Teacher Allison

     Hola blog readers! I meant to write this post on Sunday night before week two started but I got busy doing nothing. :p Anyway, so its Tuesday night of week 2 of teaching. I just finished eating dinner (risotto, because I am a bad ass chef) with 2 out of my 3 roommates and now we are watching the Spain vs. Scotland football game. (I have learned the hard way not to even joke about calling it soccer in Europe.) Tomorrow there is no school because it is Dia de la Hispanidad, AKA Columbus Day so I am super excited to spend the day relaxing on the beach.

Sometimes I wake up and can't believe this is really my life. Fo real, I am in love with my job. IN LOVE. Seriously. I only work 12 hours a week but I am so excited to go every day. The kids I work with are awesome, they are so much fun to be around and the teachers are the same. I am unbelievably lucky to have gotten an opportunity like this. Like I said in my last post I work with 1^st and 2^nd graders and with 4 different teachers. Its really really interesting to see the different teaching styles and to see who is a better teacher (I hope none of them read this!!!!). But really, its super obvious who actually knows English and who is a better teacher.

Maria Jose, the 1^st grade teacher I work with really doesn't know English at all, honestly I am really surprised that she is one of the bilingual teachers. I have 3 classes with her and one planning hour. During her classes I sit at the desk and watch, and if the kids are doing an activity I walk around and check in with them and help if they need it. Even though its a bilingual class (which in reality means its supposed to be in English) 99% of her class is in Spanish. I am supposed to be there to help, but really I feel unused in her classes. During last weeks planning period she told me that she really needed to work on her English, so I would answer her questions in English, then she would give me the deer in headlights look so I would switch to Spanish. Unfortunately for me, my accent is really thick so she can't understand me half the time even when I speak in Spanish. I digress, so she was asking me to pronounce things for her so she could pronounce it properly for the students, but she still wasn't getting it. For example, the kids are learning about breakfast, lunch and dinner. In their book there are lists of things that people eat for the meals, she asked me how to pronounce “juice” so I said “juice” and she kept saying “yuce” and I would correct her and say it slowly and still she was saying “yuce” and instead of biscuit she says “bisquick” I told her that Bisquick is a brand, but she just wasn't getting it. I know I am probably sounding like a stereotypical American right now getting mad that she doesn't speak English very well, but really, if you are going to be a bilingual teacher you should really be able to speak both languages. Or if you can't speak it that well, let your assistant who is fluent help out a little more. I have corrected her in class before but it really doesn't do anything, so I guess in her classes I am just going to help individual students and just sit there the rest of the time. But in her defense, she is taking classes at night, so I'm sure it will get better as time goes on.

I also with with the gym teacher, named Esther, 2 times a week. She is a ton of fun, I really like working with her. She speaks English pretty well. This is the 3^rd year that this school has had the bilingual program and only the 2^nd for gym to be bilingual. So even though she speaks English pretty well I am there to help her translate and make sure that what she is telling the kids is correct. It is completely insane how much energy these kids have during her class. Those are definitely the most difficult classes I have during the week because I am used to kids being quiet and not having to yell at them as much as I have to here. We are working on a little assessment of their abilities, both athletic and their capability to follow directions. The first class I had with her I did the assessment with her, and the following class I did it by my self. I had to do the whole thing in English and I felt really bad when the kids didn't understand. One of the questions is to say a sport where there is only one participant and one where there are multiple. When I was doing the assessment by myself I tried to use the simplest English possible but the kids still would just stare at me with the look of “seriously lady I have no clue what you just said” its definitely challenging. I really have to think about what I say to them. But I am really proud of how hard they work, they try so hard to understand me, and even though I am supposed to pretend I don't speak Spanish, if they repeat what I said to them in Spanish I will tell them if they are right or not. Luckily they haven't quite figured out that since Teacher Allison understands Spanish she must be able to speak it too. :p

Javi, the 3^rd teacher I work with is like the complete opposite of Maria Jose. He studied in Ireland when he was in university so he speaks English fluently which is great for the kids. So needless to say his classes are 99% in English and only in Spanish if the kids need discipline or are just really confused. He lets me teach too which is lots of fun but scary too since the kids don't understand English super well. Right now we are working on parts of the body so they can now sing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” in English. We play a lot of games in his classes too and its really funny to see the kids get so worked up over a game of hangman. I seriously thought they were going to cry at one point! So during week 1 I just helped out where needed and did review lessons with them so they can hear things pronounced with a different accent.

