Why Am I Here?

I have been teaching in Mexico since August 2007. After over a year here, I have finally decided to try and document that experience for various reasons: to establish some memories in print, to have a reference point for my career and just to reflect on it too.

So why am I here? My career so far has been an interesting one. I graduated in 2002 and spent a year in terrible jobs much like many of my friends. It seems in the UK we go through higher education for the hell of it, without any idea of a job at the other end. It took spells behind bars and taking motor insurance complaints in a call centre to learn that one.

Then I started coaching rugby to kids in Manchester schools with a friend and I realised I enjoyed working with young people. Later in 2003 I was employed by a private children's home and spent a year working with violent or neglected kids who had been taken away from their parents. This was as rewarding as it was frustrating. Here was a chance to really make a difference and I was prepared to do pretty much anything that the job required: there were days spent bike-riding, swimming, recording pop songs and hanging out in a sheep field. I cooked, cleaned, danced, drew, played, cared and counselled in a way that had never been asked of me before. In many ways, it taught me to grow up too.

However, there were limits to the job. You'd do a great day's work and then come back in for a shift 24 hours later and it would all be in disarray again. Someone would have been punched or insulted or the keys hidden or the kids out on the roof at night. Often I'd blame the other person on duty, but looking back I realise that those kids were so erratic that these things were going to happen anyway- you just had to try and manage them when they couldn't manage themselves.

There also wasn't much of a career to be had. At 22, I went for a senior position in the company, was told it was the best interview for the post they had seen, and then told me I was too young to do the job anyway. So I looked for something else. My friend's company had fallen foul in a 'dotcom crash' and he had turned to teaching. I'm not even sure how or why I thought it was a great idea at the time but I enrolled onto a PGCE course back at the University of Manchester and got in.

It was a great idea. I was able to continue working with kids and now there was some measurable success and purpose to my work. As a teacher, I was able to explore my own interests in the arts and media- and rugby of course- with a much greater sense of satisfaction.

My first placement was at Plant Hill High School in Manchester and it was there where I was first employed after my PGCE course. Having attended a number of professional development days in the city, it seemed every school would claim to be from the worst area of Manchester. Our claim was pretty solid. Plant Hill was in Blackley which was a downtrodden suburban area just north of Harpurhey, supposedly the most deprived ward in the country. 55% of the students received free school dinners- an indicator of the support and benefits most parents were receiving, especially with the government recommending no more than 40% in any school.

Indeed, Plant Hill was a rough and ready place but I liked the humour and closeness that it engendered within the staff. The days where the fire alarm did not go off, when there were no incidents at breaktime or no students had to be removed from a class were rare. The staff took that on their shoulders everyday and still worked hard to get those same problem students the best results they could manage. The percentage of students who got grades A-C in their GCSEs was something like 36% in 2006- and that was an achievement.

Those two years taught me classroom management and how to get results. More importantly, I realised that I wanted to be a teacher for some time. But I also realised that I couldn't stay in Blackley for long. In my second year, a teacher joined our department after working in the States and then Egypt who quickly persuaded me how easy it was to get a job abroad. I started looking for jobs and quickly understood how easy it could be to travel the world as an English teacher. This was an opportunity not to be sniffed at.

Initially, I looked at Argentina- its rugby-loving, meat-eating culture seeming perfect. Despite many speculative enquiries of work, there were no jobs going after the recent devaluing of their peso. However, three posts came up in Mexico and that was good with me- I'd been there in 2002 and had a great time. It was a surprisingly quick process. Luckily, my first choice school, the Lancaster, offered me a job and here I am.