CofC Ecuador Travel Blog

On Monday we visited both schools in which we will work. We received a quick tour of the inner city public school, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and then proceeded to Academia Cotopaxi for lunch and an orientation. On Tuesday, we started our observations and assisting. At GGM, we observed teachers in their classrooms and then proceeded to play with the children during recess. Lauren was able to work with multiple teachers since the Special Education is mostly inclusive. Shawanda and Katie joined a seventh grade class in which they helped students determine the volume of a cube using long multiplication. There were no calculators to be found. Anna and Allison were placed in a second grade classroom and quickly became assistants to the students. The girls will be slowly working more and more with the teacher as the days go by.

Angela and I were able to attend a parent/community meeting that was held by the director of the school. Jaime laid out the requirements for evaluating the teachers. This evaluation system is community based and students and parents assess the teachers using the same instrument. The instruction included how to fill-out the evaluation form and how to score certain items. After the meeting, we had a chance to interview the director about community support and evaluation. It was incredible what they have done. The school with classroom, parent representatives have come up with a 5-year plan based upon certain objectives derived from a self-study. Wow. We will be following up on this matter in the coming weeks.

I will comment more on the specific aspects of the schools on the page labeled Schools in this Blog.

In the late morning on Tuesday we arrived at Academia Cotopaxi. We got a grand tour of the high school and athletic complexes by the director of the school, Dr. Bill Johnston. After the tour, we headed to our respective classes and teachers with whom we will be helping these next few weeks. Anna and Allison were assigned to a Kindergarten and first grade teachers respectively. Katie will be able to work with a Spanish teacher, Shawanda will work with a 4^th grade teacher, and Lauren will work with an inclusive teacher.

The girls commented on how much they loved the setting and children at GGM, but the facilities and possibilities at the private international school were mind-boggling. These two schools do represent an extreme in the education system.

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