teaching

Rule number one of teaching at a dershane (cram school) in Turkey: flexibility is the only way to survive.

We started teaching at our school in downtown Ankara on Saturday morning. We found out what we were teaching Friday afternoon. I found out about my evening class tonight only when I called this morning to ask about weekday schedules. Needless to say, the first lesson was a little shaky, as I had very little time to familiarize myself with the material or figure out how to pace the three hour lesson.

For the next four weeks, I'm teaching three different groups of pre-intermediate learners, and my schedule looks like this:

Group 1: Saturday/Sunday 10:00 am-1:00 pm
Group 2: Saturday/Sunday 1:30 pm-4:30 pm
Group 3: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 7:20-9:20 pm

And that's it. Look a little weird to you? It certainly feels weird. My heaviest working days are the weekends, which means church is out of the question. On the other hand, I have nothing during the day on weekdays, and only work every other evening.

The school is a little chaotic. We received books and minimal instruction on teaching policies, course structures, assessment, or, well, anything that teachers want to know on the first day. This sort of information we gleaned from coworkers we chanced to meet in the teachers' room or in the hallway. Paperwork is underway for work permits, but I have yet to get registered in the accounting office so who knows the real status of what's going on. All I know is that I show up and teach and so far there's no record of me being there. TIA.

What I do know is that my students have put me at ease. My weekend groups are comprised of senior high and university students, all girls. This is an age group I'm comfortable with, and I really like all the students. The senior high group in particular doesn't run away during breaks, but uses that time to bring up conversation topics that interest them more than our current unit on environmental protection. They've already chatted with me about everything from their hopes and aspirations for the future to their favorite pop star, Tarkan.

My weeknight group is a little more sedate and not quite so bubbly, but they're mostly men in their early thirties, so that's to be expected. They're in English classes hoping it will improve their job opportunities, so they take it pretty seriously. Not bad, just different having students who are concentrating intently on the grammar instead of checking Facebook on their cell phones and giggling.

Overall I'm feeling good about the students, less than excited about the school, and overall still missing Taiwan so much it hurts. Transitions are hard, and I think the culture shock that bypassed me the first ten months in Taiwan has already hit me hard here. Hopefully the homesickness will start to pass as work fills up more of my time and I get to know people here. I'm confident that being here in Turkey is no accident, and I'm hoping to find ways that I can be used here.