Highlights: The moment that stands out the most as far as teaching goes happened with my 3rd year IB students (our high school seniors). I was reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker out loud to my class one day. As English language learners, my students didn't have the most extensive vocabulary. So as I was reading, a hand flew up in the air and upon calling on the student, she asked for the meaning of "wiggle". I thought for a second, trying to formulate the right explanation, but before I could even begin to explain it, another student raised his hand and basically shouted, "I know what it is!" and he jumped up out of his desk and started wiggling and dancing to LMFAO and sang, "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah!" Who knew that "Sexy and I Know It" would actually turn out to be a learning tool for ESL students? I definitely didn't think of it as a possibility, but it turned out to be a wonderful moment that I'll never forget.
Morning: My mornings started incredibly early in Ecuador, waking up at around 5:30 a.m. every day and leaving my house by 6 or 6:10 at the latest. The teachers were provided transportation to school, so I walked to my bus stop which was about a 15 minute walk away and got on our bus at about 6:30. Upon getting to school, the teachers would head to their respective department offices and we would finish some last minute preparation before starting school at 7:10. Then the havoc began! It was a lot of fun. Regardless of the early mornings, I always looked forward to the start of the day.
Afternoon: The students finished school at 1:10 p.m. and most of them headed home; however, the school provided some extracurricular activities and classes that the students could stay for. Those included some after school English tutorials that I helped run. Before the tutorial classes, the school provided lunch for the teachers that had to stay. After that, we headed up to the tutorial classes, and then finally home at 3:10. Upon getting home, my roommates and I ran errands such as going to the market or grocery store as needed. We'd often walk around town and get out of the apartment before we continued with grading and lesson planning and all those wonderful duties that come alongside being a teacher.
Evening: In the evening, my 3 roommates and I either made dinner or went out to eat. Both options were pretty cheap in Ecuador. Depending on our level of stress, we'd sometimes even fit a night out to get a drink and just de-stress. Sometimes we would even go out to watch a movie or just hang out with friends elsewhere. We definitely had our fair share of options to choose from when we wanted to get out, including several parks, a botanical garden, the downtown area, plazas, and countless cafés. We loved exploring the town that we lived in!