Notes from the classroom

I am happy to report that so far I love my school. The teachers are all incredibly willing to help and they are so friendly. The students are excited to have me there and they range from loud and rambunctious but adorable to shy and quiet but adorable.

Today was only my second day. I had classes on lunes (Monday) and then yesterday I had to go to Córdoba for an orientation for all of us foreigners who are working as auxiliares throughout Córdoba province. Small geography lesson: Spain has 17 regions and within each region there are provinces. I am in the region of Andalucía, which is pretty much the entire South of Spain, and within Andalucía I am in the province of Córdoba, which is fairly central. A true miracle occurred at orientation yesterday. I met two girls who are living and working in Puente Genil as well! I had honestly given up hope that there were any other auxiliares (teaching assistants) in my town and now all of a sudden I find myself with two potential friends. The girls, Elyse and Morrigan, were both welcoming and immediately offered to introduce me to their Spanish friends and take me out with them.

I could talk your ear off about school. I know this because I just typed up 4 pages of an MS document about it for my make-shift journal. I won’t do that to you, but I’d love to share the highlights and idiosyncrasies of today. (I am such a liar, I just finished this post and it is extremely long. Read it anyway.)

The day in a Spanish primary school is divided into 6 periods of 45 minutes with a 30 minute break in the middle of the day. School runs from 9am to 2pm with no lunch break, because Spaniards eat big lunches during the traditional siesta each day. (Siesta: A time when shops are closed between about 2pm-5pm and everyone returns home. Families can eat together and relax or nap.) I am teaching 16 periods a week between Monday and Thursday with Fridays off. 3 of my periods are for gathering and creating ESL materials for the school, and 3 of my periods consist of conversing and helping individual teachers who want to learn or improve their English. The other 10 periods are divided up between ciclos (grades) 1-5; I visit each twice a week.

So far I have had periods with ciclos 1-4 and it has been so interesting to see the difference in the teaching methods of each and the classes themselves. Some of the teachers are very strict about the kids speaking only English when I am with them. This is actually a challenge for me, because even with my limited Spanish abilities, sometimes I know it would be easier to explain to a student in Spanish what I am asking of them (“repeat after me…”, “raise your hand…”, etc.) than keep saying it in English and meeting with blank faces. However, other teachers are pretty lax and so I’m still figuring out whether I should allow a certain amount of Spanish or demand English.

My primeros are absolutely precious. They are super quiet and shy but eager when I ask them to repeat me or work with them one on one. The segundos are wild! The classroom is very loud and the poor teacher seems to have little control over them. The terceros were loud but they were well-behaved for the most part and very eager to have me. This classroom was a little different because the teacher allowed them to ask me questions and speak to me in Spanish without demanding any English. I went ahead and answered them in Spanish but I’m hoping we’ll enforce more English in the future. I appreciated the practice, but they need to learn and I am here to teach English. The teacher for caurto ciclo is the exact opposite and is very strict about English in his classroom and very strict with them in general. I am annoyed that I can’t remember his name, but he’s the only teacher there who speaks really good English and he has been very friendly, taking extra time to greet me and get to know me. And I swear he speaks more quickly in English than I do. Yes, family and friends, it’s true.

{For those of you who have never been around me in real life, I am often given a hard time for how quickly I speak. I don’t notice it…but then, I’m the one doing the rapid-fire talking. Apparently.}

Here are my favorite moments so far:

-On my first day, when the teacher asked the segundos what “happy” meant, one little boy chanted “happymeal!” over and over. I couldn’t help but laugh. Darn invasive McDonald’s culture!

-At the end of my period with the cuartos today, a little girl came bouncing up to me and asked, “Senorita Kate, what is your favorite animal?” During the class I had been asking them different questions and this was one of them. I was charmed by her and impressed by her perfect English—most of the students slip into Spanish when the teacher isn’t listening. I told her my favorite animal was the dog, and asked her her’s. She said, “hamster.” How adorable is that?

-What was the very first question I was asked by a little boy in tercero ciclo? “Estás casada?”= “Are you taken/married?” I couldn’t stop laughing as I answered “…no?” A couple of questions later I was asked if I had a baby. Crazy kids.

-The teacher of tercero ciclo made me blush when she introduced me to the class and firmly told them that I was “cute and slim and funny and very kind.” She also told them I speak Spanish very well which is a complete lie.

-Sometimes I decide it’s best to just lie. When the terceros asked if I liked fútbol, I immediately knew my answer had to be “sí.” Then, when they asked me what my favorite team was I could see the anxious anticipation in all the little boy’s faces and I knew, despite never having seen one of their games in my life, that my answer had to be Real Madrid. I knew I had gotten it right when all those little boys exploded into cheers at my answer. Point for Kate.

-Speaking of Kate, despite me repeating my name over and over, I am “Kah-tee” to them. I expected this one. I don’t really care but I did try to explain that although I know my name looks like it should be pronounced “Kah-tee” for the native Spaniard, in the USA we pronounce it “Kate.” No dice.

-At the end of tercero ciclo a little girl came up to me and shyly handed me a sparkly purple clip that matched one in her own hair. I asked if it was a gift and she nodded and ran off blushing. I almost died on the spot from how precious it was!

Yes, today has been a good day. But, I knew it would be when on my way to school I smiled widely at a little old lady I was passing on the street and she stopped and exclaimed “Ay, qué guapa!” to me, which more or less means “how good-looking!”

Thank you for all the support and prayers you have been sending my way, friends, family and blog readers. Your little notes of encouragement have truly gotten me through some of the rougher moments. Now, those of you who told me things would probably turn around/get better, you're entitled to one good "I told you so."