I couldn't help myself. Today six teachers from our twin school in Worksop, England, began a week long visit to our school. Oddly enough, when I missed the 8:30 bus I ended up in the right place at the right time. While sitting on the 8:45 bus, I overheard a troop of Brits wondering if they were on the right bus. Naturally, I asked where they were from, and when they said England I asked if they were going to Rosa Luxemburgo. The leader of the group, John, said yes. Of course I told him I worked there and that they were on the right bus. We chatted for the 15 minute bus ride, mostly about getting in last night and the need to practice language in a country where it is spoken.
When we arrived at school Eduardo came to meet the English teachers and told me to take the 4A class inside, and that I would have them alone for the morning. The morning chunk of time is two solid hours. We started by talking about their weekends and then we went over what day was it. I had the brilliant idea to ask them what day tomorrow is. They responded "Tomorrow is Tuesday, the 4th of November 2008," which is correct. When I told them it was a very important day for me they asked if it was my birthday, which it is not. Next they asked if it was my Saint Day, which I don't really know when/if I have one, so I said no. Then they were lost.
I explained that tomorrow the citizens of the United States are going to select a new president, and this is very exciting for me. They began to chatter about Obama and asked which candidate I wanted to win. Even though it is kind of taboo to ask someone outright, "who did you vote for?" I answered them, Obama. This excited the kids to no end, they really seem to like him. SO, for what it is worth, Barack Obama has the support of the 4th grade class of Rosa Luxemburgo.
After our discussion of the election, we had to prepare questions to ask the British teachers when they came to visit. We went through and made a list of 21 questions. Many of them were very simple, so I tried very hard to get them to ask questions that would require more than a one word answer, like when they said "What is your birthday?" I offered "How do you celebrate your birthday in England?" as a follow-up question. These kids are smart, I just don't think they've had a chance to think very hard. Most of what they do is memorization, for example when you ask them how they are they respond like little robots with "I am fine, thank you. How are you?" To this I like to answer with various things, from great to super to tired. They need to know it is acceptable to be something other than fine.
Oddly enough, the afternoon was a repeat of the morning, just with group 4B. I picked them up from the playground. They asked where Eduardo was. I explained about the British teachers. We talked about the election, and they too support Obama. They quizzed one of the British teachers about herself and her class. Then it was time to go home.
For the most part, the kids behaved very well, but at times they were trying to play Sink the Sub. The only flaw in their plan was that I am not a sub, I'm there all the time and I know the rules. I think I had them under control most of the time, but I see where Eduardo is coming from when he gets angry. It felt like any pause in action, such as time for me to call on someone new, they would erupt in chatter, then take several minutes to get back to normal. This made correcting the two workbook activities really difficult. At the end of they day, I kind of stretched the truth and told Eduardo that they were mostly well behaved. I know he would be much harder on them than was really necessary, and I think I got the point across how that they need to behave, even if he isn't in class.
Tomorrow I have class with Elena and one of the Brits. I don't really know what I will be doing, but I know that afterwards Tony, Audrey, Eimear, Blair and I will be going to a party thrown by the Overseas Branch of the Democratic Party. This should be interesting, expect a post about it!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
6 Weeks Down, 35 to Go!
Well, I must first apologize for not posting anything after my Week 5 update. I don't have an excuse, I just got a little lazy. Don't fear, this post will be action-packed, and hopefully make up for my laziness earlier in the week.
First we'll talk about school. Monday I spent in Eduardo's class with the 4th graders. I don't remember any funny stories from that day, probably because I spent the whole time going over what the kids did during the weekend and reading Oxford Reading Tree books with the kids. They are these little books about some kids who have a magic key that takes them on adventures. Some of the kids read really well, others need lots of help. What I have noticed as a common problem is the pronunciation of past tense verbs, liked becomes like-ed, with a clear difference in syllables and not the smoothness we native English speakers have.
