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