What are Clases Particulares? Clases particulares are private lessons. Last year I wrote a post about the private lessons that I had. I only had four classes all year long, but I really enjoyed them and I didn't need the money quite as much as I needed it this year. This year I took on quite a few more classes and charged a bit more money per hour. I can earn a lot more money in a bigger city because there is a bigger demand for classes. Many of us language assistants have a few classes per week and we STILL receive phone calls, even in April, from people looking for lessons!
How did I find my lessons? Easy. Word of mouth. I found my first lesson when I went to the bank to open up my account. One lady realized that I was american and asked me if I would be interested in giving private lessons to her daughter two days a week. I had only been in Almería for about 5 days at that point and I was so surprised that I already had a possible class! I told her what I charge per hour and she sounded excited and said it was cheap- so we exchanged numbers and made plans to meet the next week.
After that first encounter, she was so great and gave my number to a bunch of people who were interested, I upped my price and then was able to get started with more classes. I had some classes come and go, but there's never any shortage. If you lose a class, it is always possible to find another- either by talking to other language assistant friends, teachers at school, the language assistant facebook page or the parents of your other/current private lesson students.
What are my students like? I currently have seven students and have had 11 overall this year. I teach two 14 year old girls, an 8 year old boy, two 9 year old girls, a 14 year old boy and a 19 year old boy. In most of my classes I help them with their homework from school, reviewing the vocabulary, grammar and materials with them. I repeat exercises from their book or create new exercises for them to do to get more practice. Some of my students are studying for a language level exam that they take here in Spain. When you study a language, you take an exam to determine your level in the target language. The levels are A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 & C2. With these students, we work with their textbooks, which are usually much more advanced than the books that they are using in their actual classes at school. We do exercises that will appear in the exam. We do speaking, listening, reading and writing activities. Then, with some of them, after we finish studying I will do some games or a project on the side. My personal favorites are Bananagrams and Hangman.
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I really like my lessons this year. I actually look forward to some and sometimes I forget that I am actually getting paid to be there. When we are practicing conversation, I am basically there for an hour chatting with them about random topics while correcting the occasional grammar or vocabulary mistake. I find that the hour (or hour and a half) goes by pretty quickly. I know most of my students pretty well by now (except for the two that I just started with last week) and I know how to fill up and extra time with them.
Another thing I like about going to the lessons is having a quick interaction with the parents. Sometimes I will stand and chat with them before or after the class. They are always making sure that things are going okay with me and that if I need help with anything to let them know. Just today when I got to my class, the dad asked me how I felt about what just happened yesterday in Boston with the bombing. It's comforting to know that someone over here is looking out for you- even if they just ask if you're alright or if they are just making sure you are well hydrated by always offering water, tea or coffee.
I've definitely grown quite attached to these students and will be sad to say goodbye. They are all such good kids and haven't given my any problems at all. (Lucky me!) I hope that I will be able to pass them along to someone who will be here next year so that they can continue with someone who I know will be good for them :)
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