Why did you decide to participate in the Maximo Nivel TEFL and teaching program in Peru?
Shruti: I decided to participate in the Maximo Nivel TEFL and teaching program in Peru for multiple reasons. In college, I majored in accounting and marketing. After college, I worked at a big four accounting firm for 3 years. In my free time, I would always volunteer in education at schools as a classroom assistant or tutor.
After much consideration and thought, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in international educational development instead of accounting/business. I started reaching out to people I knew in the field and learned about TEFL/TESOL/CELTA. I had visited Peru last year for 8 days on vacation and fell in love with Cusco.
I had heard about Maximo Nivel on this trip a lot when I asked around about the education in Peru and in Cusco. Further, I got in touch with a friend of a friend who actually did the TEFL program at Maximo Nivel and worked there for 6 months.
He had only good things to say about the program, teaching at Maximo Nivel, and living there. As a result, I felt that doing the program at Maximo Nivel seemed to be the best fit for me.
Describe your day to day activities as a teacher and in the TEFL program.
In the TEFL program, we had class Tuesday-Thursday from 9am-4pm. On Mondays and Fridays, we had mini-lessons to practice teaching to actual ESL students.
The last week of the course was the practical teaching week, so our hours of class was shortened to approximately 4 hours and then we had our hour of practical teaching (to an actual ESL class) every day. To obtain your TEFL certification, we had to write two papers, 5 observations of teachers teaching different levels of classes, and 3 mini lessons.
I believe that our TEFL instructor prepared us well to teach ESL students! My day to day activities as a teacher differ slightly. My hours at Maximo Nivel as a teacher are from 7am-10am and 5pm-9pm. I love teaching here and the students are great!
What was the best moment of the entire trip?
I'm not sure I can just choose one best moment of my trip so far. I have loved everything about moving to Cusco! One of my favorite moments was getting my very first feedback forms from my first month of teaching. The feedback forms are given to all classes at the end of every month for students to rate their teachers.
My first feedback was really great because over 90% of my students gave me an "Excellent" review and the rest gave me "Good" and I had no "Needs Improvement."
Knowing that my students liked me and my teaching abilities was such an amazing feeling. Apart from teaching at Maximo, I have loved all the hikes, sightseeing, and traveling I have been able to do while I am here. I have gotten to see some pretty spectacular places!
Tell me about one person you met.
You meet a lot of interesting people here, whether in the program, the staff, or local people. I have made a lot of friends from my TEFL program and locally, as well.
One person that I have met is my current roommate. I met her in my TEFL program and she came from Arizona. However, similar to me, she has had a lot of experience living abroad and has lived in Australia and Uganda.
She completed her masters in international educational development in Australia and is now applying for the Peace Corps for the following year. It has been a lot of fun getting to know people that share similar goals in life!
How has this experience impacted your future?
This experience will definitely be an asset to my future plans. Since I am changing careers from business to education, this experience has been a great foot in the door to gain some experience in education.
It has also helped me get into the International Educational Development Masters Program at Penn GSE, which I am looking forward to doing next fall. I think this experience will definitely be an asset in the future when I apply for educational development jobs after grad school!