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| My school |
I will start off by saying that I feel I had been very lucky with the school that I've been posted in as all the teachers are so nice and welcoming. This was something I was worried about as on my application I said I wasn't bothered if I was in a big city or small town but their English is good which put me at ease as my Spanish isn't great. Some of them don't speak English but they still smile and greet me when they see me which is nice. On the first day the pupils were coming up to me and introducing themselves and I get so many of them shouting ''hi Rebecca'' as I walk past. My timetable is great as I start at 9:50 am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 8:55 am on Thursdays which is a bit of a struggle but at least I finish at 12:00 pm.
With regards to actual classes, the first lesson I had with each class was a Q and A lesson where the children questioned me on every aspect of my life. The most popular questions where ''what team are you?'' and ''do you like Los Toros?''and ''do you like paella?'' Also the look of pure shock on their faces when I tell them that I don't like paella is hilarious. However, this week I've been doing real lessons with them which include me taking half of the pupils from each class one week and then the following week I'll have the other half. The school gave me this choice after the meeting where they said we shouldn't take any classes as we are not teachers, however I would much prefer doing this than sitting at the back of the classroom, waiting until someone needed something.
I don't have to plan any classes because the pupils work out of a text book and I simply do the speaking exercises with them although I offered to do a lesson with each of the classes on Halloween and Bonfire Night so they can learn a bit more about our culture. With the first, second and third years, I've been doing a Halloween lesson where I:
- Tell them about what Halloween in England consists of
- Give them some vocabulary
- Explain how to bob for apples and make a Jack O' Lantern
- Give them 5 sentences which are mixed up and they have to put them in order
- Get them to do a gap filler (only with the older ones)
- Do a quiz with them on what I've told them to make sure they could understand and have been listening
Once I have done this with both halves of the classes, I will then be doing a lesson on Halloween with them. However with the fourth year I've been doing a speaking class on buying train tickets where they put the dialogue in order and then do roll plays on buying tickets to different places. I also have a vocational class which has older pupils who have decided to come back to education for one reason or another. This is my most daunting class, not because they're bad or anything as they are all lovely, but they are all older than me and hardly speak any English so really don't want to speak. This makes it difficult for me as they are nervous and can't really understand me and I'm teaching them basic things such as telling the time.
One thing I have found is that it's more difficult that I thought to speak really slowly and clearly and not shorten any words which I tend to do all the time as one child asked me what 'don't' means. Also, I was in a class with the second years where the teacher was explaining (in a very complicated way) about apostrophes which left questioning how to use them when I was marking the pupils work, even though I do in fact know how to use them.
Overall the week has been great and the teachers I am with are lovely. I work with four of the teachers and I have 6 classes with one, 4 with another and 2 classes with two others, one of which is called David and looks freakishly like my old neighbour. Starting work has decreased my level of homesickness as I am actually doing something with my days, although teaching is a lot more tiring that I thought but I actually look forward to going to work which is the main thing I guess.
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