Planning

Everything is going good here! I am super busy right now, trying to finish up my online classes. I only have about 3 weeks left! Then I have one summer course I have to take and I will be done with my classes and it will be time to start my K-12 Certification Internship. I think I will complete my internship in Anne Arundel County, which will be very nice. Anyhow, back to Ecuador. I just finished up my third month of teaching. So far, I have taught all the same courses - Senior 1, 2 and 3. Next month, starting tomorrow, I will have a new class, Junior 2. These are lower level students, so it will be a big change, but I am very excited about getting to teach a different level with different material. I had a surprise observation the other day. I was very nervous, because she didn't show up until the second half of my class and so I was not expecting it at all! I think it went well, my students were very well-behaved, which was a relief!! I haven't gotten any feedback just yet, but I think that will take a while. The pace of life here is a little slower than back home. Anyhow I am enjoying the warm weather and the plantains! I love plantains now! I can't wait for my family to come visit at the end of the month. We have lots of fun plans to visit Cuenca and the beach! I miss everyone and hope all is well.

I am BAD at blogs

Sorry everyone! I am super bad at keeping up with a blog. I am in my third month of teaching and I am super busy. I am finally not working on Saturdays, which is great! This month I plan on doing some traveling. Last week I went to the beach, and I think I will go to the beach once more in the next few weeks and I also plan on heading to the city Cuenca. Teaching is going good, I am still learning a lot, I don't think there will ever be a time that I am not learning while teaching. Everytime you get new students you have to change your teaching techniques. This month I will have a surprize observation, so I am super nervous about that, but it is making me work much harder and plan better lessons! My online classes are pretty good, but honestly I cannot wait for them to be over. There has been one change in my travel plans. I will be coming home about a week early so that I can begin my K-12 certification internship mid-August. I am actually very excited about this - I can't wait to work with young childern. Right now I am working with young adults, and I think that it would be a fun change to work with kids. Also, because I am coming home early I will be able to make a stop in Utah for my cousins wedding!! I am very excited to see all of my family. I miss everyone a lot!

A little visit from MD!

It has been a while since I have posted, I have been busy keeping up with my new courses and the classes that I am taking online. I am about half way through my second month of teaching, and I feel like I am really getting the hang of it. The only problem I have is some trouble makers in my morning class. The class is huge and most of the students are young, so discipline is the most difficult issue. However, all of the students are doing well and they have improved since I first began working with them. Kaitlyn and Tracy just left Guayaquil yesterday and I think that they had a really good time. They spent a few days here in the city and then went to the beach. I only could stay with them for one day because I had to work on Saturday, but it was wonderful. We went to Montañitas, a beach I had never been to before and it was beautiful. In fact, I have already made plans to return for the first week of April in between the end of my March courses and the beginning of my April courses. I will post pictures from their visit later this week. I hope all is well in the US and I miss everyone!!!

New Classes

My first month of classes has just come to an end. I was teaching 2 Senior 2 courses and next month I will be teaching 2 Senior 3 courses. Which means that I will have the same students! This is great because I won't have to remember too many new names and I will be able to track their progress over a longer period of time. The only bad thing is that I have to teach more advanced grammar, but I am up for the challenge. On Monday I will have all of the grades completed for the students, I am only worried about 2 students not passing out of 30. Hopefully they do well on the final exam! I do not want to hold anyone back!! I wish I was not taking online courses while I was teaching here, it is a lot of work to balance with also wanting to go out and travel. It will be worth it though, because once I finish up these classes I will be done with my degree :)

In 2 weeks Tracy and Kaitlyn are coming to visit!! I am super excited, I am going to take them to the beach! I hope all is well in Maryland. I miss everyone, but not the cold!

Back from the Beach

I just got back from the beach a few days ago. It was wonderful!!! The beach was pretty and the water was warm. I got a nice tan, ate good food, and drank good beer. I stayed at a friends house, so I didn't have to get a hotel and saved a lot of money! And the food and drinks were cheap at the beach. We went to a bar one night, and a rum drink was about $2.50, so we asked how much it would be for the whole bottle, they said $10, so we said give us 2!! Needless to say, I wasn't ready to come back, but I have to work so I didn't really have much of a choice. I only have one week left for my Feb. classes, and I am excited to see the students final grades and how they do on the final exam. I am taking courses online, and balancing teaching, taking classes, and having fun is turning out to be much harder than working at the grocery store, taking classes, and having fun. But I'll get through it! In fact, I have decided that after March I will not be teaching anymore Saturday courses, which will give me much more time to travel on the weekends!!! I have uploaded more pictures, so check them out!

No Blizzard Here!

I have been hearing a lot about all of the snow in Maryland! Actually there are stories about how crazy the weather is in Maryland in the newspapers here! And I can't say that I miss it. It is hot and humid here, in fact wearing pants to work everyday is getting to be a little bit difficult with the heat. I am heading to the beach this weekend because I am in desperate need of a tan and I have a 4 day weekend. But enough with the bragging.

Work is going well. I am starting to really have fun with it and I am actually starting to feel like a teacher. What really makes me feel like a teacher is the discipline issues. While I am not having a lot of problems there are some students that can't seem to keep their mouths shut and listen, but what can you expect from a bunch of teenage boys?! My favorite story so far is the boy who brought his friends old workbook to class and was copying the homework answers right in front of me while sitting in the front row. After I took the notebook from him he informed me that he wasn't copying, just checking his answers. Then all throughout class he was pouting and asking for the notebook back. After class he continued to ask, I said no, that he could beg all he wanted but he couldn't have the notebook back. His final attempt to get it back was by saying, "I won't like you anymore". That was fun! Tomorrow I give an exam, so we will see how the students do, which in turn is at least a partial reflection of my own teaching.

Have fun playing in the snow and i'll have fun laying on the beach!

Successful First Week!

I have successfully completed my first week of teaching! Yesterday students took their first quiz and no one failed, there was a normal range of scores, so I must have done something right! Teaching is definitly hard work, but I'm having fun with it and learning a lot about how to be a good, effective teacher. I do feel a little bad that these students have to be my guinea pigs, but somebody has to be!

Next weekend I am heading to the beach for 3 days!!! I can't wait, I desperatly need a tan if I want to start wearing sun dresses and skirts :) Also, I will be posting some new pictures over the weekend.