Teacher Jenn (Originally Posted on January 28, 2010)

I haven't really written much about my job at the academia (more or less an English tutoring center). Well, today I have been inspired by a wonderful class that I see on Tuesdays at 5:00pm. Today I was lucky enough to be with them because Javier (an adult student that I have class with Mondays and Thursday at 5:00) canceled.

If this had been any of my other classes at the academia I probably wouldn't have been so O.K. with it. However, I love this class. There are 7 students (3 boys and 4 girls) and they are all in third grade. The great thing is that they are still young and still actually interested in English, it's still cool to them. This is to my advantage since they soak up every new thing I teach them.

I have to admit, teaching at the academia hasn't always been this fun. Sure, it's a second income on top of our government paid allowance, and it allows me to travel and explore, but it isn't all sunshine and daisies. Javi (the boss) has a pretty laid-back teaching style. He has virtually no teaching supplies in the building (no books, no workbooks, only the occasional worksheet, etc) leaving most of the organizing and planning to the teachers. Of course, that was really intimidating at first (not to mention a LOT of work). But lately I've really been getting into planning activities, and more so, activities that go on longer than just one class. It's really difficult to think of individual activities to fill a whole hour, 2 times a week, with students (the worst are those unruly teens!) who don't speak English very well. After getting to know the classes, getting more comfortable with their level and with their personalities, it's been really fun thinking up activities for them. On more than one occasion I've found myself doing something when all of a sudden I think of a great idea for one of my classes, and then of course I get really into the planning and can't wait to tell them about it.

My latest activity, that I started with my wonderful class of 8 year olds, was something that thought of just this afternoon. Before Christmas I'd taught them the names of different rooms in a house: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, dining room, etc. and also some examples of objects that can be found in each one. They loved it and already knew quite a few words. So Tuesday I brought it up again, to see how much they remembered, and to expand and try to make sentences (I sleep in my bedroom, I eat in the kitchen...) It went over really well, and we decided that in the next class they would work on drawing a floor plan of their house (little architects they are). Well, this afternoon I decided that in order to draw out the project, I would get them to make a mini-book that they could draw pictures of each of the rooms of their house in, and then write a sentence or two to describe them. Well, let me tell you. This was a hit! Diego, who is always really into everything, loved the idea. So much so that he expanded it to pretend that we are all selling our houses so we have to describe them like for an ad in the newspaper. They got started and worked all the way until the end of the class.

What made me even more happy, is that I started noticing that they are trying to speak English more. They get excited to say the key words of games in English (I saw you!, Can we play..., You're out!) and they are getting a lot better at saying "How do you say...". They are such a great class, and being with them has really made me realize that I do really want to be a teacher. I can only imagine that if I get so much satisfaction from 1 hour, how much teachers can get out of a whole career. Of course, I've had lots of crappy days when I get home and I'm exhausted, days when it seems like I haven't achieved anything, but days like today make me completely forget about them.

I cant wait to be a teacher. Now if only I could make the next four years of university go by a little faster, I would be decorating my classroom and teaching the verb ser to my Spanish class or être to the French class. Or maybe teaching students how to make a cake...there are just too many options for Miss Jenn!!

Auxiliares de Conversacion/English Language Assistants in Spain (Originally Posted on December 6, 2009)

Hey everyone who reads this! I'd like to take the opportunity to share the information about this program that I'm doing this year for anyone who might be interested/looking for a change or something different to do next year. The program is essentially a grant from the Spanish Education department. The job is working at an either an elementary high school, or official languages school for 12 hours a week, helping the students to get more comfortable speaking English. In my opinion, it's a great way to learn another culture, meet a lot of new people, and the best part, living in Europe!! I'll post the link to the site here in this entry, it looks like they are already taking applications (earlier that last year) and they assign placements on a first come first serve basis (applying earlier you would most likely be sent to a better place!) I was told that last year there were around 3000 applicants for the 1200 spots, and out of 1200 spots, only about 85 were filled by Canadians! I would love to see some more Canadian love over here, so if you're interested but aren't sure, I'm always up for talking about the program! :)

http://www.mepsyd.es/exterior/usa/en/programs/us_assistants/default.shtml

Are Canadian Students Lazy? (Originally Posted On December 2, 2009)

