My Whole New World

So now I've been working at the primary school for three weeks, and it's safe to say I love it!! The other staff members have been so kind and helpful, and my mentor, the English teacher, is amazing!  I have finally sorted all my paperwork and got a bank account and have started to properly settle in.


The School

I am greeted in the corridors no less than 5 times a day with 'hello Beth', 'good morning Beth' or even just 'Beeeettthhhh!' by the kids, I have met them all and had various classes with them now but in the first week this was happening before I'd even had a lesson with them!  They all already knew who I was and that I was 'the English girl.'  I found it a bit weird at first but now that I do recognise (most) of them, I think it's sweet. 

I'm pretty confident that I am NEVER going to learn all the kid's names!  I assist with around 180 kids ranging from 6-12, some of which have names I have never heard of, and are therefore more difficult to remember, especially if they don'y really have an English equivalent.  There are also lost of children at the school from Eastern Europe or Asia who's names I struggle to remember.  I could probably name about 3 children in each class.. maybe more in some - it's the naughty ones or ones who answer questions more frequently that I remember, which makes me feel bad for the quiet, well-behaved but shy students.  I've tried to get sneaky glaces at their workbooks as they're handed out or tidied away to make a mental note in my head of the name! 

Year 1 and Year 3 are without a doubt the most cuddly class!  The first class I ever had with year 3, I was yet to be introduced and the children were yet to settle into their seats and I felt a tiny person hugging my legs.  I looked down and thought 'am I allowed to hug them?' - in this day and age you never know.  Before I had a chance to react there were 6 more tiny humans hugging my legs and there was no way my arms were fitting round them all anyway.  The teacher saved me and told them to sit down and told me to get used to that! Soooo cute.

The year group I struggle most with is year 6.  Not because they are a badly behaved class or bad at English, simply because they are older (11-12) and I don't have the confidence with them that I do with the young ones.  For some reason I feel like they'll judge me more, or find me patronising.  However, after I've spent more time with them and led P.E lessons with them I am becoming more confident in the English classroom and remembering that in fact, 11 years old is really young - and they enjoyed the Halloween song and video that I found (here) just as much as year 4 did!  It's a little harder to engage with year 6 without baby-ing them, but I'm sure I'll get used to it :)

Me getting into the Halloween spirit with year 2 making 'lanterns'.  

Here's the finished product:

Don't look TOO impressed, please :S

I try not to speak to the kids in Spanish and when they ask me if I know any I just say 'a little bit'.  The younger ones often ask me questions in Spanish or tell on their classmates to me - very often I don't understand what they've said anyway and tell them to ask the teacher if they can't say it in English.  However, when I do understand, I respond to their problem in English and I think they still haven't caught on that I understood their Spanish... 

I've found the level of English in the class to be quite high! They almost always understand instructions and can ask basic questions if they need help, it's a really great school!

The only problem I'm having at the minute is talking to other teachers in the staff room.  If one of them engages me in conversation I can hold up pretty well, but when a group of them are already talking I can never understand what they are saying or the context of the conversation so can never join in, which I guess makes me look quiet and that I don't know much Spanish at all.  A couple of the teachers have been surprised when we've had a chat together at how much I can say - which I guess is a good thing!  I'm hoping by the end of the year I'll be able to understand what's going on and put my two penneth in.


Travels

I have spent the last couple of weekends with Anna, a fellow Auxiliar and friend from university living in Alicante.

One weekend I went to visit her in Alicante where this happened:

Then she came to Benidorm for a day on the beach and a night out where this was happening:

And then this happened:

Yep.

And on that note I am going to end this post.

Beth xx