Day 2

3 things I am grateful for today are:

Having a friend who is fluent in Spanish.

There has been issues with stipend payments with our institution here in Ecuador, so my savings have been coping more of a hiding than I would have liked. However, today I was able to cash a check for the first two months of teaching which is a great help at bringing me back to netting zero. It was a reasonably easy process due to the fact that my friend Steph’s parents are from El Salvador and therefore she was able to linguistically guide us through the process without a hitch.

I would hate to think how long the same process would have taken if I was by myself or with another less than bilingual gringo. That said, I was still quite skeptical of the hombre standing next to us as our collective fortune was counted out by a machine. We pocketed our 37 Jacksons and a lonely Hamilton straight away as they were handed to us through the glass and made a bee line for home, only turning back once to ensure that no one was following these two cashed up and slightly paranoid gringos.

2. Receiving objective/non judgmental feedback.

Yesterday I had my first observation as an English teacher. Something I’ve been a bit stressed about due to the fact that I was concerned about my knowledge of the grammar that I was teaching. It was great to hear that the effort I’m putting in to:

a) learn it; and

b) teach it in the most effective way;

is paying off.

I have been teaching for a while and I feel I know a thing or two about the game, but in my opinion any teacher that thinks they cannot benefit from the feedback of another professional is kidding themselves. I love being able to walk away from a discussion. understanding what another educator noticed during a lesson and therefore having something to think about to increase or maintain my effectiveness.

3. My team.

As a teacher I do many things by myself, but at it’s best teaching is a very collaborative profession. After a great day yesterday, today was a bit of a nightmare with technology collapsing all around me. However, when you have a team of people who look out for each other and want the best for you and your students you can’t go wrong. I have been lucky enough to work in many teams like this over the years and today was no exception.

My projector, which was central to my lesson plan was not working.

Time. To. Stress!

5 minutes after a deep breath and a quick message to the coordinator a technician arrived to sort out my problem. We were back on track within 10 minutes, but unfortunately I didn’t understand a word he said to me due to his rapid fire Español. Hopefully “¡Muchas Gracias!” was all that was required to express my gratitude today.

No points yet, so I’m off dancing. Wasn’t hard to find things to be grateful for today. I hope tomorrow is the same :)