According to one of the boys in my grade 11 class, us Canadians are lazy and have no idea what "real" education is. We don't know what it's like to study all afternoon and all night, we don't know what it's like to study for 10 or 11 exams at a time, and we don't have to remember/memorize the entire history of Europe or the names and dates of most major philosophers. Now, I will agree with Mr.THINKSheknowsitall (since I can't remember his name) when he says we don't have to do those things. Because we don't. Why not? Well in my opinion, it's because our educational system is smarter/more efficient/designed to make sure those things don't happen. Does that mean we're lazy, generally speaking? Absolutely not. Where did Mr.T.H.K.I.A.'s comment come from you ask? Well, Mercedes (one of the English teachers in the high school) asked me to talk to the class about my high school/high school education in Canada. Of course I gladly accepted because, I won't lie, these kids need an opportunity to see something different than what they know.

So, the story starts here, at Lord Beaverbrook High School. Well my story anyways. This was where I learned how Alberta's high school education system works. I remember being in Fairview Jr. high, and being so scared about what high school would be like, if I would like it, if I would be good at it, etc. It turns out its really nothing too crazy. I mean once I got used to the schedule, the classes, the hallways, made some friends, remembered my locker combination, things became like a daily routine that I could do with my eyes closed. My first semester (if I remember correctly) my four class timetable included Science 10, English 10, Spanish 10 and Gym 10 (or something like that). The fun thing about this type of schedule, was moving class to class, I met different people, and learned my way around the school. For Spanish people, this experience happens in grade 7 and is completely different. After elementary school (grades 1-6), kids start high school (grades 7-12). On the first day they would go to their designated classroom for the first of 6 classes they have that day. BUT, unlike in Canadian/American high schools, when the bell rings between classes, they don't get up and change classrooms, no, no no. They wait in THEIR classroom, with the same people for the next teacher to come and teach them a different subject. All subjects, with the exceptions of Music, Gym and Computers/Technology and Art which have special rooms, require the teacher to take all of their things and go to each of the different classrooms to teach their subject.

One thing I remember looking forward to in high school, was after exams in January when we changed semesters, changed classes, had a whole new schedule, it was so exciting to find out which classes we got, find out who we would be with in class, which teachers we would have. But here in Spain that doesn't happen. For 6 years (the first 4, grade 7-10 obligatory, and the last 2 optional) students have the same 10-11 subjects, with the same people all year long.)

When I started to explain that only a few subjects are mandatory for us Canadian students (English and Social 10,20,30, Math and Science 10 and 20, Gym 10, and CALM 20) and that all of our other requirements are our choice, the class turned into a riot. Well, then I started giving examples of our optional classes: Foods, Photography, Cosmotology, Art, Construction, Mechanics, French, German...the list goes on and on. And I'm sure you can imagine, they were disgusted! I thought for sure they'd be jealous or something, but nooo. They were actually very disappointed in us. My friend, Mr.T.H.K.I.A raised his hand and asked,
"Do you have Classic Culture as an optional class" and me being me, I responded,
"What exactly is Classic Culture?"
He then said, "You know, the history of Greeks and Romans..."

So at this point I am holding myself back from saying something on the lines of "What fricking teenager cares about "classic culture" in high school?" Instead I ended up saying "Well, those are things we choose to study in university."

After the bell rang I couldn't help but think more about what this guy was inferring. He was pretty much saying that because Canadians don't study classic culture, or religion, or philosophy, or thousands of pages of history, that we are idiots. But I really don't feel like that's true! We survive, we go to university, we (most of us) get pretty decent grades. I think the real deep difference between Mr.T.H.K.I.A. and I is that we each value different types of education. Well that could actually be said for the entire spanish education system actually. Spain values book knowledge, memorization, and facts, whereas in Alberta (and probably the rest of Canada too) we value more practical knowledge. Just because I had foods class, and not philosophy doesn't make me any more stupid. What is does make me on the other hand, is a better cook! Muahahaa

Dream Job (Originally Posted on November 25, 2009)

