This week as you know dear reader, si basically an extension of my weeklong holiday between Christmas and New Year’s. Forgetting the frenzy, or rather intentionally not opening for the frenzy was a mistake. My short notice plan, as you all know, backfired spectacularly and I basically got two or three classes a day from 2 January through 8 January. While it is true that I did get some short notice bookings, they were all trials. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love it when trials don’t show up especially if they’re short notice. Because I’d rather get the $6.75 for a 15 minute coffee break then not have anything at all. Conversely, while I like getting $11.50 for teaching the class, I do not like how tired I am at the end of it. Saturday was a prime example of that. I had one major course class which means the student showed up and I got my $9.50 base pay plus the measly incentive that we get for teaching the first 20 classes, otherwise known as $.80 (honestly I’d rather get a straight salary). then, horror of horrors, I had four trials in a row. It was, truly an exhausting 2 1/2 hour period. Not even my one regular major course student was a bright spot that day. Her name is Wendy, and she’s a level four which means she should be able to use the present tenses and past tenses with fluency. It can be hit or miss with her. Sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn’t. In fact, she likes to fall back on one word answers. I will say that a positive is that she does not just repeat after me. Parroting students at level four are the worst. I know. I’ve had a couple. Wendy is also difficult because it’s hard to get her to smile and to react.
The week did get better as I had three classes with new students on the Lingueo platform. That is a platform in France that is subsidized by the French government and has primarily employees from Disney and Air France as clients. As I might have mentioned in a previous post, I much prefer adults to kids because they take less energy. I also find that my adults don’t mind if my materials are a little childish especially if I can make the class a little bit humorous. And I do find that the worksheets on the ISLCollective are great when you’re teaching online. The bright colors and pictures stand out on a screen. And make things a little bit easier to handle. It’s much nicer than just a simple black and white worksheet. I had two classes with a woman named Delphine who is a financial advisor at a bank. And a class with a young man who is a blah blah car driver. What’s nice about this platform is that I can basically use the same lesson for most of my clients. And they seem quite happy. In fact, Delphine gave me a five star review which I found out on Saturday afternoon. While I was pleased to receive five stars, my heart sank because I do not actually like getting feedback. My VIPKid experience has soured me on the whole idea of feedback and the fact that at least on VIPKid’s platform. until recently. your pay raise was contingent on receiving 25% five Apple reviews. I hope that is not the case at Lingueo, but we will have to see.
On Sunday in addition to my VIPKid, my Greek lesson, and my Polish client, I had a new client on Lingueo tested at a C1 level. My class was her 3rd out of a package of 21. So I decided that I would do a lesson on manners with her as well as an intake. I spent some time modifying the manners lesson that I have, to fit into an hour but also be higher than B2 level. It worked fairly well, And with a couple more modifications I can either lower or increase the level of the lesson. Sunday evening brought a late cancel from Sander, my English Center client so Monday was a day off, which was nice.
Over in the writing world, I have hit my stride on Thursday nights. While I am not producing much new content, I am slowly but surely extricating myself from the comments of people in the Washington writer’s group that I’ve had hanging around for the last three years, as well as looking at the comments of the current critique group. It’s been interesting trying to juggle and fix what is wrong with the novel, and as a bonus there have been glimmers of where I want to take it from where I have left off generating new content. With the Dutch government set to impose longer lockdown restrictions, it looks like the Writers Gand roup the critique group will be online for the foreseeable future. We may have a line on a place to meet once we are able to. I have a friend in the group who has a space that is free that she has access to. So I’ll have to maybe take a look at it.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 