Learning to Teach and Teaching to Learn

Today marks one month since I arrived in Santiago de Compostela. I have only been working for about 3 weeks, but it still seems crazy that time is going so quickly! With short workdays and work weeks and many trips planned, I am sure that things wont slow down much at all for at least the next couple months!

I am really enjoying working at IES Cacheiras. The staff are very helpful and excited to have me here, and have been very supportive...even though I fit the profile of a student much more than a teacher! I am surely the only teacher under 40 at the school, which has both ups and downs. The kids like having class with me, which is not surprising considering that my classes are conversation classes, and usually involve activities that are much more enjoyable than the grammar and listening practice they have to do during their other two English classes each week. They all know I am 23, have lived in four countries prior to Spain, and graduated from university over a year and a half ago, but the proximity in physical appearance and age seems to confuse them a bit...today I was invited to a Halloween party by Pepe, one of my students. Needless to say, I will not be attending the party.

I am learning quickly that students prefer to have concrete activities and handouts in class. Earlier this week, I was planning on giving an informal lesson on Halloween to several of my classes this week. I did not bring any handouts to class, but rather wrote words on the board and thought it would be fun for the kids to talk about what they know about Halloween, how they celebrate it (if they do), and how we celebrate it in the USA. After about 90 seconds of talking, the kids started goofing off and it was hard to completely regain their attention. The next day, I prepared a handout with selected vocabulary words that they could keep. The paper also had a speaking prompt to help guide their conversations. This worked very well, and even the most rowdy groups seemed to focus very well. I will definitely keep this in mind for future activities and lessons!

In addition to learning how to teach, I have been picking up a lot of knowledge during the coffee breaks at school. The school day consists of six 50-minute classes, but after every 2 classes, there is a 20 minute break, during which most of the teachers go next door to the coffee shop for a quick caffeine refill. There are a few downfalls to these coffee breaks--1) the coffee shop is filled with smoke, with both students and teachers inhaling cancer while they take their shot of coffee (as I call it...the cups of coffee resemble something of a double shot rather than what we would consider a normal sized cup of coffee!) and 2) most of the teachers speak very fast and informal Gallego, the regional language in Galicia, which is recognized as the second official langauge of the province. Although Gallego and Spanish are similar, Gallego is a dialect of Portuguese, rather than Spanish. You can probably imagine that this means I am left in the dust for some of the conversations. However, I enjoy trying my hardest to pick up the major differences between Spanish and Gallego, and as soon as they realize they have slipped back into the comforts of Gallego, they remind each other to speak Castiano so I can understand!

I have digressed yet again. What I was getting at is that these coffee breaks have provided me with a lot of new information on a wide range of topics. Teachers talk about the students during these breaks, as well as the Spanish educational system, current trends, Spain's main social problems...the list goes on. Sometimes I have 'holes' in my schedule, where I don't have a class, which is great because it allows these informative and interesting conversations to continue longer than the 20 minute break. In general, the teachers are very upbeat and happy, and I enjoy the positive vibes that I get from the staff. I have a feeling that I will blog about these coffee breaks more in the future.

Last night, I prepared a different kind of lesson: Halloween 101. Here in Spain, Halloween is getting more popular each year. You can even find pumpkins in the supermarkets! I was excited to buy two and bring them home, and last night a few of my friends came over and I taught them cultural lesson #1: How to carve a pumpkin.

It was fun to share this with my European friends--the three that came over last night are from Italy, Belgium and Spain. Today, I told my students about carving pumpkins, and wrote on the board "Cultural Homework: Carve a pumpkin for Halloween".  Several of them asked if it was obligatory, and looked a little nervous. I tried to explain to them that it was a fun activity, and although I would not require them to bring a carved pumpkin to school, it was highly recommended. I even mentioned giving extra points for completing the task. Pretty easy homework, if you ask me!

Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone has a happy Halloween this weekend! The pictures in this blog were from the hike I did almost two weeks ago. The last one is Elena and I sitting at the end of the world (Finesterre, Spain).

Until next time, love from España...

English Classes

SO... many people have been asking me about the classes I am teaching, and I wanted to wait until I had a few more days of experience to write so I would have something meaningful to say! I have been enjoying my time at IES Cacheiras, the high school at which I am working. It is about 15 minutes by car from the city, so I have to plan my commutes according to when other professors are driving (most of them live in the city, too, so it's not that hard to coordinate). I start everyday at 8:45am, so I have to leave my house by about 8:10 to walk 15 minutes to another teacher's house. We usually pull into school about 8:37 or so, which seems extremely late considering the start time, but we are usually among the first cars in the parking lot! Not much prep time for the Spanish teachers...but this seems to work out all right. 

