Wow, I can't believe that it's already been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Time has been flying by. Where to start...
The school that I work at is called CEDEI, the Centers for Interamerican Studies. They have three different locations around Cuenca and they have English classes for Ecuadorians and Spanish classes for foreign students that come to Cuenca on their study abroad. The weekday classes that they have are in the early morning and the late afternoon into the night. I am teaching 3 classes total, two during the week and one on Saturday morning. The weekday classes are Monday to Thursday for an hour and fifteen minutes a piece and the Saturday classes are 4 hours. So, I teach two classes a night (6-9 pm) Monday through Thursday and one class each Saturday (8:30am-12:30pm).
As I said in my email, I really like my schedule so far. It's strange that I don't really have 'work' until the end of the day, but it also lets me do a lot of other things during the day.
The first week, though... To put it lightly, was absolute chaos. I'm glad that we had an apartment figured out already, but between getting used to the textbook, writing lesson plans, continuing our adjustment to life in Cuenca, being sick (I managed to get a bad cold for the first couple of days of classes) and actually teaching classes all of us new teachers were completely stressed out and running around like headless chickens. It was bad. I felt like I was treading water, but not much else. You don't think about all of the small things that go into teaching until you're actually... TEACHING! But, as we came out of that first week I was starting to figure things out and feel more comfortable. That first Friday we had off I more than happy to just take it easy and relax!
The one thing that I can say for sure already is that I will have such a greater appreciation for teachers for the rest of my life! At the same time, I'm also starting to realize just how under appreciated they are!! For one of my classes we actually had a lesson on status and it was fascinating to see how the students ranked the status of different careers. One of them was a teacher and all of the groups ranked it as the lowest or the second lowest of all of the professions. Yet, at the same time said that education was important to status. So much for the people that give those kids that good education!! I don't want to make this too serious, but it's just some food for thought..
Other than classes life has been whizzing by. We keep feeling like we've been here for ages, even though it's still been less than three weeks.
The more I get to know Cuenca, the more I come to like it! It's a small city with a lot going on. I still love the fact that I can walk everywhere and you start to see familiar faces in the stores near home, but I'm also always discovering new places to visit.
Realizing that I'm never going to improve my Spanish if I don't get out and.. Well, speak in Spanish! I've been keeping myself pretty busy in that regard. I've started volunteering at an orphanage and I'm trying to get involved at a local after school program. And, through CEDEI the teachers get free Spanish classes. So, I go to the Intermediate class on Monday and Wednesday (from 11 AM till 1 PM) and the Advanced class on Tuesday and Thursday at the same time. Then, after getting quick bit to eat I try to head on over to the orphanage for a couple of hours before I have to go earn my paycheck. It's just strange showing up for work at the time most people are sitting down for dinner. But, as I've said already, it lets me do everything else that I want to do so I can't complain!
I'm going to try to be better from here on out with the posts. It's difficult to write when I'm doing an update about the previous two weeks... We'll see how it goes!
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