Yesterday my morning class was chaos, and I loved it! I think they did, too. We started out by talking about jobs. Then we moved on to vacations, then movies, then drugs and crime. I had only meant to get them warmed up and jump into another activity, but we were having such a good discussion I didn't stop them.

After that, a former student showed up and asked if she could use my class for a survey for her university project. It was in English, so I let her do it. It turned out to be an IQ test, which prompted quite a few questions from my students and led to a fun impromptu lesson.

Just when I was getting back on track, one of the admins brought an elderly Costa Rican gentleman into my classroom. She didn't explain why. I couldn't tell if he was a prospective student or a potential teacher or something else entirely. He just sat and watched my class for awhile. Finally, he called me over and explained that he was a representative from the Ministry of Education in Heredia. He's concerned about the English education that high school students are receiving in this province. They get 6 years of language classes and still can't speak properly because they're not taught by native speakers. So he's interested in our methods and might have us teach his teachers. He also gave me his contact information and invited me out to his beach house, which seemed a bit odd.

A few moments later, another school admin pulled me aside and said that I couldn't talk to the man any more. At this point, I really had no idea what was going on. I was in the middle of something I didn't understand.

After class, my academic coordinator asked to speak to me. What now?! Well, she wanted to know what the mysterious man talked to me about. Apparently he just showed up at our academy and asked to see the qualifications of all the teachers and wanted to watch a class. So even my school didn't know why he was there. Everyone was just as confused as I was.

Strangeness is afoot.

As always.

Labels: costa rica