Tuesday was a much more challenging day. I was supposed to read one of the 3rd grade classes a story about feelings. As they finished a work sheet they were supposed to come sit on the floor and listen. This turned into chaos. Four of the boys were pushing, shoving and climbing all over each other, a few of the girls were just chatting in the back and few of them were listening. A few times I closed the book and told then that it was time to listen and if they weren't ready to listen they could go back to their desks. This worked for all of 3 pages, when I would repeat the whole speech. When I was close to finishing the book things had gone too far, so I closed it and told them I would wait for the group to be quiet. In a few minutes I knew that wasn't going to happen. While we were waiting one of the nicest, most quiet and generally good kids in the class, Miguel, asked if he could go back to his seat. Like me, he had had enough of their shenanigans. After Miguel left, I got up and gave the book back the Elena. I told her they weren't ready to listen and she made them sit in their desks and practice being quiet for the last 10 minutes of class.
On Wednesday I learned that one of my favorites, Alejandro, had learned and English phrase, "one moment, please" and he likes to use it every chance he gets. Like when I ask him to sit down his response is "one moment, please" or if i tell him it is time to work on the excercises he says "one moment, please." While cute, this new phrase is really quite annoying. It annoys me because the one phrase he uses in English is one to blow me off. I can't fault the kid for using English, but I do have to tell him, "No, now,"
While "one moment, please" is annoying it wasn't near as shocking as what Victor said to me this week. Victor is very low functioning in English. Every time I come over to help him with the exercises he looks at me and says "No entiendo ninguna palabra" ("I don't understand a single word" in Spanish). On this particular day I was walking around the class, because some of the bad kids in the back need a teacher presence in order to behave, when I passed by Victor's desk he was trying to shout a question to Elena. Very simply I told him to be quiet and listen, to which he retorted "No. Be quiet, you!" What I think he was going for was "No, you be quiet" which sounds much nicer than what he actually said. Shocking, right? The one time the kid says anything in English he is basically telling me to shut up. What the hell?
On Thursday Eimear, Anna and I put on a Halloween production of Hansel and Gretel. (I think one of the teachers took pictures, if so I will try to get them emailed to me and posted...) We were told about the play last week, but then also assigned several other tasks to complete so the play kept getting pushed back. Finally, on Wednesday we made a script and assigned characters, I was Hansel. Thursday morning we arrived an hour before our first group and made a little set. We painted windows and a door on to some butcher paper and taped them to the walls on a miniature stage. We practiced once and were trying for a second run through when the first group came in. We put on our production and it lasted less than 10 minutes. The kids heckled us yelling "Muy corto! Muy corto!" meaning "very short" in Spanish. After this epic failure we tried to improvise ways to drag our little play out. We ended up with a solid 10 minutes or play but still felt it was lacking.
When we went to have coffee/brunch, we talked with Elena and she offered us her CD with Halloween songs on it. She suggested that we play the songs and have the kids dance and sing along. So for the second and third shows we played the CD and had the kids sing along first. This worked! Between the singing/dancing and our play it was the 20 minutes we had promised Eduardo. Elena is really a wonderful teacher, she dressed up as a witch for Halloween because she was using the holiday as an excuse for them to practice order of doing things. They made a potion in class with directions using words like first, next, then and finally. She also had a skeleton costume for when the kids sang the skeleton song that went over the parts of the body. I think she is just great.
Yesterday was actually the end of week 6, but I never got around to posting. The weather the last couple of days has been kind of a bummer. It reminds me of Oregon in February. Rainy, cold, cloudy and just gray all the time. Booooo! I spent most of yesterday hanging out in my bed since I think the weather has given me a head cold. Damn wet weather, I thought I left that in Oregon!!!
I also went to see an English speaking doctor about getting more insulin. Before I left the insurance company wouldn't cover a 3 month vacation supply because we were changing companies in one month. When I had asked around the internet groups people said that their parents had just shipped medicines to them without any problem. When Mom went to ship my November supplies UPS, FedEx and the US Mail all told her they couldn't ship the package without an official letter from the Ministry of Health. Thus began me quest for Spanish insulin. A quest that was successful! Luckily in the past few decades insulins have globalized, so just the same way you can buy a Venti white chocolate mocha late at Starbucks in both DC and Madrid, you can also buy U-100 Humalog and Lantus insulins in the States and in Europe (Europe used to do U-40 formulas of other brands... but that is a tangent no one wants to read).
I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend holds. I think it all depends on how long this cold decides to settle in my sinuses. Hopefully I can rest today and do something this evening!
