First Week of School

Well, it´s Friday and I am exhausted! The week has been an extremely LONG one. I´m not sure why. Busy, yes, but that didn´t make it go any faster. It feels like I´ve been here for 3 months instead of just shy of 3 weeks!

STUDENTS: Both of my classes consist of adults and teenagers. The majority being adults with various occupations such as English teachers, 2 engineers, a lawyer, a leutinent in the Ecuadorian military, an optomitrist(so he says), a business manager, a few who are completing their college degrees, etc. I absolutely LOVE my students!! They are enthusiastic and just want to learn. They value the English language so they can use it in their jobs, to travel, to get a better job, etc. I teach a conversation class so all we do is TALK and do various activities and games! I try to do as little as possible but they really love to hear a native speaker. Like any language, the hardest part is conversing. I am finding that to be true with my Spanish. The teenagers are great as well. They are well-behaved and very polite. The only rules I need in the classroom are NO CELL PHONES and ENGLISH ONLY. It´s great!

I´ve had 3 students ask me to have a ¨Conversation Club" on Saturday mornings. One hour of English for an hour of Spanish in return. Seems like a deal but I haven´t committed to that yet.

I found a father and daughter who are avid runners and hope to do a 10k with them in August right before I come home. We´ll see.

SCHOOL: Administration is more or less a nightmare. They are very unorganized. We got our rosters last Friday and I expected 12 students in one class and the first day I ended up with 30. Imagine a classroom with room with 8 tables and 16 chairs. Packed in like sardines. That´s it! As my level of frustration rose, I flew downstairs and in my best broken Spanish was trying to tell them that I had total CHAOS upstairs. Going up and down 5 flights of stairs 3 times at 9000ft takes your breath away! Long story short, it took 1 hr 15 min to get things settled. I hope by Monday that we are all set. I have 29 students in one class and 26 in another. But they come and go and you never know who is going to show up. It´s part of the culture. I need to bring my own supplies. All I have to teach with is a white board. The school gave us an eraser and one dry erase marker. Thanks! You learn to make due.