My schedule changes depending on the day, but I am always done with classes by 1:35pm (unless I have agreed to be a 'guest' in another class, like I will do tomorrow).  The school day ends one hour later, so often I have to wait at school for a ride back, but that is not a problem; I can do some planning if needed or get on the computer. I have been doing a little translating for some of the teachers, which I think is kind of neat. It is also very good practice for my Spanish, so I figure it is a win-win situation!

The kids themselves are quite interesting. I like most of the classes I have, of course some more than others. The way my schedule works is that I have two English classes a week with 5 different classes. Each of those two days with a given class, I have half the group one day while the other half is with the regular teacher doing grammar and listening, etc. The second day I see the class each week, we switch groups. So basically, I have 10 classes of between 10 and 16 students, all of which I teach one hour of conversation a week. Their levels vary quite dramatically; it is very obvious which children have had exposure to either private lessons or other methods of learning English apart from in school. Most of the students are quite shy to speak, but I think they are starting to understand that they are going to have to practice talking in my class (it is, afterall, strictly a conversaton class)!

Usually we talk with the whole class for a few minutes, and then I give them some activity to practice with small groups.  Since I only see each class once a week, I do more or less the same activity with each group, adjusting a bit for the different grades. All my students are in 9th or 11th grade, the 9th graders being about 14 and the 11th graders mostly 16-17 and a few 18 year olds. I prefer the younger groups in general, but I do have some good older students, as well. I have only been working for 2 weeks, but I think I already have my favorite class and my least favorite!

This might not come as a shocker to you, but Spanish students are not as well behaved or respectful of their teachers as my experience with American kids. This, paired with the fact that I am the only teacher under 50 in my school and I easily blend in with the students, makes the task of keeping the students' attention somewhat difficult. I am lucky, however, because I know the kids really like conversation class (probably also because I am young and foreign) and I have the ability to kick them out if they are disrupting the class too much and send them back to their regular teachers' grammar and exercises class. I think they are surprised by my ability to be stern when needed...but hey, big things come in small packages. :)

This week, many of the classes have been practicing describing physical appearance and character. I brought in some pictures of some friends and family and had them practice describing the people in the picture, which was a pretty neat exercise. One of the pictures I brought was of me and 4 other girls at prom, which proved to be a popular picture. Another one had me, my sister, my mom, and Jo and Becky Luczak (mother and daughter, some of our best friends) which was also neat, because they enjoyed seeing my family and Becky, because I explained that she is coming to visit me in December and they might even get to meet her in person!

Here are a few funny comments in context that I have received so far:

*When asked 'what did you do over the weekend?', one boy replied that he went to the coast and spent time on the 'bitch'. We stopped there and went over pronunciation for 'beach' and 'bitch'.
*One 14 year old boy raised his hand, stood up, spun his abnormally large belt buckle and said, 'teacher, do you like my belt?'...to which I told him to sit back down and practice English.
*During the picture exercise, one girl, who was describing the picture with my sister and mother, asked if she could see a picture of my dad because I don't look a thing like my mom. I told her I would bring one next time.
*Often, the students say things in Spanish (to their friends) and I ask them to say it in English. One incident involved talking about their favorite/least favorite teachers, and one student told me that he didn't like his math teacher because 'she is like a toast'.
* During the second class with one of my good groups, Manuel (14) asked me 'Sussi, do you have the facebook?' When I responded positively, the whole class (this particular group is 10 boys and 2 girls) got excited. I quickly let them know that I would not add any of my students as 'friends', which I think disappointed them quite a bit. Oh, the world of technology...

I don't work on Fridays, which gives me the chance to travel over the weekends. I have planned several weekend trips, including going to Seville in 3 weeks to visit a friend who is teaching there. Two weeks after that, I am heading to Madrid for Thanksgiving weekend to visit another friend who is studying in Madrid. This last weekend, I went on a hike toward the coast with 11 friends, which proved to be much longer and harder on the feet than I imagined, and I am still recovering. (I have 6 blisters, one of which got infected...I probably should have stopped such sooner than I did, but I didn't want to give up!) There is a lot to see here in Galicia, and of course in other parts of Spain and Europe. Looking forward to getting to know more areas in the near future!

That's it for now--have a good day! besos

Spanish Bureaucracy

Apparently all the work it took to obtain a Spanish visa (including two doctor visits, neither of which were covered by insurance, AND flying to San Francisco to apply for my visa in person, among many other annoying processes) is not sufficient to remain living in the country for more than 90 days.  The following process was also necessary to obtain my Spanish NIE, or foreign identification number. The good news: I now have that number.

I woke up on Friday morning at 6:15am, and left my house by about 6:35, en route to the police station.  Let me note, before continuing, that during the 8 minute walk in the dark from my apartment to the office, I passed numerous students and other young people on the sidewalk and outside apartment buildings. The difference between them and me: they were just returning from a night out, while I had already slept for 7 hours and was starting my day. Neither of these alternatives sounded good to me. The good news: I would rather be in my position than theirs!