First we'll talk about school. Monday I spent in Eduardo's class with the 4th graders. I don't remember any funny stories from that day, probably because I spent the whole time going over what the kids did during the weekend and reading Oxford Reading Tree books with the kids. They are these little books about some kids who have a magic key that takes them on adventures. Some of the kids read really well, others need lots of help. What I have noticed as a common problem is the pronunciation of past tense verbs, liked becomes like-ed, with a clear difference in syllables and not the smoothness we native English speakers have.
Tuesday was a much more challenging day. I was supposed to read one of the 3rd grade classes a story about feelings. As they finished a work sheet they were supposed to come sit on the floor and listen. This turned into chaos. Four of the boys were pushing, shoving and climbing all over each other, a few of the girls were just chatting in the back and few of them were listening. A few times I closed the book and told then that it was time to listen and if they weren't ready to listen they could go back to their desks. This worked for all of 3 pages, when I would repeat the whole speech. When I was close to finishing the book things had gone too far, so I closed it and told them I would wait for the group to be quiet. In a few minutes I knew that wasn't going to happen. While we were waiting one of the nicest, most quiet and generally good kids in the class, Miguel, asked if he could go back to his seat. Like me, he had had enough of their shenanigans. After Miguel left, I got up and gave the book back the Elena. I told her they weren't ready to listen and she made them sit in their desks and practice being quiet for the last 10 minutes of class.
On Wednesday I learned that one of my favorites, Alejandro, had learned and English phrase, "one moment, please" and he likes to use it every chance he gets. Like when I ask him to sit down his response is "one moment, please" or if i tell him it is time to work on the excercises he says "one moment, please." While cute, this new phrase is really quite annoying. It annoys me because the one phrase he uses in English is one to blow me off. I can't fault the kid for using English, but I do have to tell him, "No, now,"
While "one moment, please" is annoying it wasn't near as shocking as what Victor said to me this week. Victor is very low functioning in English. Every time I come over to help him with the exercises he looks at me and says "No entiendo ninguna palabra" ("I don't understand a single word" in Spanish). On this particular day I was walking around the class, because some of the bad kids in the back need a teacher presence in order to behave, when I passed by Victor's desk he was trying to shout a question to Elena. Very simply I told him to be quiet and listen, to which he retorted "No. Be quiet, you!" What I think he was going for was "No, you be quiet" which sounds much nicer than what he actually said. Shocking, right? The one time the kid says anything in English he is basically telling me to shut up. What the hell?
On Thursday Eimear, Anna and I put on a Halloween production of Hansel and Gretel. (I think one of the teachers took pictures, if so I will try to get them emailed to me and posted...) We were told about the play last week, but then also assigned several other tasks to complete so the play kept getting pushed back. Finally, on Wednesday we made a script and assigned characters, I was Hansel. Thursday morning we arrived an hour before our first group and made a little set. We painted windows and a door on to some butcher paper and taped them to the walls on a miniature stage. We practiced once and were trying for a second run through when the first group came in. We put on our production and it lasted less than 10 minutes. The kids heckled us yelling "Muy corto! Muy corto!" meaning "very short" in Spanish. After this epic failure we tried to improvise ways to drag our little play out. We ended up with a solid 10 minutes or play but still felt it was lacking.
When we went to have coffee/brunch, we talked with Elena and she offered us her CD with Halloween songs on it. She suggested that we play the songs and have the kids dance and sing along. So for the second and third shows we played the CD and had the kids sing along first. This worked! Between the singing/dancing and our play it was the 20 minutes we had promised Eduardo. Elena is really a wonderful teacher, she dressed up as a witch for Halloween because she was using the holiday as an excuse for them to practice order of doing things. They made a potion in class with directions using words like first, next, then and finally. She also had a skeleton costume for when the kids sang the skeleton song that went over the parts of the body. I think she is just great.
Yesterday was actually the end of week 6, but I never got around to posting. The weather the last couple of days has been kind of a bummer. It reminds me of Oregon in February. Rainy, cold, cloudy and just gray all the time. Booooo! I spent most of yesterday hanging out in my bed since I think the weather has given me a head cold. Damn wet weather, I thought I left that in Oregon!!!