Working hard....with wine of course

At the end of last week he asked me to prepare a little lesson about the US for today so I had my first attempt at teaching by myself. I spent a good chunk of time this weekend looking for worksheets and ESL lesson plans about the US. I don't think I would have a problem teaching this age at home, but here it is A LOT harder, especially when I am by myself because their English is so basic that I really have to think about how to word things so they will understand. So after a few hours of searching I found a color by number US flag that I thought would be a good activity. I had that, a flag that I colored (because I am dumb and didn't bring an actual one), my crazy big US map that I bought in Sevilla, and my books of Colorado and Kansas pictures.

I was surprisingly nervous when I got on the bus this morning and it didn't help that I got to Campohermoso late because there was so many people on the bus, so I pretty much ran to school, and while I was running I passed the guy who usually lets me in the building. I assumed that he wouldn't just leave the office unattended so I didn't ask him to go back and unlock the gate. So when I got to school I rang the buzzer a few times and was standing outside for about 10 minutes when I realized that I would just have to wait until he came back. But! I am dedicated ( :p) so I jumped the fence, and I don't think anyone saw me. Haha. Anyway, so by the time I ran into class they were doing a different activity, so I didn't end up teaching in that class.

     I had to in the following class though. So I put my huge map on the board and attempted to explain what states were. I showed them what the size of Spain would be compared to the US, showed them where I am from, where I went to school and then the parts of the flag. I put on my facebook that my first attempt was semi successful and that was because Javi was sitting at his desk translating everything I was saying for them. So yeah. But, by the end they knew how many states there are, which state and city I am from and where I went to school and the parts and meaning of the flag so mission accomplished. :) 

I could keep going for days about my life here, but this post is getting crazy long so I think I will leave it at that! :)

First days in Spain!

Prado Museum

Falafel had his own seat on the plane. 

 Ok people first blog post! Get excited. I have been in Spain for almost 2 weeks, so I guess before it gets too late I should update on what I have been up to. My Parents accompanied me here since my mom has never been to Spain and it was a good excuse for a vacation for them. We got in the morning of September 21^st and spent a very sleepy day wandering around Madrid with the highlight being the few hours we spent in the Prado Museum. We went out for dinner that night and my dad lit the menu on fire on accident. It was pretty funny. The waiter hated us though. :p

Anyway, so after that we drove down to Almeria where I live now. Its about 8 hours by car from Madrid. We passed the town I work in as we were driving and we decided to take a slight detour to check it out and try to find my school. Its a very interesting town to say the least. Its a relatively small tomato farming town and its basically completely surrounded by greenhouses. From the highway it looks like the ground is covered with snow. I't is definitely different than where I live in Colorado. Right when you are driving in there are houses that are half made of tarps and look like they are about to crumble, but the houses right next to my school are nice. Its kind of crazy the differences in such a small town. We couldn't find the school that day so we just went to Almeria and walked around. If you know me at all you know that I love cities and this one is the perfect size, you can pretty much walk everywhere and there are local buses too. The beach is also really nice, it takes up the whole southern part of the town and there are lots of cafes right on the boardwalk.

