Job Discussion Forums

[thesteve]

See, i would welcome the challenge to teach in public school like that. Just because the school looks like a warzone doesnt mean there aren't any diamonds in the rough as far as students go. And sometimes, you can accomplish the most amazing things with poorer students.

[naturegirl321]

[just_a_mirage]

Nature Girl is correct. Its not that it wouldnt be a great thing to teach in a public school in Ecuador. You would not be allowed to, unless you have a permanant resident visa and a cedula. They will not hire a foreigner to teach in a public school unless they have permanant residency, because they cannot justify sponsoring a visa for them. There are many, many Ecuadorians who are able to teach there, and since the level of English in public schools is generally so low, they dont feel they need native speakers. I worked in a teacher training program for English for public school teachers and found them generally to be ill prepared to teach English. There are fundacion schools which are offered at very low cost to poor students, and you might consider these. The students are so grateful to get a place in these schools and they work very hard. I have worked in one, and it was very rewarding. But again, it comes down to pay. I dont think anyone who has to pay rent, their own food, transportation costs to school, medical, being able to travel a little, etc, etc would be able to live on $260 a month. And some of these schools are notorious for paying late. If you go two months without a check, will you have the money in savings to get by? And also, there arent that many public schools here. There are many, many more private schools in all ranges of prices. There is plenty of opportunity to work with poor students in low cost private schools or fundaction schools.

[CelesteCielos]

[CelesteCielos]

[spanglish]

Colegio is Spanish for a K-12 school. People work in a 'colegio p�blico' (public school) or a 'colegio privado' (private school). Usually when people refer to working at a 'colegio' on Dave's ESL Cafe they're talking about a private school.

[just_a_mirage]

There are not many English Institutes in small towns. Not so many bilingual schools either, although you may find regular private schools with English curriculums that could work as well, If you wanted to go to a medium-size town, there would be more options. Unfortunately, it all boils down to money. Schools in the smaller towns dont have as much money to pay for English curriculums, training and materials. There are foundation schools in some of the smaller areas that might work, but again, pay would be extremely low. I would love to teach in a small town somewhere along the coast, that would be a dream to me. I have permanant residency and a cedula, but just cant find anything that would allow me to take care of my kids. We are extremely frugal, but I just dont think we could make it on the pay level offered in the smaller towns. If you have enough savings to live on, thats a totally different story, but to actually live on minimum wages with nothing to supplement would be extremely difficult.

[naturegirl321]

[Prof.Gringo]

[CelesteCielos]

[HLJHLJ]

Try ecuador_expats on yahoo groups http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecuador_expats/