Ecuador Teaching Practicum – Summer 2018
In Summer 2018, I completed my teaching practicum in Cuenca, Ecuador. The course I taught focused on English language acquisition and discussions about food and the environment. The students were intent upon improving their speaking and writing, but they have a different learning style from American students (who tend to be quite vocal and love open-ended questions). To engage them in the material and gain their trust, my teaching partner and I planned group activities and played and discussed videos in class, and the students collaborated on final audio/visual presentations. Over time, they became very enthusiastic and, in the end, declared that our class had been an “an educational spa.” I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, working with both my colleagues and the students, and it ignited my interest in finding ways to improve education.
Here, one group of our students presents their final project.
The students brought all these goodies on the last day of class!
This is the beautiful cake our students ordered for my teaching partner Will and me.
With Magda (my advisor) and Will after our students’ graduation ceremony