Tonight I had my 4th (or maybe 5th) Wednesday night tutoring hour with Maria, Sara and Irene. Their moms are two of the English teachers at the High School, and they wanted to take full opportunity to have their daughters interact with a native English speaker. Of course this seemed really strange to me at the beginning...Why would they pay someone to help their kids with English when they are bilingual?! (They are both very good English speakers). But after tonight (and other nights, but mostly tonight) I know why! Because whenever either of the Moms are around, the girls instantly start talking in Spanish!! Sneaky sneaky....therefore: I'm employed every Wednesday from 8-9pm. :D

Anyways, two Wednesdays ago the girls and I had talked about our schedules (or timetables as they know them), so everything including what time we wake up, what we like to eat (during the week and on the weekends) what types of activities we do, when we go to school..etc. When they saw the picture of pancakes that I'd shown them as an example of something I love to eat on Saturdays, they instantly wanted to try one too. So I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to have fun and learn something new while speaking in English! So we set it up that in two weeks (today) we would make pancakes.

When I got to Maria and Sara's (who are sisters) house, Irene had already arrived, they had already gotten out all of the ingredients and were all really excited. They told me while we were cooking, that they don't cook very often with their Mom, but that they really enjoy helping. Anyhow, I let them do everything, minus cracking the eggs, because they were too nervous to do it! Haha. They made different shapes like hearts, the first letters of their names, etc. with the batter. We made extra, so they made some for their Dads and they a couple to keep in the fridge for tomorrow morning. Even though it was a little crazy because they were so excited, and even though I ended up with flour all over me, it was actually really fun!

This whole thing reminded me about how I had been talking over the summer about how sweet it would be to be a foods teacher. You know, teach Home Ec., minus the fact that I'm really not the best seamstress. If I could teach half of my classes in Spanish, and the other half in the kitchen, I really think that would be my dream job!

Fianlly... A Sort-of Schedule!!! (Orginally Posted on October 14, 2009)

Well, last week it finally happened. Things finally started sort-of coming together! We got a make shift, slightly confusing, rough draft of our schedule from the school. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this yet in my blog, but the government of Burgos (the province that Miranda is a part of) has requested that Ariela and I be shared among a number of different schools. So that means that In addition to working in the bilingual high school that we were assigned to, they would like us to get around to FOUR other elementary schools too. Of course we only work 12 hours per week, so for Ariela and I (between the 2 of us) to be in 3 schools /week (the high school + 2 elementarys each) is a little complicated.

Anyways, what they’ve figured out is we will each spend 3 hours/week at an elementary school and 9 hours at the high school. Because we each have to go to 2 elementary schools, we have to rotate weeks. So Week 1: I spend 3 hours at Cervantes Elementary and 9 hours at the High school, and Week 2: I spend 3 hours at Los Angeles Elementary and 9 at the High School. Both Ariela and I are skeptical that this is a good use of our time here, as a total of 6 hours/month at an elementary is basically nothing. On top of that, when Ariela had her first elementary visit this morning they told her she would visit each class only once a month since each time she visits she will change classes. Seems a little crazy.

A couple weeks ago, we got a phone call from a man who runs a private English academy, giving English classes to people of all ages. He was really interested in having us work for him since we are native speakers. We ended up decided to pick up a few extra hours with him in the afternoons, so my schedule is something like this:


Monday - Day Off

Tuesday- School: 8:45 - 2:30 Academy 4:00 - 6:00/7:00

Wednesday- School: 8:45 - 2:30 Academy 4:00 - 6:00/7:00

Thursday- School 8:45 - 2:30 / 3:30 - 5:00

Friday- School 8:45 - 12:00


* The “School’s” hours are the hours that classes take place, but I only work an average of about 2 or 3 hours per day during those hours

I’m really happy with the schedule as it leaves lots of free time after the Academy and on the weekends.

