Thursday, September 2, 2010

Long week or practice teaching

I know, long time no-update. But it’s been a crazy week! On Monday we had an awesome session with an Ecua about Ecua-schools. It really clarified a lot as to what problems I’ll face while teaching. He went into how Ecua-schools are very meta-cognitive (teacher provides information) and American schools are much more cognitive (student does the learning). He said this causes a lot of problems because we will want our students to do things like homework and projects and individual work, but they will want us to spoon feed them everything. He suggested we use a lot of group projects but warned us to stay strict on grading. It was a really informative session!

Then we all started our practice teaching. I have a group of Basic II students. They are all great and range in age from 13-55. The teaching started out hectic because there were four teachers. After a little while we all got in our groove and taught them a few things. I realized I really missed teaching.

Then on Tuesday we had more sessions and I observed Kari practice teach our class. She taught them about greetings, letters, and numbers. It’s really interesting watching a first time teacher teach. There is just so much that comes from hands-on experience. You can have this amazing lesson planned, but if you don’t have the experience to be flexible, stay firm on classroom management, or have an idea of timing, then teaching can be rough. She did a great job and improved immensely in the second hour of her teaching.

Then Wednesday I watched her teach again and she was awesome. She taught about time and the verb “to like.” I also went out Wednesday night because it was free drinks again. We started at the Indian restaurant and then made our way to Bungalow. After that we hit up a few other random bars. Wednesdays are really fun in Quito!

Today I went to sessions and got ready for my practice teaching. I taught them the verbs “to be” and “to have.” It was so awesome to teach again. The people who observed me said I have a definite “teacher-mode.” The class was great and I think they learned a lot. We also got to listen to some Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees (they love that kind of music here) while we did some activities. I’m so excited to have my own classroom J

Tomorrow I’m practice teaching again and they are making Facebook profiles about themselves using the verbs they’ve learned. Then Saturday we’re all headed to Papallacta, a place with hot springs. Should be fun!

Ecua-ism of the week:

- Bad cab drivers. There are some cab drivers in Quito who suck. After practice teaching on Monday, Krista and I took a cab back to our house. However, the cab driver let us off 2 streets away and said “for $2 more I’ll take you to your actual house.” So we walked. Then the next day it was pouring and another cab driver let my friends and me off 2 blocks from our destination because he didn’t want to drive over the bridge. He also said “for $1 more I’ll take you to your actual destination.” So, again, we walked. Ridiculous!

3 comments:

  1. 1. wacky about cab drivers. kind of reminds me of getting ripped off in budapest!
    2. Papallacta seems amazing. I found this photo on flickr of it. I want to go!

    "We Could Kill Some Time, Shoot The Breeze" by Shahriar Erfanian, on Flickr

    3. you are an awesome teacher! i'm glad you're back in it again, and you like it!

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  2. Lol, I wish I could have gone to school in Ecuador ~ I hated homework ;)
    I'm curious what the actual cab fare is before they try to hook you?
    As for the strawberries ~ sounds like it could be a whole new adventure.
    Love hearing your stories <3

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  3. Where are the bugs??? I want to see photos of the bugs!!!! Any bandito's???? Have fun!!

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