This Tuesday, I finally started my job teaching English at an elementary school just outside the Madrid city center. I was excited/nervous/unsure what to expect - all of the typical feelings one goes through before starting a new job. But I seriously did not know what was in store for me - I had heard horror stories about Auxiliares who arrived to find that their school had no idea they were coming, didn't have anything for them to do, or expected them to just jump in and run the class on their first day. So I was expecting the bare minimum, the worst possible scenario......and I was very pleasantly surprised!
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| I got this picture from the school's website, but these are some of the kids I worked with! |
Most of the other teachers are fairly young and close to my age. The teacher who is the program coordinator - Lucía - is really supportive and organized. The school is not too big - about 30-40 students in each grade level, divided into two classes - and there are three primary English teachers. They are all Spaniards, but their English is very good and they are excited about working with us to help the kids as well as to help themselves improve. Everyone who works at the school has been very nice and welcoming, especially the children!
We haven't quite finalized our schedules yet, but I will most likely be floating between a few different classes and working with children from 7-12 years old. Although they are obviously unruly sometimes, they are still young enough to think you're cool and admire you just because you're older. In one of the classes, I introduced myself and all of the students asked me questions - the one thing they ALL wanted to know, of course, was what my favorite soccer team is. The teacher had them write a description of me and then the next day they read them out to the class. Almost all of them started with physical descriptions and then ended with something like, "Clark is very nice and fun and I'm glad he's going to help us with English." I didn't even feel like I had really done anything special but they were already fond of me anyway!
I also made a PowerPoint about my life, with pictures of my family, my house, Wilson Library from UNC, my favorite holidays, etc. and all of the kids loved it. They are convinced I'm a millionaire and that I live in a mansion because, like most city-dwellers throughout the world, the majority of them live in apartments.
All in all, I think it is going to be a fun and fulfilling experience! It's definitely going to be tough at times, but I can already tell that the relationships I'm going to build with the other teachers and the children will make it all worth it! It's still hard for me to believe that such an awesome program exists, where you get paid to do a fun job and get to live in an amazing city like Madrid!
We haven't quite finalized our schedules yet, but I will most likely be floating between a few different classes and working with children from 7-12 years old. Although they are obviously unruly sometimes, they are still young enough to think you're cool and admire you just because you're older. In one of the classes, I introduced myself and all of the students asked me questions - the one thing they ALL wanted to know, of course, was what my favorite soccer team is. The teacher had them write a description of me and then the next day they read them out to the class. Almost all of them started with physical descriptions and then ended with something like, "Clark is very nice and fun and I'm glad he's going to help us with English." I didn't even feel like I had really done anything special but they were already fond of me anyway!
I also made a PowerPoint about my life, with pictures of my family, my house, Wilson Library from UNC, my favorite holidays, etc. and all of the kids loved it. They are convinced I'm a millionaire and that I live in a mansion because, like most city-dwellers throughout the world, the majority of them live in apartments.
All in all, I think it is going to be a fun and fulfilling experience! It's definitely going to be tough at times, but I can already tell that the relationships I'm going to build with the other teachers and the children will make it all worth it! It's still hard for me to believe that such an awesome program exists, where you get paid to do a fun job and get to live in an amazing city like Madrid!
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