Teaching English in Queretaro

….well so far I am spending most of my waking hours preparing to teach but not actually working with any clients. I had a 2 hour session last week and 2 cancellations. This week I begin with two new groups, off campus. I will be going MWF for an hour and a hal in the [...]

My Mexican Visa

What The Manzanillo Bloggers say still holds water. US citizen needs to have a US passport to enter Mexico and at the entry point must obtain an entry permit, an FM-T. It costs, these days $23 (USD). Once I entered from San Diego CA to Tijuana and in Tijuana, at the airport I approached the [...]

My Ship Came In and I’m Teaching in Mexico!

Got saved. Got the 7pm out of Dodge…it left around &:30 and I changed busses in Monterrey and arrived save and sound in Queretaro close to 9:30am.
I was met by the language center manager. I think he had been waiting for me for 3 hours!
Yesterday I slept in a bed in an almost new house, [...]

SOS

So who in the world do I think I’m going to send this to? yeah, I don’t know either. So I’ll publish it on my blog. Could it hurt?

I completed my CELTA course on Friday August 1st (thank goodness!).
I am now in Laredo TX reviewing/editing my course notes as I type them into useful [...]

On a Hope and a Prayer

This is Plan A.
By the first week of September I may indeed have come up with a more realistic Plan B. We shall see. But for now I am going to work to make Plan A a reality. I think it will serve me well, as written. What do you think? WIll I need a [...]

I Got a Job

Today I interviewed at Inter Act here in Mexico City and I was offered a job. Actually I was offered much more than that and I feel both grateful and excited. I begin October 25th however need to report in on October 22nd to do some class observations and complete lesson plans for the first [...]

Job Campaign Mexico

I’ve decided to focus my get-a-tefl-job campaign to jobs posted online for work in Mexico. (Preferably Mexico City. I’m a city girl and Mexico City has great public transportation and here I can get whatever technology I need.)
However I’d go almost anywhere airfare and accommodations and lessons in local language were included as part of [...]

Serious Teachers

I found the platform very easy to use. I especially liked the fact that there was a list of pre-sorted employers based on the country that I am interested in teaching in. All I had to do was to view the detail on each and for those I was qualified for/interested in I just clicked [...]

Dreaming Teaching

CELTA was an extraordinary and intense experience.
Last night, one week post-CELTA I had a dream…I was teaching a language focus class. Context had been set and marker sentence had been elicited. Students had just finished analyzing the marker sentence form…

Then I woke up. Today is a perfect day to reduce my huge stack of teaching [...]

Myngle

I just signed up at myngle as a teacher. Check out this code of conduct:

- I will not disclose my email/Skype address or other contact details to the Myngle students
- I will teach lessons to Myngle students always using the Myngle virtual classroom
- I will accept all lesson bookings from students and will attend the [...]

Room & Board in Mexico Next Time

When in Mexico City I have consistently used Hosteling International aka Mundo Joven aka Hostel Catedral. The cost for member si $1234/night and inclues a light-east-as-much-as-you-want dinner and breakfast. This place is well run and conveninet to everything that I want access to. The negatives are the cigarette smoke and the too-loud music. Today I [...]

Random Thoughts #1

Would I work for an academic year in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico? Yeah, maybe I would. It would give me the opportunity to hone my chops on best practices and give me recent teaching references and post-CELTA teaching experience for my CV.
On Monday I begin my trial with University of Maryland University College. I am looking [...]

Short List #1

Today’s Date
DONE–TESL.com resume posted
DONE–Craigslist, responded to all
DONE–Dave’s ESL Cafe, respond to all
DONE–Contact all of the schools in Mexico City mentioned by Ariel
DONE–Contact Tom to see if Thailand is a possibility
DONE–Contact Chris through nomad4ever and email
Today is the day, Wednesday. The goal today is to get a job offer that I can afford to accept. [...]

Trip Home

Bus is affordable, almost.
Buses leave every hour from 3pm to 11pm. The trip is 15 hours.
10pm Thursday–Mexico DF to Laredo TX
4pm Friday–Laredo TX to Montgomery AL
Arrival in Montgomery 11am Saturday morning.
I need to take ONE bag with me…I would take the computer back pack but it is too heavy, even when empty. So I’ll [...]

Job Hunting

WHO-WHAT-WHERE-WHEN–I’m a recent CELTA inductee who wants a TEFL job in Mexico ASAP!! WHY-Because everything depends on it!
The sources for employers looking for teachers:
Craigslist
International House
TEFL.com
Today I am preparing a paper resume and CV. Also I am giving more detail to the online resume/CV prepared at TEFL.com. Next I will go through job by job from [...]

CELTA

WHO–I’m a USA citizen by birth who is currently ouside of the USA. WHAT-WHERE-WHEN–I  completed my CELTA certification course in Mexico on Friday, August 1st 2008. WHY-I want to teach English as a Foreigh Language outside of the USA and I don’t have a university degree.
I highly recommend CELTA to any native English speaker who [...]