In no surprise to anyone, teaching is not always bundles of fun. It can be great when the students are engaged or at least want to try to understand, but a lot of the time, that is not the case. Each teaching assistant has their own challenges with their school(s) and mine is no exception. My schedule has changed at least three times now and I'm finally just beginning to remember the most recent schedule, which seems to be sticking. The way it works now is still on the A/B rotation, but now I go to the two biggest schools once a week, so it works like this (these are the village names FYI):
A Week: Monday I go to Alesanco, Tuesday to Uruñuela, Wednesday to Arenzana and Camprovín, and Thursday to Huércanos B Week: Monday to Tricio, Tuesday to Hormilla, Wednesday to Huércanos, and Thursday to Uruñuela In Huércanos and Uruñuela I teach different grades on A week days and B week days. The biggest change is that there are no students that I see every week, whereas before I saw the students in Hormilla, Arenzana, and Camprovín every week. I see most students every two weeks and I see some students only once a month. This makes it very tricky to build relationships with students – even tricky to remember their names at times. Many of them are only starting to remember MY name because of how infrequently I’m there. Another issue is that it’s hard to build on any lesson I teach because they never remember what we did last time. I’m about to do a mini unit on Black History over a couple of weeks and I have no idea how that’s going to go. My new schedule also means I help teach math. This puts me in a pickle (and not the good kind) because math isn’t a bilingual subject, but I’m not really supposed to speak in Spanish with students nor do I feel comfortable with math lingo in Spanish. But alas, it's working out. Finally, the new schedule also means there are more hours that I’m at the schools while not teaching – essentially the schedule is less efficient. Hours spent at the school and not teaching are normal, but the inefficiency kills me, especially because I had a taste of a very efficient schedule. Still, I bring my computer and try to make the most of it. As far as what I usually teach, a lot of my lessons are about American culture. Usually I have the whole hour to do my lesson plan, even though that’s not technically my job, because it’s what makes the most sense with my rotating schedule and because I teach at least two grade levels at once, but up to all six. I only have a little idea of what they’re studying in their normal English classes because the infrequency of my time there and the differences between villages. Their English level is very low, so I do my best to keep things simple, but interesting. A couple students are really into American culture, which always makes it better, but most don’t really care. A few have to be reminded every lesson that I’m from the U.S. and not from England. And a couple students still insist that I’m French. In general, the kids receive far less discipline than in the U.S. and it is a constant battle of getting respect and trying to have them enjoy class/English. I’m not supposed to discipline the students, but I also need to have some kind of classroom management or else all hell would break loose (I would know, it has happened). And as I mentioned in my first blog about teaching, boundaries and norms are very different than in the U.S. I see examples of this all of the time. Often I think it is good for the kids, like how teachers will hug their students and give them straightforward answers about things we skirt in the U.S., but there are times that make me feel a little more skeptical. My least favorite example of the differences in norms occurs in one of my "infantil" (three-year-olds to five-year-olds) classes, where they're allowed to pick a short YouTube clip or song at the end of class as long as it's in English. One class always chooses songs that, for me at 23, I sometimes feel weird listening to, let alone watching the music-video. They like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and this band called GM5 that consists of 10-year-old girls singing about the boys they love. It’s not my decision, but I think the hardest part is watching little girls watch how women are consistently portrayed in every music video they choose. I want girls to see that they can be whatever they want, and that it definitely doesn't need to be connected to the way boys see them. Plus, they're five!! Anyway... Those are the times that it is toughest to try not to make a judgement and instead to think about the benefits of the different culture. Okay, so there are my complaints. Let me tell you some anecdotes that never fail to make me smile, or at least think “Oh, Spain” 1. Different kinds of fruit and/or vegetables get delivered to the schools every week. I LOVE this. I also get to eat the fruit, but I mainly love that the students are getting healthy snacks at school. One time I did find worms in my half eaten clementine, so that was not as great. I quickly stopped eating and downed a coke, my remedy for all stomach ailments in my post-Ecuador world. I figure if coke can take the rust off a penny, it can darn sure rid my stomach of any potential worms*. (*I know this isn't actually true, but let me have my peace of mind please). 2. Students got their flu vaccines not only during the school day, but at school. “Socialized medicine, I guess” as my mom said. Anyway, the best part was that I was with the 1st and 2nd graders when they were getting back from receiving their shots from traveling nurse (there's no nurse regularly at the villages). First the boys came back. Most were sobbing, or at least crying and moaning and holding their hands over their arms as though they’d sustained a mortal wound. Then some of the girls started to come back. Each one of them skipped in happily, laughing and chatting. I always want to laugh or hit someone when I hear that boys are tougher than girls, but I almost wish I had this filmed so I could show anyone who doubted these inconsolable boys and carefree girls after suffering the same affliction. **note: I love that the boys could and felt safe expressing their emotions. We gave them candy and told them it was okay. They were and are allowed to cry, that’s the point of feminism. But goodness if I hear another person say that girls are inherently weaker... 