn’t understand something or when he had to take a test. But in this setting this child just sat there messing with the other children, asking to go to the toilet while I tried to teach in some way or form.
When it all said and done the important thing is that I was paid at the end in of the fortnight. You might think that it’s pretty selfish for an Educator to only think about the quick cash she earning after this experience is finish but no. This is really the only thing I thought about because The Company in the end is really only concerned about making money. Why else would they stick fifteen Spanish children all in the same room for five hours with the only activity for them to do is grammar? What kid wants to learn grammar of their own language let only grammar of another language? It would have been one thing if the morning were filled with grammar and then the afternoons we could have played organized games with the children in English. But no nothing of that sort was on the agenda. So by the end of the two weeks the children hated being with us and we hated being with them. We had no power over them if they’d misbehave and there was no consequences for their actions. At five o’clock the children were free to go and play games (which they should because it is summertime). Only, we the teachers, had to stay around and plan for five hour the next day.
Then it came time to write the reports. After two weeks we had to reflect on what the children had learned and write a report on their progress. Only The Company already had everything they wanted down on their “cheat sheet” ready to go. The scale was from 0-10 and if we wanted to give a number lower than five with had to ask permission from the Director of Studies if it would be okay. Usually resulting in no, but you could try. I suggested why doesn’t The Company write the reports since they seem to know exactly what they want. Therefore I wrote the most generic report for everyone. I had a friend who really wanted to tell the truth about the students in class and she wrote her own material. Needless to say when she looked at the final copies they had changed to a more generic template. Therefore at the end of the two weeks I was happy to get my 550 Euros and be on my marry way because if The Company only cares about the pasta then so do I.

Posted by mmac18 on 2008-07-17 07:12:25 | Rating:

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		Hi mmac18. Sorry to hear your time as an EFL teacher was so bad. It makes me angry that there are so many companies out there that at purely in it to make money, and give no regard to their staff or their customers (the students and their parents). I can't blame you for only thinking about the money under your circumstances. Reading things like this makes me feel very fortunate that I work for a legit company who support me and care about the level of education we offer. There really needs to be some regualtion in this field. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your summer :o)
Posted by deepintought on 2008-07-17 07:45:49