Lesson Plans and Life Plans

As someone who has had the blessing of knowing exactly what she wants, I have been overly frustrated with not knowing what my best path for myself once I return to Ohio in a few short weeks. I have had many options floating around in my head, along with their pro and con lists and the exhausting attempt to find a happy medium between too many factors (time, visiting family, money, the family reunion, what I really want, etc, etc, etc). I have been in kind of a funk because of this mental marathon and some extra chocolate has been in order. 

In the early stages of planning for this big adventure, the two main goals were clear; to learn spanish well enough to apply for RD jobs when I returned and to make the world a better place. I was dismayed to find that the volunteering options I could find on the internet were more interested in my wallet than my person being there. That wasn't what I had in mind at all! Teaching English became a means to achieve the first two goals as well as preparation for my future dreams of being a dietetics professor. Now that I'm here getting my TEFL certificate, I have learned that most jobs are in language institutes teaching adults; so much for the crazy classroom of hooligans I was looking forward to. I was also hoping to get a teaching contract that included reimbursement for my plane ticket and that may not be possible for South America like it is for Asia. 

So right now, I am currently considering (in no particular order) volunteering in an orphanage in Peru that also teaches Spanish and is affordable, being a nanny somewhere spanish speaking, being a dietitian, working at starbucks, working at a language institute, running away, adopting a sugar daddy, working on an organic farm abroad, climbing in a hole. Whew. 

I am trying to remember that it is a good thing to have options. 

As far as my TEFL, I am almost done with my third out of four weeks. I have taught four lessons and three went well. My other lesson, to the beginner speakers of English was pretty rough; I planned way too much and wasn't in the groove of explaining things well. I finished my lesson with my heart pounding like I had just finished running a race! My mentor teased me afterwards; "Holly, what was the thing about your lesson? That it is over?". Luckily, he is a talented teacher and had lots of constructive feedback for how to have turned my lesson around. Lots of tools for the future! Overall I am enjoying teaching the adults a lot more than expected, but I am not sure if it is what I want to do for a long period of time. For a while I was worried that I was wasting my money on this TEFL course if I didn't use it right away, but I've changed my tune. It can't hurt to have education abroad in the 'ole resume, nor will it hurt being a professor in the future. Plus, I can always work part time giving lessons. 

So that's about it. I am just mulling though things trying to figure it out. I can't believe I'll be back in the US in just over two weeks!