I’m sorry this will have to be short but school just started it’s term and the word “chaos” is simply not adequate. We’re a bit short on teachers (anyone want to come to beautiful Ecuador?) and a bit long on students. Here they practice the time honored practice of disorganization. Obviously the school wants to enroll students so that’s what they do. One of my classes went from 5 students to 20 overnight. But with few teachers, we’re having to hold large classes.

Large classes are OK since the students like learning and we all have a lot of fun. But with open enrollment, no one really knows which classroom to use because no one really knows how many students of what level are going to be in there. The secretaries are working 12 hour days trying to keep up, the owner looks like he’s been beaten with a stick, and we teachers all feel like we’ve been dragged through a keyhole backwards. Add to this that the books have not yet arrived so we have to copy pages from old books, it’s an incredible balancing act every day.

The good news is the students are really great. I scared the hell out of them when I announced that I only speak English–no Spanish. But after a few classes they are showing they really can understand my antics at the front of the room. Thanks to my CELTA training, I seem to be getting more out of them than the other teachers and we’re all having fun. I made up a game where I throw a ball at someone and they have to answer a question in a full sentence, then they throw it to someone else. At first they try to ignore the ball but after a while when they answer the question, they throw the ball at someone else they want to get–becomes a fun game all around.

I’ll be posting more pictures on the photo blog and more here later on this weekend (that’s my goal if I have survived that long) so don’t think I’ve given up on the blogs. Stay tuned–it’s a thrill a minute.

Oh–and by the way–if you know of anyone wanting a challenge, fun and to see  very interesting part of the world, have them get in touch with me and I’ll get them set up as a teacher of English. Trained teacher are great but not necessary–they want native English speakers to help push conversational English.