A blog about my actual job (it's not all traveling and adventure for this girl)

It is my third week teaching and time is going by quite quickly; but I also feel as if I have been doing this job for forever.  I love most of the kids and I am trying my hardest to learn all of their names.  I have already memorized all the troublemakers' names though!  My favorite class is one of the first grade classes I work with the most.  The professor, Adriana, is one of my favorite professors at San Fernando.  She also teaches a third grade class (all the bilingual professors teach 2 different grades or teach both Spanish and English classes) and they are a great class as well.  There is a wide variety of levels within this class and I have my work cut out for me trying to keep everyone entertained and making sure they understand (I even had one of the smarter students, who finished way ahead of the class, write a story about my fish, Sinbad).
One first grade class is particularly troublesome.  I believe it is a combo of both the teacher (it is her first year teaching and I think she hasn't exactly gotten the hang of classroom control) and the actual class being full of rabble rousers.  Also this classroom is lacking any technology, whereas most of the rooms are equipped with smart boards.  They are drastically behind the other first graders and since it is the professor's first year teaching I am not sure where the year will take them seeing as many of the activities require at least a CD player and preferably a smart board (fingers crossed the smartboard gets fixed soon!).  I am planning on making sure the students actually work in the textbook and activity workbook so that while I am in the classroom they are catching up to their peers.
As far as the actual teaching part, it has been interesting seeing which teachers have me do what.  Some professors have me basically teach the whole class, sometimes with a little bit of guidance as they watch and listen, other times they just have me figure something out for the students to do.  Others have me teach the lesson as they work with students who are severely behind (many transfer students do not come from bilingual schools and have no prior experience with English, some are gypsies which means they may not even be up to their peers' level in Spanish let alone English, and others have slight learning disabilities) or we swap roles and I help with the students that are behind.  I cannot imagine starting a new school where half my classes are in a language I do not even know or trying to read and write in another language when I can barely do those things in my native language!  And some teachers basically run the whole class and have me interject randomly or lead some activities and they lead others.  It is a nice mixture, both challenging and sometimes a little boring.
Also since the children are learning British English, I am learning new things as well.  For instance, I would ask, "does she have dark hair?" but they learn it as "has she got dark hair?".  One teacher has to remind me often of the 'correct' way to say things.  Also some of their vocabulary is different, such as sweaters being called jumpers, pants being called trousers, erasers are rubbers, binders are files, and math class is simply called maths (this one I do not like, and it is also sometimes difficult for me to say with my slight lisp!).  Sometimes they just pronounce things differently as well.  When I come back to the US, I may sound more British, or at least have the grammar of a British person!
We will have to wait and see what the year brings!

Cervantes Festival and Ecuadorian Food!

This weekend Clark and I returned to Alcala de Henares for a Cervantes festival.  While there was only one real Cervantes reference that I saw (Don Quixote mustache croissants), it was an interesting experience.  Rather than a Cervantes festival, I would call it a medieval fair.  There was fresh food being cook in stalls all along the main streets.  Some of the delicious items included crepes, loaves of bread, donuts, kebabs, plenty of sausages, and all kinds of sandwiches.  There was a medieval ride section which featured a ferris wheel and a swinging boat.  There was also donkey rides for children.  We just meandered through the stalls that were also selling a plethora of items such as spices, jewelry, and olive wood cooking utensils.  I thought it was really interesting to think about how back in Cervantes' time this is how people acquired things: going to town markets that had several stalls selling items they needed.
The night before the festival Clark and I decided to try an Ecuadorian restaurant (Ecuadorians are actually the largest group of immigrants in Spain I believe, so there were a few restaurants to choose from!).  The restaurant, Casa Ecuatoriana, is about three blocks from my house! The food was delicious.  Along with our drinks (batido/smoothie de guanabana), they gave us tostada and chifles, two foods I had been missing! Needless to say it was a great dinner filled with nostalgia! It made me miss all of my ecuadorian friends (those who are actually ecuadorian and the american friends I met there).
Once again this stupid site does not want to upload my photos! Click here to see my photos on flickr (and let me know if you can see them by shooting me an email)

First Day of School

Today was my official first day of school!  It went very well.  I help teach mostly 1st graders but also 2nd and 3rd graders as well.  The periods are 45 minutes and I get one break everyday except Fridays.  I also get Mondays off which means I will get some four day weekends since most of the days off fall on Fridays! I start at 9am which means I have to leave around 7:30 if I want to get to school on time.  Today I left at 7:10 just to make sure I did not miss either of my two trains, but I think I will be able to leave later as I get more accustomed to the commute.  The other girl who teaches at my school is very nice and has actually taught so it will be nice to have her experience to help me! Since we are the English teachers, we are not allowed to speak any Spanish with the students.  I found that a little frustrating today because I could tell that some of the kids could not understand my questions and I just wanted to tell them what I was asking in Spanish.  But having the children think that I cannot speak Spanish will be to their advantage, forcing them to communicate with me in English.
During my first class I did not do too much other than help the professor and check to make sure the students were doing their work correctly.  However in my second class, I was left to entertain the children for the first 20 minutes or so.  That was quite an experience, trying to come up with childhood songs I could recall and reading some flashcards to the kids.  The professor during my final period had the kids ask me questions about myself which was fun because they got to practice their English and find out information about me.  One girl raised her hand, but instead of asking a question she told me that I was beautiful, which I appreciated and made me giggle.  Most of the children are adorable and seem very eager to learn and are excited to have an American in the classroom.  But as always there are a few trouble makers in the class.  One of the professors even told me that the worst kid in the whole school is in one of my classes! I met him today, and I will say he is a bit of a menace!
Overall, I am very happy to be at this school.  While the commute is a little longer than I was expecting when I applied to the program, all the teachers seem incredibly friendly and the town itself seems quite nice and beautiful!

Alcala de Henares

Over the weekend Clark and I went to Alcala de Henares, which is a small town outside of Madrid.  It is also the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes who wrote Don Quixote!  We went inside his childhood home and saw what a typical 16-17th century home might have looked like.  There was also an archeology museum which was quite fun, but also entirely in Spanish so it was a little challenging to understand everything! The town was very pretty, with lots of plazas and streets lined with restaurants and shops.  Alcala de Henares is also known for their sweets, so Clark and I stopped in a shop.  The treats were delicious! I'm having a hard time loading photos right now, so I'll  just leave the link to my facebook album here for anyone who wants to look at the pictures! (Click on the "here" and you should arrive at the album)