Hola, amigos y amigas! I can’t believe I have been here for almost three months and I am about a third of the way finished with the school year. It has gone by so quickly and it is already almost time for the holidays. I thought I would share with y’all a typical day at school and what my classes are like/ what I do all day. During the months of October-May, I work four days a week at school, Tuesday- Friday. It has been very nice to have 3 day weekends, lemme tell you. Each day, I have anywhere between 4-6 classes that meet for an hour each, depending on the day. Some days there are more/less, for example, if I have to substitute for another teacher or a class has an exam. So, my schedule is different every day. The day I am going to talk about is a typical Tuesday (aka, my Monday). This is usually my busiest day.
Every morning I usually get up and get ready for work around 7:30 ish. During this time, I also am responsible for making sure my host sisters get ready and out of the door at the right time. That has been a bit of a struggle some mornings, and a lot of times we leave a few minutes later than anticipated but we’re working on it. I typically get to school a few minutes before nine, which gives me a few minutes to get out any material I may need for my classes (though I usually try to do this the day before). On Tuesday’s, my first class is 4th of primary (4th grade). This week, we worked on using adverbs of frequency and different question words (who, what, when, etc.) For most of my classes, especially with primary students, I take them out in small groups of 3-8, depending on the class size. For the activity, we played a parcheesi style board game about adverbs of frequency and asking questions (“how often do you…?”). There is this one website that I have found very helpful for finding different grammar exercises, especially games. I will post the link at the end.
After 4th grade, I mosey on to 2nd of primary (2nd grade). These little nugs are one of my more challenging classes, due to their age and low English level. I try to take them out in even smaller groups (no more than four) to reduce distractions. Today, we practiced a Cambridge style exam with prepositions of location (on, at, in, above, etc.). I took them out in pairs, and it went pretty well. I really need to remember to take this class out in small groups.
Every morning from 10:50-11:40 the whole school has their study/recess period. I am very jealous of the older students especially for this; my school never had a scheduled break time when I was in middle/high school. I usually grab a cup of tea and a snack from the teacher’s dining room and then do some work in my classroom for my classes or I lesson prep. During the break periods, the 11th and 12th graders sometimes hang out in my room to study or have a snack. They are good for the most part, we have learned to co-habitate. They clean up after themselves, I pretend not to understand their conversations in Spanish. Balance.
After break, I head on over to 5th grade, which is my largest class. Thirty-two ten year old’s can be quite a handful. For this class, I took them out in pairs to practice for the speaking portion of their KET exam, which is the A2 level in the Cambridge exams. This speaking exam focuses on forming proper question sentences and searching for information in a flyer/ advertisement. This is the second/third round of testing that I have done with this group and almost all of them have improved greatly from the first time. Some of them still have to work on switching the words around for questions, but overall, they are doing well. What a bunch. Their English is good enough that they can hold a basic conversation, but they are still young enough to want to do fun things in class.
My next class is 1st of Primary (1st grade). This is my smallest class, with only 10 students. They are also the youngest students I teach. They are currently studying food, food group and healthy habits. As a review game, we played a simple activity of identifying different name and types of food using plastic play food pieces. They were able to name different foods and identify things, such as what you eat for breakfast and which foods are plant/animal based. Sometimes simple is better for students this young, as long as you make it some sort of game.
Between 1:30-3:00 is the lunch/ extracurricular hour. Every day except Friday, I am able to use this time as another break/prep time. The lunch is usually pretty good (a lot better than it is in American schools). I could go home during this time if I wished, but I usually stay in school because it is easier.
After lunch, I switch from being in the primary part of the school to the secondary. My first class after lunch is 1st of ESO (7th grade). This is one of my favorite classes because they are still young enough that they want to do fun activities, but their English is good enough that we can have nice conversations. Also, this class just tends to be very nice and well behaved. Today we worked on using the past simple/continuous and present perfect verb tenses through story telling. Very similar to the classic “two truths and a lie” game. This age loves these kind of activities and once they get talking, it’s hard to get them to stop and move on.
My last class of the day is a 2nd of ESO (8th grade) class. This class is one of my more challenging groups, mainly because of the age and the class size. They also have a stricter English course load, so we often practice the speaking portion of their exams, which is what we did today. I take them out in pairs and do practice tests with them. Sometimes we do a game of sorts, but we must do a lot of practice these next few weeks since they have their mock exams at the end of November.
After school, most days I tutor students and other kids in the community in English. The youngest child I tutor is three and the oldest is thirteen. On Tuesdays, I usually tutor a 6th of primary student for an hour after school. This is something I do outside of the school and the Meddeas program. I enjoy it because it gives me additional teaching experience (and a way to make some extra money).
So far, I am really enjoying teaching. The first few weeks or so were overwhelming a bit, and there are still some days that I am not fully sure what I am doing, but overall, I think its going well (no one’s complained yet so that’s good). I am really starting to get to know the students (and their names) and they are beginning to be more comfortable with me. While this post wasn’t super exciting (I don’t arrive to school on a pet flamingo, play football every day or bleed sangria and paella), I am proud of myself for how far I have come in these past 3 ish months and how much I have grown already. I get so excited when I see my students progress with their English, and this has been a rewarding experience so far.
Jordan's ESL Adventure 