School

So it is October 8th, 2008. I have been in Czech Republic for only one month and 18 days. Not very long in the grand scheme of things, but extremely busy.
Like I said before It has been hard for me to catch up on writing because in the initial month of moving somewhere totally new, there is a wave of strange and new things that hit you. So I will try to break things down in different segments.

School:
School has been great so far. I teach at 4 different locations. The first and main one is Gymnazium, or the Czech equivalent of high school. I teach mainly the "juniors and seniors." I put it in quotes because the way they do the schooling here is different than the States. So they are for the most part upper level and pretty easy to handle. They don't always listen to me, but I quickly remind them that I control their grades! I'm a pretty laid back teacher with them. Right now we are doing a unit over art. We broke down many different aspects of art as a class and then broke up into groups of 2 and each group is doing a 12 minute presentation on their type of art. It should be pretty good.
The other school I teach at is called English Services. It is a private school owned and run by a couple, Anthony and Jitka Otahal. They are the greatest people. I teach around 13 hours a week with them. However, since they are a private school, companies hire them to come give English lessons to their employees. So 2 times a week, I travel 40 minutes (walking) to a giant chemical factory and teach English there. The rest of my classes are at their private school, groups of about 12 or so. Much more calm than Gymnazium students.
I also give a few private lessons, 2 different businessmen, and one family. They are great. A little stressful to have to sit and just talk for an hour to a person. Because there is a balance of teaching them certain topics, as well as just practicing conversation. They are the most challenging but best for really getting to know them.
So my schedule ... for any of you who want to know goes something like this
Monday: once a month I teach at a school out of town about 10 minutes away by car. I teach 5 lessons of beginner English. It is fun because I just get to teach about whatever and just have class discussions. They are very eager. So on that day I begin at 7:50 and teach until 1:00
And then all Mondays I teach at 1:45 my 4.A/8.g class (which are the seniors).
Tuesday:
8:00 Small group lesson at Synthos chemical company
2:25 my 7.G class, which are the juniors
5:00 small group at English services
6:00 small group at English services
Finish at 7:30

Wednesday: 8:00 4.A/8G 2 class
10:00 2.A class
2:25 3.A class
finish at 4:00

Thursday: 8:00 small group at Synthos company
9:00 Private lesson with a man named Pavel
10:15 Private lesson with a man named Penec
* both of these are pretty fun because both of them speak great English
3:00 small group at Synthos
4:00 private lesson at Synthos
6:00-8:00 Private lesson with Kramil Family

Friday: 9:00 2.G class

So that is the rundown of my schedule!