Anyway, I was headed to the police station with several important documents and 4 passport sized photos in order to begin a morning of waiting in line to get the aforementioned ID number. Apparently Spain doesn't believe in making appointments, because in some bizarre way, they must think that having people wait in long lines for hours and hours is a more effective method. I had to go this early because they only see 35 people a day for matters similar to mine. I had heard that it was necessary to arrive before 7am if you expected to be one of those 35. This would be fine if the police station opened at 7am, but of course we are in Spain, so that is not the case. I sat on the sidewalk against the police station behind 16 people between 6:45 and 9:00 am, before we were granted permission to get a paper number and enter the building. Number 17 meant two important things for me; that I had at least two more hours to sit in a small room and wait, and that I would, in fact, be able to take care of business that day. The good news: getting up that early was necessary.

There were four other Americans completing the same process on Friday morning, which made it a little less hopeless. After the wait, the actual 'appointment' (let's pretend for a minute that that's what it was) took no more than 5 or 6 minutes, plus a trip to the bank to pay a small processing fee. So, 5 1/2 hours after leaving my apartment to start the process, I was able to return with good news: I now have a foreigner ID number and am legal to remain in Spain for 12 months!

 

Yep, there is a reason Spain has a reputation for being slow and inefficient...

Although it was inconvenient, the task was not a difficult one to complete, and fortunately the weather did not make it a horrible experience, either. I am happy to have taken care of business, and guess what -- I only have to wait one month (!) to return to the police office to pick up the actual 'official' card with this number on it. The good news: I supposedly don't have to wait in line to pick up the card in a month.

Beginnings in Santiago

Many people say change is difficult. I would have to agree and disagree, al mismo tiempo. Yes, of course it is hard to leave the comfort of knowing what to expect, how to move about in daily life, and some sort of acquired social capital. But I would also argue that the same routine that provides such comfort slowly eats away at one's  ability to live. No; change is not always easy, but it is necessary to keep us moving forward, to experience what living is really about, and to appreciate what we have.

I suppose you could say that among other reasons, the necessity to change things up is why I decided to take a leave of absence from Seattle and come to Spain for an [unidentified] extended period of time. It was not until July 8th that I received an email, notifying me that my application [number 2,781] has been accepted for the Language and Cultural Assistant Teaching program in Spain. The same email contained the name of the province in which I was 'placed'; Galicia.  All I knew about Galicia was that it is the northwestern most province of Spain, bordering the Atlantic to the north and west, and Portugal to the South.  My first google search provided with me a little more information, including the fact that it rains 300+ days a year in most of the region, that one of its cities is Christchurch, NZ's antipodal city (where I spent a semester in college), and that it boasts itself with great fish and seafood. It was meant to be.

After quite the scramble to get my visa application prepared,I was obligated to go in person to the Consulate General of Spain in San Francisco. This may seem extreme, but nonetheless made a good excuse to go on a four-week trip in California and Hawaii before leaving the country. After that great adventure, I met my passport (with a Spanish visa) back in Seattle for six short days before hopping on a plane headed for Iceland. Yep, had to add another stamp in my passport! On to London for a 20 hour layover and quick visit with Susie Schaffnit, a fellow Beloiter, and before I knew it, I was boarding my first Ryanair flight, headed for Santiago de Compostela. And I did well--managed to get the weight of my one checked bag down to 19.9 Kilos, just under the 20 kilo limit. Nice work, Suz. If the previous three experiences living abroad taught me one thing, it's how to pack a suitcase.

Since I have come to the subject of my previous experience abroad, and opened this blog with comments on change, I should note that this journey has already been much different than my experiences living abroad. This being my fourth time living in another country, it is about time. Below are the top 5 changes that this experience have thus far provided me...

1) I am about to open my first foreign bank account ever. (I know, that sound a little sketchy, which was not the originally intention.) I did not even think about opening a bank account anywhere else, but now, it is necessary. Which brings me to point #2:

2) For the first time, I am not paying, but rather being paid, to live outside the USA. I am pretty pleased with this change.

3) I am no longer the student, but the teacher. This might take a little getting used to, but I am sure that it will not take long for me to enjoy this roll. Today was my first class, and I have to admit that I quite liked being the one to lay down the law, to decide how the class time was to be spent, and to tell people to be quiet if they were not listening to me.

4) This is the first time that I have moved to a country in which English is not the native language, but I have felt comfortable with my ability to navigate within that language from day one. So about change not always being easy...it is not always difficult, either.

5) This is the first time that I will not see my family for almost an entire calendar year. Unless, that is, I am able to talk them into coming to visit...

Well, my friends, more is soon to come. Thanks for caring for me and following my journey in Spain. I hope you will enjoy sharing this experience with me throughout the year!