I also went to see an English speaking doctor about getting more insulin. Before I left the insurance company wouldn't cover a 3 month vacation supply because we were changing companies in one month. When I had asked around the internet groups people said that their parents had just shipped medicines to them without any problem. When Mom went to ship my November supplies UPS, FedEx and the US Mail all told her they couldn't ship the package without an official letter from the Ministry of Health. Thus began me quest for Spanish insulin. A quest that was successful! Luckily in the past few decades insulins have globalized, so just the same way you can buy a Venti white chocolate mocha late at Starbucks in both DC and Madrid, you can also buy U-100 Humalog and Lantus insulins in the States and in Europe (Europe used to do U-40 formulas of other brands... but that is a tangent no one wants to read).
I'm not sure what the rest of the weekend holds. I think it all depends on how long this cold decides to settle in my sinuses. Hopefully I can rest today and do something this evening!
Friday, October 24, 2008
5 Weeks Down, 36 to Go!
Time flies when you're teaching English! I've now completed my 5th week in Spain; 3 and a half of them working at Rosa Luxemburgo. Time is sure passing by quickly. We are already preparing for Halloween and the arrival of staff from out Twin School, Redlands Primary, in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. Because of the visit by the Twin School staff we are downplaying Halloween and planning big stuff for Guy Fawkes Day, which is in the first week of November, possibly the 7th. The really super short version of Guy Fawkes day that I was told is he planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the 1600's and was caught and burned at the stake. Now towns and villages all over Britain re-enact the burning at the stake with an effigy which the community creates. This coincides well with the fact that November is fire safety month.
For Halloween, the older kids are going to participate in a pumpkin carving contest and we will award prizes for the best ones. Other than that, the celebration of Halloween is really up to the teachers. I know in Elena's class we are going to do some worksheets and activities that help them with grammar but use Halloween words and themes. Since we are working on feelings I looked around for coloring sheets and found one that has a ridiculous looking monster on it and a caption that says "The monster is mad," I don't know if that is mad like angry or mad like the British word for crazy, maybe both? We talked about making a potion in class so they could work on order words such as first, next, after, last. We threw around things we could use, like ketchup for blood and beans with eyes drawn on them. Then Elena said something about spider legs, but she didn't know what to use. I immediately thought of these little tiny soup noodles that are about an inch long and much skinnier than spaghetti. I told her we could use the noodles and she just gave me a blank stare. I tried to explain soup noodles, I even drew them on the board. She told me in Spanish they call them fideos and asked what the word do we use. So, I think I taught Elena "noodles" along with giving a suggestion for spider legs.
Speaking of Elena... I should share with you the funniest sentence I've heard yet, and it came from her. On Wednesday there was a girl bawling in class because her pencil and eraser were taken away. She was playing with them while I was reading them a book about day and night, and Elena had enough. After 15 or 20 minutes of crying Elena suggested that the girl go splash some water on her face and calm down. When she left the room the other kids asked where she was going and why she was crying. Elena told them that she was "going to wash her face in the toilet." I should point out that Elena didn't misspeak, rather the kids are taught British English, which calls the restroom "the toilet." To me "she is going to wash her face in the toilet" just sounds wrong; and when the kids ask me if they can go to the toilet it sounds vulgar, I don't need to know their exact destination. We've been encouraged not to correct the children when there are differences between the English they have been taught and the English we know, but I think if these kids went to The States and asked for the toilet they would get strange looks. They also call erasers "rubbers" which makes the adolescent boy in me giggle every time.
On a completely unrelated note, I received a wonderful complement on my Spanish skills yesterday. While I was in Eduardo's room working on a poster for the Redlands teachers Ines, the new 4th grade teacher came in just to say hi. She came in a few weeks into the school year because the regular 4th grade teacher took a leave of absence after her son was hit by a car and fell into a coma, he is doing much better but not out of the woods yet. Since Ines teaches the kids in Spanish I have no contact with her outside of the break times. We chatted for a little, I asked how her classes were getting along and she explained that it is much better now that she has been here a few weeks and knows the kids, a point that I totally agreed with. At the end of our conversation she asked how long I had been in Spain, and I told her about a month, she said that my Spanish was very good. I should point out that she is the one who teaches the kids Spanish grammar, so she is well qualified to make this assessment!
