Teaching in Greece

Imagine teaching in Greece, a country filled with history, beauty and cultural gems!

Sounds like a dream come true doesn't it? But what's it really like to live and teaching in the intriguing destination? Dave Jennings has done it and he's been so kind as to write us a short article telling us all about it.

"A little over a year ago I wasn't famous, now I have done a podcast and am writing an article for a website. Basically, this could go the same way as the Arctic Monkeys!

So, how did it all start? I took an online course with i-to-i, admittedly it was last minute. I was working in a boring tax office and met someone who had taught in Greece. After a few minutes I was sold (you can imagine: boring tax office or sunny Greece?).

I did the course in just over 2 weeks and scooted off to Greece. I didn't have time to think let alone learn Greek. So there I was at Athens airport clutching a phrase book about to battle with local taxi drivers!

From then on that was me! It was new experiences for about 10 months solid. If I had more time I could write a book. Just getting to this small town up in the mountains of Greece was an experience. I shared lunch with a woman dressed in black for pretty much the entire 2 hour drive to the heart of the Peloponnese. She was like a magician pulling olives and feta out of her bag. To be honest I had hated olives until that moment now I am an evangelist in my conversion to them.

I guess what I should be writing about is the teaching, it would be more relevant. But it's hard not to get side-tracked by olives, trips to the beach and nights out in Greek only tavernas. But here goes.

I hadn't organised a job, but my friend assured me I would find something, I just needed to do a bit of pavement pounding. I dumped my rucksack and went straight to it. I had got there just before the beginning of summer school and the timing couldn't have been better. It took just 2 and a half hours to find an interested school owner. I was asked to do a mock lesson and told to come back in an hour. So I got my course notes and the couple of books I had and prepared my first real lesson at a cafe on the square. I was too busy to feel nervous and the lesson went ok. The job was mine, not to mention the fully-furnished accommodation that went with it.

My first actual day teaching was a frightening prospect as you can imagine. I guess I had a few days to think about it. The thing was my only other experience of standing up in front of people was playing charades at my family Christmas. But the school owner had given me the lessons I was going to teach the first day. So, I holed up in my modestly furnished flat surrounded by books, paper, scissors and marker pens!

I was getting terrified by now, but thinking back to what my online tutor had told during the course, failure to plan, is planning to fail. So, I went back through my course notes on lesson planning and set to it. I had 5 lessons to plan and it took me a few hours (I am amazingly quick at it now though!), but by the end of it my fear of standing in front of people was now shared by excitement at the cunning lessons I had planned for my students the next day (at least I though they were cunning!).

Lessons at school started at 4pm and went on till around 9pm, 5 hours back to back, with about 5 minutes in between. I was now getting nervous, I put down my sweating to the 35 degree heat, but even during winter it continued to happen! I left only a short while ago, but I still got nervous before lessons even after 10 months. I decided that this was a good thing, it meant that I cared about what I taught. Anyway, where was I? The first lesson.

I knew a little of what to expect, having seen a lesson on my course, but standing in front of 12 teenagers for real, all eyes on you and expectations to live up to? The plan was to breeze into the room and introduce myself using a 'getting to know you' activity my tutor gave me and then on with the lesson. So, the bell having gone I walked confidently (at least I think I did; I had practiced in front of the mirror the previous night, embarrassing I know!) along the corridor to my first classroom and first group of students. I was holding a load of materials and books for the lesson, plus a load for the following four lessons. I was also clutching a bottle of water to counter the dry mouth that appeared from nowhere about 30 minutes earlier. I went to open the door to the classroom, which in retrospect was unwise seeing as I only have 2 arms.

My confident entrance into the classroom was marred only slightly by the door opening with more force than was absolutely necessary. However, the real killer came when I dropped my bottle of water and drop-kicked it as I stumbled in, whereupon it flew in slow-motion Matrix-style across the room into the radiator on the opposite wall. All eyes gone from me to the bottle to the radiator, the silence was broken by Maria's scream, justified really since she had just been covered from the contents of my bottle of water that had just exploded on impact with a radiator. Attention immediately came back to me, or at least it would have done if I was still upright. It wasn't long before they spotted me on the floor on my back with papers and books strewn all over place. You can imagine the eruption. I was just getting back on my feet when the owner walked in investigating the uproar. The laughter immediately stopped and the owner demanded to know what was going on. The only reply I could think of the time was "Just a new ice-breaker I'm trying out".

From that moment on, teaching was fun. I still got nervous beforehand but as soon as I walked through the door it was different, I loved it and the kids had a great time too. Greek kids can be a little noisy, but that is just because that is what they are like. The owner in the first few weeks was a little worried about the noise, but she realised eventually the noise was in English, so that was ok. I think her main concern was that I was getting the students soaking wet!

Having done the year, I am so much more confident. I have gone to a foreign country where I don't know anyone, where I didn't even speak the language and even started a new career and made new friends. I can tell you one thing it's not going to stop here. Once I have finished things like writing this article and podcasts and stuff I'll be off again, back to Greece or further afield, perhaps Japan, Korea or South America. Anywhere really, one thing's certain I wont be in the UK for much longer. If you are reading this and you're like me: you want to do something, think teaching is not for you, want to travel as much as possible but haven't won the lottery - then take a TEFL course and just give it a go. It's a no-brainer!!"