 

Sunset on the beach

 A few days after getting here I met up with my now current roommate that I met on the facebook group for Auxiliares to look for apartments. We were aiming to live right by the beach but it ended up not working out. One apartment we really liked we missed out on by 30 minutes! But we ended up finding one which is about a 10 minute walk to the beach and about 15 to the bus/train station. Its a nice size and has a big kitchen which is perfect for me. :) So I live with 3 other people; Lauren the other auxiliar, a Spanish girl and an Palistinian guy. Everyone is really nice so its working out really well. I would be totally lost without Lauren though, our landlord can't understand me and I can only understand about 85% of what he says in person and basically nothing when I talk to him on the phone, so I have to rely on her to talk to him for me, which she does with no complaints. :) (Thanks Lauren!!)

My School!!!!

After we got the apartment all settled I decided to take the bus to Campohermoso to make sure it would work as my way to get to and from work (I would be totally screwed if it didn't work). I got there at 9 when the school started and everyone was so welcoming! I met the director and the head of studies first and even though I showed up unannounced the head of studies put down what she was working on and took me to find Antonio the bilingual coordinator. He had just started a class but still gave me a little tour and introduced me to Javi, the second grade teacher/teacher I am going to work with most. I spent an hour at the school meeting people and just getting a feel for how things work. I was really nervous when I got my placement and found out that it was in such a small town, but after visiting the school I am really excited to work there. I met some of Antonio's students and was greeted very politely with a “How are you?” from one girl. It was really cute. :) So I am going to be working with 1^st and 2^nd graders 12 hours a week. 5 classes of science, 3 of art and 2 of PE plus 2 hours of planning with Javi and Maria Jose (1st grade teacher).

Rock of Gibraltar

Protest sign

Once I got all the school stuff figured out my parents and I decided to travel again. My dad really wanted to go to Gibraltar so we headed there first. We ended up staying in Algeciras since the site we used to get the hotel said there was no hotels in Gibraltar. It made for a very interesting night. Algeciras is very close to Africa and has a huge shipping port so its a really diverse town. We stayed at the hotel Vime Octavio. Which we couldn't find so my mom went to another hotel to ask for directions, there she found out that our hotel was going out of business....so when we finally got there there were protest signs posted outside saying how they didnt want the hotel to close. It was really weird. After we got settled we went down to the port to walk around and try to get a picture of the Rock of Gibraltar. It was very uncomfortable being down there. If any of you go to Algeciras don't walk by the port. I felt really unsafe there. But luckily we found a nice area a few blocks away from the port to hang out in. The next day we headed for Gibraltar. It took a long time to get in even though its just the next town over and that would be because its a different country. :) Its part of the UK so it was really strange going in and hearing English and seeing British phone booths but knowing that just down the street is Spain. The rock was really cool, we got lots of good pictures, saw Africa and hung out with some wild apes.

One of the courtyards in La Alhambra.
 Everything is symmetrical in this one.

In the Cathedral in Sevilla

The next day we headed to Sevilla. It took us about 2-3 hours to find the hotel, it was nuts. Once we found it we wandered around the town and ate at a really good restaurant where the waiter was surprised when I answered one of his questions in Spanish. Welcome to tourist country. We went to the Cathedral the next day which was fun. Its the 3^rd largest church in Europe and the largest Gothic building in Europe. Its massive. After that we went to the Real Alcazar which is an old Moorish fort and royal palace. Which is also fun place to walk around. The detail in the ceilings walls and tiles is just incredible. After convincing my parents that they couldn’t leave Spain without seeing La Alhambra we added Granada to our itinerary. We left early the next day to get there by our scheduled entrance time. La Alhambra is one of my favorite places in Spain. Its a massive Moorish/Christian fortress. There is way too much history to get into here. There are TONS of gardens as you walk around and they are beautiful. Since its so far above the town of Granada you get amazing views too. Its just a really beautiful place and anyone that comes to visit me will have to go. :p

View of Granada

After we left Granada we drove back to Almeria and hung out for a few days. My parents left for Madrid this morning so I finally got unpacked and now I am just trying to get everything settled for my first day of class tomorrow. :)