FIRST DAY OF THE TEFL PROGRAMOn Wednesday I started my TEFL/TESOL course at the Maximo Nivel language center. There are thirteen people in the class from all sorts of different backgrounds. There are two from England, one from Australia and the rest of us are from the US. Our instructor is from Massachusetts. They all seem like fun down-to-earth people.
The course, however is pretty intensive. We are in class every weekday from 9-3 (with an hour lunch break.) By next Wednesday we need to have turned in 5 classroom obsveration reports (1 page long reviews of English classes we observe on our own here at Maximo) and we have a 4-6 page paper due on teaching methods. On Monday we have to teach a 25 minute mini-lesson about anything BUT grammar to a group of intermediate Peruvian English students. I'm thinking I might teach mine on who's who in Star Wars. I don't know yet though.
So it will be a pretty busy four weeks for me but like I say, it's fun to get to know such an eclectic group of people.
I found a great little place to eat lunch right across the street from the school. Yesterday I got an appetizer of potatoes and a hard-boiled egg in a peanutty sauce followed by a delicious soup and then a dish with beef, gravy, potatoes and rice - all for 5 sols (3 sols = 1 dollar)
After lunch yesterday the school sponsored a city tour for the TEFL students which was great because I don't know when else I would have seen a lot of the stuff we saw because of the price (you have to buy a 10-day tourist pass to get into most of these places, and Alana & Tammie have been to most of them... and you need a bus.) We went to a few markets which I had already been to but we also went and saw many of the Inca ruins surrounding Cusco. We also went to Qoricancha which was originally the religious center for the Incas but was later built over by the Dominican monks. It's in the heart of the city and right across the street from our school.
It was fun but tiring and today was another busy day. I'm still taking an hour of Spanish and it almost feels like a break after all the TEFL stuff. So stay tuned, but who knows when my next entry will be with all that is going on this month.
At the Qoricancha monastery/ruins
At some Inca ruins where the water still runs
The TEFL group getting back on the bus.
If you click on this picture you can see the Maximo Nivel sign. The classrooms are on the top floor.
I tried to find a "Hello Kitty" bike but this, I guess, will have to do. (The Brits got a real kick out of this one.)
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