Teaching English Brazil Part 1

                         

    Living in Brazil has been more than spectacular, its been a dream, but like all dreams there are good    dreams and there are nightmares. Lets start with the reason why i came to Brazil.  Teaching English around  the globe has given me an inner peace and a reason to make a  difference in the lives of many. When I first arrived, I got an opportunity to start teaching at a small school in Rio De Janeiro called Lingua. From first expression, I was thrilled and excited to embark on a new journey teaching English. I had met and formed a great relationship with my boss Ricardo Ferreria.  He was a local Brazilian who has had alot of international experience living abroad. We respected each other from the  jump, because we both understood the vision of the school. Ricardo wanted to a school that was different  from the other schools in  Rio de Janeiro. It was his goal to create a school that reflected the real international experience. It was exciting and little nerve wracking from the start because i didn't know how the students would perceive me. Also I had no knowledge of the Portuguese language, all i knew was it was similar to Spanish which was problematic for  me because I mixed both of the languages together..
   
   Things started smoothly from the very beginning and my students and I connected despite the language barrier. Most of my students were business students. I had a couple of teenagers. From the past, I realized I connected better with teenagers compared to adults because my personality meshed more with younger people. .I would soon  found out that teaching adults can  be quite difficult. For one thing organization which was not my strong point needed to be polished.  As time went on I would feel the pressure, something I didn't work well under pressure. The next three months at Lingua would prove to be a test of that. I didn't work much when I first started at Lingua. I had 4 classes a day. The school was relatively new and it needed to time establish a reputation. I had a chance to know the staff at Lingua. Anna  Marta was from Poland and she was the education coordinator at Lingua. Her job was to plan the lessons for all the groups and ensure that we were up to par with our lessons plans. As time went on, I really got to admire her ways of connecting with the students and most importantly her way of organizing everything when she  needed  things to be done. She was a pleasure to work with, very helpful and very hardworking. In the beginning we had a great relationship but as time went on we drifted apart but I had a great time learning from her.. Gabriela Froes was another  teacher that worked at Lingua. She was a native Brazilian who was very creative and had very good ideas. I had a chance to observe her class a few times and from what I got from her. She seems to have a great way with connecting with her students through visuals, something that I learned to adapt to as a teacher.

  In the beginning it took time to adapt to my students. Many of my students were eagar to learn English but at times I found it difficult to motivate them. I was teaching. Rio which was a laid back city. Many people like to spend the day going to the beach or going to a samba events. It was my first time having a difficult time motivating my students to do work. I had to learn fast, which I did, but it would be a struggle for the first couple of months. After realizing that the institute and I didn't see eye to eye on many things. I made me decision to go elsewhere. Where I was going, I felt that they offered a better support system and I had more freedom to be creative with my lesson planning. Lingua taught me alot. It taught me to be professional and to be more serious about the way I approach my job. I got another job at a place called INEP. It was a school located in the heart of Copacabana. The school was more up my alley. creative and they offered me a chance to learn Portuguese. I past the chance up to work at lingua  for the second half of the semester. I felt the new school gave me a better support system.

 I am now in my third month at INEP my students and I have a great relationship with my students, boss and colleagues. I have learned sometimes things don't work out the way we plan but from bad things still can come good things. It´s been a journey these past five months, but from the journey I have endured and I have grown  alot. Can´t wait to see what unfolds in the second half teaching English in Brazil.