I also had the chance to walk home with the portero of our building. A portero is kind of like a doorman, but better. He is in charge of building upkeep, trash, mail deliveries and just being a generally friendly face in the vestibule. On my way home from school yesterday I saw him get on the same metro car as me, though he was talking with some people. When the other people got off one stop before ours he looked over with much surprise and asked if I lived in the building, I said yes. Then he told me about his metro friends, the people he sees each time he rides because he rides at the same time everyday. We chatted about what I was doing and about the weekend. He gave me a restaurant recommendation for our neighborhood. Yet another opportunity to practice Spanish.
All in all things are going well. I like my school, I have a few leads on private lessons and I'm getting the hang of speaking Spanish with native speakers. What else could I ask for?
For Halloween, the older kids are going to participate in a pumpkin carving contest and we will award prizes for the best ones. Other than that, the celebration of Halloween is really up to the teachers. I know in Elena's class we are going to do some worksheets and activities that help them with grammar but use Halloween words and themes. Since we are working on feelings I looked around for coloring sheets and found one that has a ridiculous looking monster on it and a caption that says "The monster is mad," I don't know if that is mad like angry or mad like the British word for crazy, maybe both? We talked about making a potion in class so they could work on order words such as first, next, after, last. We threw around things we could use, like ketchup for blood and beans with eyes drawn on them. Then Elena said something about spider legs, but she didn't know what to use. I immediately thought of these little tiny soup noodles that are about an inch long and much skinnier than spaghetti. I told her we could use the noodles and she just gave me a blank stare. I tried to explain soup noodles, I even drew them on the board. She told me in Spanish they call them fideos and asked what the word do we use. So, I think I taught Elena "noodles" along with giving a suggestion for spider legs.
Speaking of Elena... I should share with you the funniest sentence I've heard yet, and it came from her. On Wednesday there was a girl bawling in class because her pencil and eraser were taken away. She was playing with them while I was reading them a book about day and night, and Elena had enough. After 15 or 20 minutes of crying Elena suggested that the girl go splash some water on her face and calm down. When she left the room the other kids asked where she was going and why she was crying. Elena told them that she was "going to wash her face in the toilet." I should point out that Elena didn't misspeak, rather the kids are taught British English, which calls the restroom "the toilet." To me "she is going to wash her face in the toilet" just sounds wrong; and when the kids ask me if they can go to the toilet it sounds vulgar, I don't need to know their exact destination. We've been encouraged not to correct the children when there are differences between the English they have been taught and the English we know, but I think if these kids went to The States and asked for the toilet they would get strange looks. They also call erasers "rubbers" which makes the adolescent boy in me giggle every time.
On a completely unrelated note, I received a wonderful complement on my Spanish skills yesterday. While I was in Eduardo's room working on a poster for the Redlands teachers Ines, the new 4th grade teacher came in just to say hi. She came in a few weeks into the school year because the regular 4th grade teacher took a leave of absence after her son was hit by a car and fell into a coma, he is doing much better but not out of the woods yet. Since Ines teaches the kids in Spanish I have no contact with her outside of the break times. We chatted for a little, I asked how her classes were getting along and she explained that it is much better now that she has been here a few weeks and knows the kids, a point that I totally agreed with. At the end of our conversation she asked how long I had been in Spain, and I told her about a month, she said that my Spanish was very good. I should point out that she is the one who teaches the kids Spanish grammar, so she is well qualified to make this assessment!
I also had the chance to walk home with the portero of our building. A portero is kind of like a doorman, but better. He is in charge of building upkeep, trash, mail deliveries and just being a generally friendly face in the vestibule. On my way home from school yesterday I saw him get on the same metro car as me, though he was talking with some people. When the other people got off one stop before ours he looked over with much surprise and asked if I lived in the building, I said yes. Then he told me about his metro friends, the people he sees each time he rides because he rides at the same time everyday. We chatted about what I was doing and about the weekend. He gave me a restaurant recommendation for our neighborhood. Yet another opportunity to practice Spanish.
All in all things are going well. I like my school, I have a few leads on private lessons and I'm getting the hang of speaking Spanish with native speakers. What else could I ask for?
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