The last week Ariela and I worked the full 12 hours in the High School, each of those 12 hours spent introducing ourselves to a new classroom full of kids of different ages between 12-18. I’ve really noticed that there is such varying levels of English, anywhere from not even understanding “Where are you from?” or “How old are you?” (which drives Ariela crazy!) to students that are able to form a proper sentence and also have the confidence to say it out loud! What we’ve been told about Spaniards is that they often won’t speak in English unless they are sure that the sentence is flawless, and because English really isn’t an easy language to SPEAK, they end up never knowing how to say what they want to say, and therefore, never speaking. Mertxe, a new friend of ours, brought to our attention a possible reason that French, Spanish, and Italian people have such difficulty with English. She reminded us that in Romance/Latin languages, most of the time each letter (vowel/consonant) only has ONE sound. For example “E” in Spanish can ONLY be pronounced like “eh”, never any other way. English on the other hand is REALLY not like that. Because in English we can have 3+ ways to use the “E” . Anyhow. Ariela and I might have slightly overestimated the English level of our students, but luckily we aren’t the actual “teachers” and explaining grammar issues is up to the them. Our job is just to pretend like we don’t know any Spanish, and try and get them to spit out any sort of words in English. ☺ Most of them are really nice, and really are showing interest, which is exciting and motivating. What I’m really looking forward to is seeing how much progress they can make by the end of the school year!

First Entry (Originally Posted on October 6, 2009)

So! Here I am, stealing my internet connection from a fellow neighbor, writing my first blog entry! I've been meaning to start this blog for a while now, but for those of you who know me, its really not that surprising that it's being started 3+ weeks into my trip! Anyway, because I've already been here for a little while, there are so many things that have happened so far! I think I can probably briefly sum up whats be going on, then move onto more current happenings.

Arrival to Madrid: September 12

Arrival to Miranda de Ebro : September 14

Orientation for fellow Language Assistants in Madrid: September 30 - October 2

Things that I have managed to attain so far:

• An apartment (Roomates: Ariela + Isabel)
• A cell phone (011 34 685 13 03 93)
• A temporary resident card
• A temporary work schedule
• A bank account
• A couple new friends
• One new shirt

So, that pretty much sums up what I have been doing for the last 3 weeks, keeping in mind that everything here takes a lot longer than it should/would at home, I feel pretty happy to have everything settled. The only thing that I am really still waiting for is the internet connection to be set up. Here in Spain, its impossible to only pay for internet. You have to have a package with either internet+land line or internet + TV. Since for some reason we are already getting some awesome TV channels for free, we chose the landline. Sometime this week both internet and landline will be installed, and I will let everyone know what the number is! I recently was looking at the long distance rates for phoning from Skype, and I was really surprised to see how cheap it was (Yes Mom, even cheaper than our phone!!) For anyone's curiosity here is the link to check out the rates: http://skype.com/intl/en/prices/callrates/#allRatesTab

Anyways. About the work so far, Ariela and I were both given temporary schedules (Timetables as they call them here) for the week. This week we are both working 12 hours each, all the those hours at the bilingual high school (Montes Obarenes). In two weeks we are going to start our crazy schedule that includes each of us spending two hours at a bilingual elementary school, then the next week Ill be doing 2 hours at another elementary school in the afternoon. Its all really complicated but Ariela and I are just grateful that we finally have some sort of schedule to go by, since the last 3 weeks have been really unorganized. On top of the 12 hours that we have been hired to work, Ariela and I were also approached to teach English in the afternoons (which is after 3pm to spaniards, NOT after 12pm like you might think) at a private language academy. IVe really been weighing the pros and cons of the job, really trying to decide whether it would be better than doing english tutoring from home. Its a tough decision since both have ups and downs. Im thinking for now I might stick with the Academy so that I can learn how to go about teaching English since there the materials are prepared for us. Then later on when I feel comfortable moving towards tutoring.

Luckily we have Mondays free in our schedule every week. So my weekend technically starts at 11:40 Friday afternoon and goes until Tuesday morning, leaving lots of potential to travel around Spain and for sure up into southern France.


Here is nice map of Spain and surrounding countries, Ive pasted in a little red star in the northern part to show more or less where Miranda de Ebro is located. We are really close to France which is great because my French needs some direct exposure! :)! This Monday (October 12) is Spain Day here, so just trying to decide what I'll get up to! Since the government pays us between the 1st and 7th of the month, and since ill only be getting paid for the half month of September, I'm pretty poor this month! Fortunately ill have a great opportunity to travel at the end of the month, since both Friday Oct. 30th and Monday November 2nd are both holidays! Im going to get planning this month for a fun trip! If anyone has any good suggestions, fire them my way!

Anyhow. For a first entry, I think this is pretty detailed! Hopefully all of you can follow my blog, Ill really try to update it regularly! I miss all of you at home and thinking about you! Lots of love: Jenn