Topic: Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca

[MELEE]

Hi I want to talk about the school where I currently work, The Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca.
I came here in 1998, thinking I'd stay a year, maybe two, and I'm still here.
I make a comfortable living wage.
I've never ever once been paid late.
I get paid 14 months a year!
I got a one year paid sabbatical to do what ever I please with after having worked here for six years. If I work here another 3 years, I'll get another paid sabbatical year!
Okay, one draw back, I have to be on campus 40 hrs a week, but I only teach 15 hours a week and have my own office with a computer to work on the rest of the time.
I have a say in the curriculum and was the English Department director for a year before stepping down to take my sabbatical.
Oh and one other small draw back, after 5 years I started getting a small supplement to by income that goes up each year, I think it's too small. 

[bomha]

I will ask for my mate, who lived somewhere in Mexico, and is tired of Thailand.  Since you work at a universidad, that is tertiary, yes?  My mate only has a BA from the US, and is almost fluent in Spanish.  He wants to be near the beach, and says the only beach near Oaxaca  are Port Escondedo and near Tahuantepec.  And, he hears the teachers of Oaxaca were on strike recently, and their union leaders were killed by the police and army.  True?

If he has years of EFL teaching and a BS, can he make many baht per month to teach in Oaxaka?

Hi I want to talk about the school where I currently work, The Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca.
I came here in 1998, thinking I'd stay a year, maybe two, and I'm still here.
I make a comfortable living wage.
I've never ever once been paid late.
I get paid 14 months a year!
I got a one year paid sabbatical to do what ever I please with after having worked here for six years. If I work here another 3 years, I'll get another paid sabbatical year!
Okay, one draw back, I have to be on campus 40 hrs a week, but I only teach 15 hours a week and have my own office with a computer to work on the rest of the time.
I have a say in the curriculum and was the English Department director for a year before stepping down to take my sabbatical.
Oh and one other small draw back, after 5 years I started getting a small supplement to by income that goes up each year, I think it's too small. 

[Andy]

I've had to the opportunity to talk to a former teacher at the school. We all know that you can trust a former teacher better than a current teacher to tell the real dope on a school. This school is the real deal. It's destined for the Good Vibes Lounge.

Bomha: no baht in Mexico. From the former teacher, back 3 years ago it was close to $1000 a month, but you get double salary in December. They treat ya like a member of the faculty instead of a trained monkey. 

[MELEE]

Actually there are hundreds of beaches in Oaxaca, not just Puerto Escondido.  :beach:But unfortunately UTM is not near any of the beaches, we are on the wrong side of the Sierra Madre mountain range. We do have sister schools down on the coast however. The system which UTM is a part of does hire teachers with a BA, as long as they have some formal TEFL training and 2 years experience. The pay is good by local standards, but I have no idea how much the baht is worth, a teacher with a BA would make about 1000 US$ a month, assuming there is no currancy crash. You get double salary in December as Andy said, and in July as well.

The strike involved the public school teachers (Kindergarden to 9th grade) and strike lead to a social uprising with the traditionally marginalized poplulations taking hold of the historic center of Oaxaca City. Some people invovled were killed, though not the teacher's union leaders, including a US citizen who was reporting on events for Indy Media. He put himself in the line of fire, it was easy for most of us to stay out of the line of fire.

[rainy]

I worked at UTM a few years ago. It was my first EFL job, but I was lucky enough to get the job because I had a lot of previous teaching experience in another field. In the beginning it was all a bit confusing, but I found the other teachers (a lot of whom are still there) very friendly and helpful. The resources weren't as plentiful compared with what I have seen since, but there was definitely enough to prepare good classes. There was also a fabulous bookcase filled with English language books (fiction and non-fiction) just for the teachers! Sometimes it was a challenge to get an overhead projector or a computer lab with internet access, but with enough notice it could be done.

Some things I miss about UTM now that I'm doing the private language school thing are: my own office and computer, a working environment where the students' education was a lot more important than making money and having enough time to actually think about my development as a teacher while at work. It was great to be able to spend time studying methodology and get paid for it!

On the down side, some people might find it dull to be at work all day, when they are only teaching a few classes, but you do get used to it. I also found it difficult to watch the students working so hard to get their degrees, especially after the large amounts of lounging around I did when doing mine! Sometimes it seemed that there were a lot of rules for the students, but then once I got to know a few graduating students I realised that the rules helped them learn a lot of really good stuff that would definitely prepare them for their working lives. A lot of the students came from families that had never had someone go to university before, and it was great to see them being successful.

Huajuapan de Leon is an interesting little town. I haven't been there for about a year and a half, and haven't lived there for almost 3 (where has the time gone???  ) but while it was a little quiet at times, there was always something to do. I am very used to living in small towns however, so I didn't have much trouble with that side of things. For a touch of city, you can jump in a van and go to Oaxaca for the day or the weekend - its about 2 1/2 hours away. There are also some great old monasteries in the area, and all you need to do is jump in a different van to go to see them, or the Huajuapan museum often organises tours on weekends. I used to like going to the museum to watch art films on the weekends, and there is also a cinema in the centre of town that shows newer films, or you can always put that on your list of things to do in Oaxaca. I'm partial to the odd beer, and there were plenty of places to go with a nice atmosphere around the tree filled main square.

Also, with the amount you get paid, it is possible to go away for the long weekends and vacations. Mexico City is 6 1/2 hours away, and I went there a couple of times, as well as having a beachy Christmas in Cancun and a trip to the Copper Canyon (in the north of Mexico) at Easter, and some other places as well. When I left, I had about $2000 US saved up.

To sum up, working for UTM is pretty good, although probably not for people who are dedicated big city folk, and living in Huajuapan offers a good way of life, and opportunity to get to know a side of Mexico a lot of people would never get the chance to see.

[bomha]

My mate and I were kidding about the baht.  Pesos mexicanos newavos, he said.  Or maybe 'newayvos' means eggs.

He says it is a fallback option if everything goes tits up in Thailand.  He either said tits, wavos, or nalgas.