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...