I never realized how difficult scheduling can be, dear reader. While I may have found a rhythm in terms of the week and how to schedule, I am finding it difficult to figure out how to prioritize tasks within the time allotted. Which scheduling tasks come first is a confounding question at the moment. When I only had the two-star clients to follow up, by which I mean the first week that I was in the role, I found it quite easy to schedule on a Monday and a Thursday for initial contact and then follow-up. That continued quite nicely for a couple of weeks. And even up until this week, everything was hunky-dory and quite smooth. All of that changed yesterday morning. Yesterday I didn’t know which way was up in terms of scheduling as so many things came through email in a short period of time. I ended up spending half the day doing scheduling and none of the day doing sales work. But scheduling always takes priority over low-level sales that I can do at any time during the week. This means, of course, that I am going to do it later today.
The week from last Tuesday until yesterday was okay. I started with a new student, Sanne, who is a teenager and she is quite a bit lower level than I expected as she had a hard time with the British Council teens lesson that I had planned for her. In addition, she is quite difficult because her parents want progress reports after every lesson. Nevertheless, it was an okay lesson, and she seem to understand some of the reading but it was hard for her to pick out comprehension items when we were doing the exercises associated with the lesson. In the lesson. My other English Center clients are also doing well and I think I am well able to adjust to their needs pretty quickly. Both Carlien and Isabel needed me to change up the lessons shortly before the lessons began this week, and I was able to. I don’t think they were unhappy. Slava is still a challenge, but this week I got his books and we were able to go over the grammar that we’ve done so far. I was able to match it to the books and so that was quite informative and helpful for him. Last evening the lesson on indeterminate pronouns was too difficult. He isn’t using the language enough and it doesn’t matter how many times he sees me during the week and for how long if he’s not using language, he’s not gonna get anywhere. This coming Friday I start with Marco who was the student that I had for 1 1/2 hours of a 24-hour package a year ago. He left because he was ill and we weren’t sure whether he was going to come back. I hope he doesn’t have a photographic memory because I’m planning on doing the same lesson that I did with him a year ago.
My private client world remains a bit slow, but my beloved Sander was on my schedule once again this week. It ended up being quite a bit of catching up and not a lot of work, but it got him speaking, and I think the fact that his son is going to the British school is going to help him even more. The writing is on the wall for him because I don’t think I will keep him as a student and we have one more lesson in the current package. I will be very sorry to see him go because we’ve been working together since 2019, and he was my first adult student in the Netherlands. Samar and I have lessons when we can, but I think our days are numbered as she is quite busy. ShinWei and I met twice while he was away in the US and I think we have a couple more lessons left in this current package. I did promise him that I would do something fun, but I’m not quite sure what to do. Odhran continues to be my biggest private client challenge, as it’s always difficult finding content for greek that is simple enough for him to follow. At the moment, I choose a verb a week to try and use in the present and the past. We’ll see how long that lasts before both of us gets too bored. There was a bit of a miscommunication with George and Jerry as I thought they had two major exams over the weekend so I canceled class. They thought that I had an exam or another conflict and would have been able to take a class. It worked out in the end as I was able to give the time to Jasper’s family member who needs help studying for an English exam. And it looks like she will turn into an online client. I am planning on giving her a family discount as I feel super guilty taking money from family.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there’s more to come.
Inkreadable 