Over the past month I have been teaching English conversation classes at a English school in downtown Guayaquil called El Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN). I was first introduced to CEN by my counterpart Dr. Farhat while walking with him through downtown Guayaquil.
One of the greatest parts about being a Peace Corps volunteer is being able to set your own hours and to initiate secondary projects outside of your counterpart organization. Every Monday and Thursday I am busy with my primary project, promoting the HIV rapid test at Puerto Lisa Hospital. On Tuesdays I work at Hogar de Cristo providing the rapid test in small clinics and on Fridays I rap up the week supervising HIV testing centers with the Munipicio. So that left Wednesday wide open to start a new project.
To initiate the project, I meet with the director at CEN about my interest in starting a conversation class and outlined the specifics of the class. In about a weeks time my class was approved and I had already taught my first conversation class. Now I have two classes that I teach each Wednesday. One class in the morning for advanced speakers and one class in the afternoon for beginning/intermediate level English speakers.
my beginning level class at CEN
I create my own lesson plans for both of my classes which gives me a lot of space to introduce new topics to my students. In my advanced class, I often begin the class by sharing a New York Times article. I find this helps the students to practice their reading comprehension and to learn more about whats is happening in the world outside of Ecuador. Last week we focused on an article by Nicholas Kristof highlighting the famine and violence in Somalia: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/kristof-on-top-of-famine-unspeakable-violence.html?_r=1&ref=nicholasdkristof
Teaching English at CEN reminds me of all the summers that I taught at Aim High in San Francisco. I really missed the joy and gratitude that comes from teaching young people.
I find the following quote by JFK, the founder of the Peace Corps, very inspiring:
“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation.” — John F. Kennedy
Leana, I could not agree more!! WHat a great quote! and what a wonderful opportunity to share your education with others. Did you hear that I am home schooling the girls now? Jared is in his pre med program in 9th grade. I love our little school house here in Florida. We are having a ball. So nice to hear that you and I are both educators!!! Blessings & love from all of us!!
Aunt Mare