3. The day after winter break, I was driving with the teacher I was with for that day and as we began approaching the village, the air filled with the stench of fertilizer. Now, don’t get me wrong, I actually love the smell of manure (blame the ranch), but this was a little much. It was a sulfur-y mix that made me want to puke. I hope we were just passing through something, but as we parked and got out of the car, the stink only became worse. We laughed and compared Spanish and English words about the smell, and then hurried into the building. When we made it inside, the first thing we noticed was that it was dark. As it turns out, not only was it some mulching day, but also our electricity had stopped working. Early January, no heat, no light, and obviously, no internet. Half way through the day it started turning on and off every couple of minutes, thrusting us into light and sending us running for the heaters. But it would only last a minute and, sure enough, the heat and light would pop back up and it would be dark and cold again. This has happened a couple times in various villages, but that day was the worst without question. 4. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you may have already seen this story, but alas. I did a lesson on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in the U.S. and I finished by having the students come up with their own resolutions. In one class of 3rd through 4th graders, I had been getting generic answers like "end bullying" and "love everyone" and had been pushing them to tell me specific steps they could take in their everyday lives to make those things happen. Eventually I came to one student who is always eager to please, but who answered me "end racism." Naturally I challenged him to think about what he could do to help achieve world peace and he concentrated for a minute, thinking really hard and then, eyes lighting up, said "kill Trump!" I'm pretty sure my chin literally dropped to the floor before recovering so that we could talk about why killing someone doesn't end the ideas they spread. As I said on Facebook, it has really stuck with me that in a tiny town (there are a total of about 20 kids in the entire village) in the North of Spain, the first thing my student thought of for ending racism was to kill the United States President. [and now that the FBI is probably reading this blog, hi FBI! I promise there is no threat here!] 5. The other day, I opened the door to one of the infantil classrooms only to find one dog and one wolf running at me. It turns out that it was two dogs, but still. The teacher had just decided to bring her pets that day. I can’t complain, because I’d never say no to being able to hang out with dogs, but, oh Spain, that you can bring your dog to school. My mind automatically raced to “do any of the kids have allergies? What if a dog bites a kid?” And you know what? As much as it would never fly in the US, it’s cool here and everyone seemed happy about it. 6. Part of the students' textbook is cultural stories and early on, there was a story about the first person to climb Mt. Everest. One of my students did not believe what the textbook said and kept trying to argue with me that there was no way Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had been the first, because they were too young etc. I told him to look up the story when he got home and to tell me when I'm back in two weeks. He always forgets, but every time he sees me he makes a point to try to argue about it (and is even trying in English now!). It makes me smile every time. 7. One of Muslim girls in one of my villages was really sad that the Three Wisemen never brought her gifts. Here they have the Three Wisemen bring gifts instead of Santa. This year, the girl wrote a long letter to the Three Wisemen asking them to please bring her something. Her teacher read this and was obviously sad because this student clearly wanted to be included in something all the other kids had. So over winter break, the teacher got her a little present, wrapped it, wrote that it was from the Three Wisemen, and hid it in the school. When the student mentioned that even though she’d written a letter and that the Three Wisemen still hadn’t brought her anything, the teacher asked if she had checked in the school and all of the 1st and 2nd graders went on a hunt to help find this one student’s gift. The student was totally shocked when she found it, and I was nearly in tears! For the teacher to allow just a little bit of magic in the world of kids who don't have a lot is so special. And none of the kids complained about not getting a present, they all understood that they had received their presents at their homes. It was so heartwarming. I have to cut it off there because every time I come back to edit this, more stories come to mind. So read this knowing that these are really only a couple of my adventures and misadventures. I'll do my best to keep writing down the absurd and silly moments and maybe will periodically share them on here. We're about to reach the halfway point of our teaching (congrats everyone!) and for just that occasion I have a second cultural adjustment blog half written (see what I did there?). However, we're headed to our Fulbright mid-year conference in Salamanca this week, so we'll see when I get what done. As I keep promising, eventually there will be more blogs to come.
