Experiences of an ESL instructor

“NEVER GIVE UP ON A DREAM JUST BECAUSE OF THE TIME IT WILL TAKE TO ACCOMPLISH IT. THE TIME WILL PASS ANYWAY.” –EARL NIGHTINGALE

I really never planned to become an ESL teacher, but looking back at my life, I can say that I made everything possible to become an instructor. Before teaching, I had brief jobs as a cyber-cafe manager and a cellphones salesperson. At the same time, I was offering private tutoring for children and teenagers in English as a Foreign Language. Being a private tutor could be in some cases, emotionally draining. But the pocket money was good!

I think I was 5 years old when I got my first blackboard as a birthday gift. I think that was the start of my love for teaching!

I officially started my career as an English instructor around 2002. I worked for an elementary school called "Las Cuatro Estaciones". Class size was very small, and I had to teach EFL from first grade to seventh grade. I had also started studying in Universidad de Guayaquil, so my days were long and exhausting. But I was in my early twenties, and somehow I could juggle work, school and social life just fine!

Event for Mother's Day in Las Cuatro Estaciones, circa 2002

In 2004, I got a position as an EFL instructor for a navy school called "Liceo Naval", where most of my learning on how to be a teacher happened. Liceo Naval was huge on professional development, audiovisuals materials for learning English and we worked with a curriculum for elementary schools called "Backpack". 

Open House in Liceo Naval, 2006. My students talked about turtles, all in English! 

After I graduated from college, I took a job position in a city called Machala, where I worked for a year as head of the English Department for a high school. The life and work environment in Machala did not work for me, and I decided to get a TEFL Certification in Quito, with the Escuela Politecnica Nacional. After I finished the certification, they offered me a teaching position in the Centro de Educacion Continua (CEC-EPN), where I worked from 2009 until 2013.

My students and I on Halloween, 2013. This was a Beginner class. They had to get dressed based on a fictional or real character and give a description of themselves. It was pretty fun!

I loved working for CEC-EPN. That is where I thought my life has reached its pinnacle. I was living in the capital, I made good money and I was teaching in a place with a teaching staff composed by Americans and Ecuadorians, and a big student population. We had a lot of resources and freedom. Our students were mainly high school kids, college students and young professional adults. 

As part of the scholarship I took in 2014, I had to return to Ecuador and work for a public high school. Up to this point, I had only work in private schools, and the transition for private to public after studying in the United States was abysmal. From those two years I can think fondly of some of my students, a few co-workers that were helpful and friendly, and the time I spent with my family and friends. While I was working in the public high school, I was also taking care of my ill father, who had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. I was also in a long-distance relationship. Those two years have a sad beauty of its own.  

My students made a Cultural Quilt with differences between Ecuador and the U.S. holiday festivities, 2015

I came back to the U.S. in 2017, a month after my father had passed away, and the same day my debt with the scholarship was paid. I got married, filed for my green card, and in July I started working for the Adult Learning Center in Manhattan, KS. Working with international students had always been my dream, as the curriculum I had studied and worked with always addressed the multiple nationalities and backgrounds of the English learner. Working for the ALC has been a fantastic dream come true. 

Potluck with my students, 2018

I think I will stay in the ALC for a while, while I figure out what would be my next step. Life is a journey, I can't wait to see what comes next!

Stay tuned,

E.V.I.