A Day In My Life As A TEFL Teacher

My typical Monday in Quevedo

630am The alarm goes off.

630 Jump in the shower.

640 Out of the shower.

645 Put on my Green Hills uniform.

650 Brush my teeth.

651 Eat my everyday breakfast....granola & soy milk....(Ecuador has some good granola)

700 Take the trash out to the corner.

703 Read, review, and revise my week's agenda.

710 Do some studying in my Spanish books.

725 Walking to the bus stop...waiting for the bus....(the bus fare is only $0.20)

730 The bus comes and picks me up.....off to Green Hell... I mean Green Hills...lol

730 I see some of my fellow spanish only teachers on the bus. An opportunity to practice my spanish!

740 The bus arrives at Green Hills School.

745 I walk to the time clock to be clock in.

746 Go to the bench to chat with everyone about their weekend.

750 Time to go to the office.

752 Coordinator gives us a briefing (if there is one but usually there always is).

757 Ask questions (in which I always do....some things just don't make sense and even after their explanation it still doesn't make sense...but they don't care if you understand or not rather they just care that they informed you)

800 Time to go to the library (that is where all the work gets done...lesson plans, reports, letters. Even though, work takes twice as long to complete because of the super slow computers.)

915 Time for english class

1030 Lunch time for the kids. (they ask me to watch them while they are at lunch but my contract does not state that at all)

1100 Back to the library ( to complete my work)

1220 Time for math class (in english)

140 Parents pick up their kids. Say hi to the parents and answer their questions (at least try in my case because most of their questions are in spanish). End of school.

200 Sit in the classroom; grade papers and check homework.

230 Time to leave Green Hell....I mean Green Hills...lol

235 Wait at the bus stop while talking with some of the english teachers about the day (parada de autobus).

240 Board the bus and continue the conversation.

250 Get off the bus and cross the street to walk to my apartment.

255 Arrive home and time to get out of that hellish uniform (I think it is by far the worse school uniform for teachers).

300 Cook myself something to eat. (I do not have a lot of choices when it comes to eating. First of all, I do not eat cheese or pork. And about 60% of their meals is made with cheese or pork at least in the La Costa region. The only Ecuadorian foods that I enjoy are fried plantains, chifles, and maybe a few others).

330 Go to the cyber (after all the internet is still my best friend here) and chat with the cyber owner (another opportunity to practice my spanish). He is only 21 and he already has his own business. He is doing very good for himself.

630 Time to go downtown (Go to Aki supermarket, go to Fruity Fresh restaurant to chat with some of my Colombian friends, walk around, and back on the bus)

830 Arrive home and relax for a little bit.

845 Go to Alvarado's house...(he works Green Hills too)...we watch television...he loves to watch soccer so after all I have nothing else better to do so I join him

1045 Say Adios to Alvarado and walk back to my apartment.

1100 Time to go to sleep