...teaching...

Well I haven't updated my blog in the last few weeks-I keep putting it off until I take some pictures of my school, but I guess I'll just post a picture-less one for now.

A few weeks ago, I started teaching at Unidad Educativa Pedro Luis Calero in Quito. It's a small Catholic Elementary/Middle/High School where I help the English teacher who teaches 2nd to 12th grade (here that's 5-12 year olds). We start everyday at 7:20 and go until 1:10, but it always feels like I've taught all day long. The kids are great for the most part, they are very loving and give me lots of hugs and kisses, even candy and snacks some days : ) However, can also be quite exhausting and the 40 minute classes definitely drag on at times. The teacher that I'm helping, Gladys, is Ecuadorian and her knowledge of English is limited. Therefore I basically spend all day in front of the class working on pronunciation and helping them with their work from their English books (which I have also found mistakes in). So between a teacher who can't speak English herself and materials that aren't great, the actual learning of the language definitely suffers. The good thing is that they start young, so hopefully by the time the students graduate they have some basic knowledge of the language.

One project that I've been working on are the presentations that the English classes will be putting on at the end of the school year. The little kids are learning short poems in English, and the others are learning songs (a few by Simon and Garfunkel!. One class will even be acting out The Three Little Pigs. It's been fun working on these presentations and the kids like it because it is something different to do. But again, getting them to pronounce the words correctly is really difficult. I laughed to myself the other day while I was working with the 2nd graders who are learning a poem. I would say a few words of the poem and have the kids repeat them back to me. There is one little boy in the class who stands there confidently only to say back sounds that are completely unrelated to what I've just told him (he's also the loudest and his voice dominates the other students). It reminded me of the Friends episode when Phoebe is trying to teach Joey some French for an audition. It was classic. So again, it can be frustrating at times, but also fun and even funny at others.

Besides working at the school, I've just been hanging out in Quito. It's different now because a lot of my friends are in different towns for their internships, but we've all been visiting each other too. It's hard to believe, but after this week, I only have one week left of teaching, then a week to work on my final paper and then the program is over! The time here has really flown by, it's been three months since I got here and already leaving in just over one! I'm excited to get back to the states and see everyone, but I'm definitely going to miss it here...

I promise to post another blog soon with some photos!