Gkhello guapos:
Today is the first day since the beginning of the month that I can (,as Aishah's tutor says,) chillax a bit. All the students and teachers at my school went to a park (?) to get to know each other better (?). My Spanish is limited - that's the reason, I tell myself, for not having been invited.
To be fair, I am glad I finally get to not stress about lesson planning, even if only for a day. I only stress about planning because I tend to leave it to the last minute. After going to Valencia last weekend and soaking in even more information instead of having some time to mentally process moving to a foreign country and meeting approximately two hundred new people, I have to admit I was not on top of my game this past week. This means staying up until late trying to plan but not actually making any significant progress. Then getting up even more tired, teaching, taking a nap in the afternoon and then BOOM back to staying up late pretending to plan, etc, etc.
The vicious circle shall be broken this weekend, though. After sleeping for 10 hours last night, my body decided it was time to assimilate the essence of Espain - I fell asleep again at 4pm. You can call me 'Anna' now (the Spanish kind of 'Anna').
I work with 3 English teachers (mostly general English lessons, there is a business English class but their level is very low), and I have one lesson with a marketing class and 2x5-10 minutes with the P.E. teacher. The general English classes are all 1-4 ESO which is secondary school, ages 12-16. The business and marketing students are 17-18 and above, there are a few students who are above 40.
The level is no higher than A2 in all of my classes. There are always 1-3 students whose level of English is way better than the rest's, and similarly, there are always students who can't really understand my 'How are you today?'s.
The source of my occasional frustration is that the teachers and coursebook do not really cater to the students' levels. I feel that they expect the students to rise above their knowledge sometimes, which is not really realistic! And very confusing? frustrating?? challenging??? for me. For instance, in a 3rd ESO class, I was asked to revise the first, second and third conditionals that the students had learned before the holidays. I made my plan, included all three, happy jolly yay conditionals! That extreme confusion on their faces when I asked if they recognized the structure!!! So I had to basically teach them the first conditional again. I understand that they need a structure, and a book provides that, but in my very little experience of using only the book and going through the exercises one by one, the students are boooored. And if they are bored, they don't really listen/remember. On the other hand, it is so much time and effort to adapt lesson plans - at least for us (well, me), not-so-experienced teachers.
I do believe that the lessons are recyclable though, so it is definitely worth the time and effort now. Just gotta do it.
On Tuesdays, I have two lessons after lunch, I have 12-year-olds at 4 o'clock i the afternoon - it ain't great, so to say. This week they had their oral "exam" (everyone is outraged by how Spanish student must take exams every week or so --- these are not exams though, they are tests and quizzes and oral assessments? Is it not the same in the UK? We had the same in Hungary. It was stressful, I have to admit. But... not exams.) So, they had their oral assessment and they were SO nervous about it, had to read a comparative text they had written (50-100 words) in English. It was super interesting to see how differently nervousness manifested itself in them. There was crying, whining, going dumb, begging the teacher to postpone, and my favourite, a positive kind of hyperactivity. One kid, before reciting his text, had his pupils wide open, took very deep breaths very quickly and, with the comic absurdity of an animated character, skipped to the blackboard to perform an uncannily accurate version of Shia Labeouf's Just Do It. It was rather exhausting to watch, but I'd say it was worth it. Regarding the kid's mental health... I hope they get to relax a bit at home. This kind of pressure may be beneficial for them in the future (especially in regards to performing in front of an audience) but they do need time to regain their stability and I hope they get that at home.
What else, what else... The success of my classroom management really depends on how well-prepared I am for the lesson. I may have a good point system and adequate motivation in form of stickers, but if they get bored after finishing a task quickly or because they didn't understand the instructions, chaos enters the room. And kids looove chaos, it's like the cool, older cousin who gets all the attention. This motivates me to have a more strict lesson plan and to stick to the times. Also to think about instructions beforehand. Also to check students' knowledge first. But ayy, there will always be students who know the new language already, and students who don't even know the previous previous previous language. It's tricky.
An interesting observation is that students here are not note-takers. If you don't specifically tell them to write down the rules/new vocab, they won't do it. (There was one girl in my marketing class who took notes!!!!!!! I had to stop for a few seconds because it was such a rare sight.)
Aishah told me how her students just won't answer her CCQs. In my classes, there are some students who do, but they don't quite grasp the... concept of concept checking - for example, I elicited a conditional sentence from a boy: 'If I trained more, I would win the match,' then I wrote it on the board, pointed at it and asked 'Do you train often now?' and he just answered as if it was a legit question aimed at him. 'Oh I don't know, it depends.' ... Fool! (Okay, I probably have to work more on my CCQs.)
The 17th of January is the day of Sant Antoni, patron saint of animals (if I got it right). So in Benirredra, where my school is, there are all sorts of events this weekend. I missed a massive fire last night, but tomorrow we are going to watch a bishop blessing people's pets. Hashtag Espain!!!!!!!!!!
Other Spanish cultural influences on my life: I have been listening to reggaeton. :((( This is not me anymore. :((( Spain has changed me. :(((
:(((((((
Anna T de Gandia
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