2 Comments
The last month has flown by and no new blogs have surfaced, my sincere apologies. I really am getting back on it now and am intending on writing an Adjustment Part 2 and *actually* writing about the villages again. Because it has been over a month, I’m going to give you a quicker, listicle style blog instead of trying to recount all of my stories and adventures.
1. Family! My family joined me in Spain for my Christmas break. My translating skills improved immensely, my parents got to visit all of the villages I teach in (and even see me perform a Christmas song and dance with a group of my first and second graders), we went on a fabulous wine tour which even provided grape juice for my dad, and we played countless card/dice/board games, making it feel as much like a Christmas at home as I could have hoped. My favorite thing about my family being here (despite the actual being with them) was that my mom, a lover of Italy, kept pronouncing everything in an Italian accent. She would see a sign in Spanish, for instance “ruta del vino,” and automatically go “RU-ta de VI-no!” (okay, that’s hard to impart on a blog, but just do the stereotypical Italian accent). Naturally, we teased her mercilessly. I was trying to teach my family various Spanish phrases (mainly, “vale” and “no pasa nada” which they enjoyed using). At one point, when we were leaving Pamplona, my mom had done her classic Italian accent for a Spanish phrase and, of course, we began making fun of her and she automatically goes “no pasa nada” – except – you guessed it, with an Italian accent. I immediately thought she was making fun of herself, but alas, it was unintentional. I know karma is going to get me for this when I visit Italy and say everything with a Spanish accent, but for now I’m still laughing. I loved being able to show my family Logroño and explore Pamplona and San Sebastián with them. It was hard when they left, but as I headed off to my next adventure my taxi driver chided me for crying and told me that if it was my kids who left I was allowed to cry, but if it was my parents I should be celebrating. I didn’t take that to heart and was asleep, eyes full of tears, by ten that night. I promise I’m good now – no more tears – it just took a minute to get it out of my system. 2. Pickles! I found (good/normal) pickles for the first time in four months. I’ve since been informed of other places nearby that I can find pickles. 3. New washing machine We got a new washing machine in our apartment and I can actually use it without ruining my clothes or having to do the spin cycle five times. It fits more clothes, which also means I save money on detergent. Sometimes it’s the little things. 3. Visitors, visitors, visitors Friends = doner, pinchos, and churros. Other the last month I’ve had a total of three days without visitors. For an introvert, that’s a lot, but for my stomach, it was the bomb.com. I got to take each visitor to my favorite pincho places, doner kabab for every other meal, and always churros for dessert. I’ve finally gone grocery shopping again, but my fridge has been empty, aside from butter, eggs, and tortillas, for nearly a month. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I realized this became all about food, but I really am grateful for the friends who’ve traveled from far places to come to visit my tiny corner of Spain. ;) 4. Messed up Jesus!!! Watch this and come back. Okay? Okay. Since seeing that years ago, I’d wanted to see the painting in person and I finally made it happen last week. It did not disappoint. I may or may not have bought an atrociously terrible t-shirt with the painting printed on it overlapping three times and on top an orange square with white print reading “what’s up?” above it. Why, you ask? It’s the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen. 5. The Guggenheim Wow, the Guggenheim in Bilbao was an incredible experience. I spent nearly two hours there and felt like my mind was bending and twisting as I experienced the different kinds of art, many with themes of space and time. Time felt suspended and I felt like I needed to give my brain a good stretch and some relaxation time after spending the morning there. I highly recommend going if you’re in Bilbao. Get the free audio guide and take your time hearing about the artist’s thoughts and about Gehry’s design. It was well worth the time and if you’re a student you get a nice discount. There you have it, my top five of the last month. I can’t believe I’m closing in on halfway through this experience, time has been flying. I’m ready to explore more of Spain in the coming months and for the winter to end, because, let’s be real, I’m not made for cold weather. |
AuthorWelcome to the blog portion of my blog Archives
November 2018
Categories |