Day in the Life Teaching English Online from Guatemala with Brooke Small
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Brooke: Buenos Días, everyone. My name is Brooke Small and I am coming to you today from Sam Marcos
La Laguna on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. So a little bit about me. I originally grew up
in Pennsylvania and then I went to university in Nashville, Tennessee, and I graduated in 2018 with
a degree in communication. And my only goal after college was to figure out how to travel the world.
So I moved to Australia on a working holiday visa, and I worked there for about half a
year. And then I returned home and started working in nonprofit. Teaching English at a,
um, afterschool program for refugee children. And that was when it really
clicked for me that I could continue to teach English and travel the world doing that.
So in the fall of 2020, I took ITA's online TEFL course and shortly after that,
I started teaching for a VIPKid in Mexico and then VIPkid ultimately shut down and I lost my job,
so I had to go home and pivot. That ultimately led to me finding a different
online job teaching with Open English this time, adult students in Latin America,
and luckily for me, V I P kid actually just released a global platform,
so I now also teach with them once again, and I divide my time between the two platforms.
So it's about 8 :45 in the morning here. I'm getting a very late start today because I
typically teach anywhere from 5:30 in the morning until 8:30 in the morning with my
students from VIPkid. But this week they are on vacation celebrating the Chinese New Year. So I
took advantage and slept in, and now I will go to a cafe and work on my own personal business.
I am walking into town now to the main walking path, lovingly known as Hippie Highway because
San Marcos is known as the town on the lake that is more hippie and spiritual with lots of yoga
platforms around town and, um, expats offering different workshops on spiritual practices.
Okay, so I was going to take you to my friend Alwayss local establishment for
desayuno tipico. She is unexpectedly closed today, which is typical in Guatemala. So instead I will
take you to the local market and we will pick up some fresh produce for breakfast.
Hola Jessica. So this is desayuno typico. Frijoles, guacamole, or avocado, platanos,
and tortillas. Typically it's served with eggs as well, but I am vegan, so I just omit those
or sometimes add rice or vegetables. And all of these ingredients were about 26 Quetzales,
which is about $3 and 30 cents. Okay, so next up I will give you a tour of my apartment.
Here is the view when you walk in the front door. Um, I have a kitchen with a stove top, but not an
oven, which is pretty common here not to have an oven. And I sometimes teach with VIPkid in
the mornings out here just for a change of pace. And then it's a little random, but we have the
toilet right here behind this door and the shower here in the kitchen, and then just one bedroom.
I don't have the most glamorous setup for teaching. I usually just push my
bed towards the wall and I will teach with a plain white background for Open English,
and with this teacher Brook sign for VIPkid because I'm required to have. Some decorations.
So I am scheduled to teach with Open English today from 3 to 5.
So I will show you how I do my makeshift desk on my bed later, but there is also a
scheduled power outage right now, um, which happens occasionally. So, Fingers crossed,
I can teach later and the electric is back. Um, for now, I will show you the rest of the
apartment. I have a washing basin to do my laundry, and my favorite part is the rooftop.
I like to come up here in the mornings right after teaching to work out and get my day started,
and I will answer some of your questions from up here and give you a breakdown of pricing.
So I am getting lots of questions about VIPkid. I will try to answer them all on this slide.
Um, the new platform is great.
It is geared more towards adult students, so the lessons are slightly more advanced than they were
in the past. However, most of my students are still very young, anywhere from, I would say 6
or 7 years old to 18. Um, and I do occasionally get an adult student as well. Um, I am getting
classes. I opened up my classes in November and I almost immediately started getting booked.
I already have a few regular students, but it might help that I taught with VIPkid for
a full year before they shut down. And that could be why I am getting classes. I do know
that some people are struggling to, um, have a consistent schedule with VIPkid.
In terms of the lake, I would say Lake Atitlán is kind of like a little bubble.
Um, I personally have never had any issues here. Neither have any of my friends,
but there are cases of robberies here. Um, so I would absolutely never go hiking without a
local friend, and you should never hike any of the volcanoes here on the lake without
a local tour guide, um, because that is where most of the robberies take place.
So I would say just like any other country, you should just really be
mindful of your surroundings. And in terms of Guatemala as a whole,
I have taken the chicken buses when I travel, but I travel with a local friend. There
have been reports of robberies on chicken buses, so if you're traveling by yourself,
I would probably recommend that you take a private shuttle.
So , do I get bugs in my house? Yes. I find lots of spiders. Um, maybe like one a day, I would
say. And since I've lived in this specific, um, house, I have found three scorpions here, which
is probably the worst thing that you'll find here. I have moved abroad three separate times now, um,
to Australia, Mexico, and here in Guatemala, and I would say yes, unfortunately every single time.
It's been really, really hard. Um, the first week is always the hardest and just getting
acclimated. I have definitely cried in grocery stores before, not being able to translate in
Mexico when I was learning Spanish or not being able to find what I wanted.
Um, so yes, just be prepared for that. It will be hard, but it's always worth it.
Every single time I've moved abroad, I've always looked back on that experience and been so glad
that I stuck it out and kept going. San Marcos is actually one of the most unique places I've
ever moved to. There is a huge expat community here, um, and it's very community oriented.
Um, Monday nights, there's an open jam at a restaurant. Tuesday night, there is a drum circle.
Wednesday night, there's another open mic. There are just so many different things that you can go
do, um, and meet people there. And there are also lots of workshops being offered here on different
spiritual practices. So you can go to a workshop to meet people. And then on Hippie Highway,
which I showed you earlier, if you just sit there at a cafe, um, you are bound to meet people.
Everyone here is looking for friends. So I would say it hasn't been too
difficult. I also started here in a hostel. I volunteered here for the first six weeks,
so that really helped, um, me make friends here.
So this is at the end of Hippie Highway. Um, this is the main boat dock where you
would catch a boat to one of the other towns. Um, directly across over here is San Pedro,
and then there are a few other towns around the lake as well.
I wanted to bring you to my absolute favorite part of town, which is the lakefront.
It is surrounded by three volcanoes. Um, there are two right there,
which are kind of, cloudy today, so you can't really see them very well.
But I like to come down here. I try to come down here at least once a day,
and I will find an empty dock and just chill here and read a book or hang out with friends.
So it turns out I was actually not able to teach today, unfortunately. The electricity still has
not come back on. So now is a good time to tell you about the cancellation policy for both of my
companies. So with Open English, you can drop a shift and hope that another teacher picks it
up. In this case, another teacher did not pick up my shift within an hour of the start time.
So I need it to send in an absence form and explain why I would be missing my
classes. And typically, Open English is very relaxed about having to miss class,
they understand things happen and I've never had a problem having to
cancel with them. And for VIPkid , luckily I am not scheduled with them
tonight because with VIPkid, you can only cancel six classes in one contract period.
And for each class they will deduct, um, a few dollars from your paycheck.
At the end of the month, unless you have a note from a hospital
stating that you were receiving care and unable to teach at that time.
So with that, I am signing off. Thank you so much for following me around today here
in Guatemala. And if you have any questions about traveling or teaching English or just
want to follow along on my journey, you can follow my personal account here. I'm
always happy to help people figure out how to travel. Buenas noches.