School days

Some of my impressions from my first week of teaching: I have 6 days under my belt now at a colegio bilingüe (bilingual elementary school). I work Monday through Thursday, with morning classes every day but Wednesday and 1-2 afternoon classes every day but Monday. After arriving slightly late on my first day, due to rain-related traffic delays, I make sure to give myself an hour's time for the bus commute. It's probably only a 20-minute ride from Madrid, but I have to walk to and from the bus stops on both ends.

Being a bilingual school means that every subject except Spanish and Math is taught in English. At least, theoretically. The kids I work with are for the most part 6-9 years old in 1st-3rd grade. The school encompasses a preschool and primary school, so the age range is 3-12. I see the 3-year-old class once a week and the 4-year-olds once a week; I see one 3rd year class seven times a week for English, science, and art; I see one 1st year class twice a week for English and art; one 2nd year class once a week for English; and the other (terrible) 2nd year class once a week for English. I also will be teaching English to the staff twice a week.

The bilingual program was started three years ago with the then-first-years. It has expanded one grade level each year, so the 3rd years are the oldest students in the program. Theoretically, all students at the school will take part in it at the end of two more years. There are some problems with the program's implementation (district-wide, not just at this school), which I may touch on in future posts. But on the whole, this is a really positive program with great potential for improving the second-language acquisition in this country.

There are 1,000 North American Language and Culture Assistants (from the US and Canada) in Spain for this school year, but I'm not sure what the breakdown for Madrid is. At my school there is another American, a girl from Florida who graduated last year in political science, and a boy from England who will be entering his last year of university Spanish studies after this year. He is completing the program through the British Council, and was required to either complete this program or to do a year of foreign university studies in order to graduate. On the other hand, most North Americans already have their degrees, meaning their intentions are probably different.

What were my intentions entering in the program? Well, it certainly wasn't to get elementary school teaching experience. It's not the career I studied (journalism and translation). More than anything, I was interested in working legally in order to support me and A. here while he does his MBA. The stipend is enough for us to survive but not enough for saving, travel, or tuition. Very few auxiliares are in my position as a married person providing the sole income for two. What will I get out of it? Hopefully I will learn a lot myself through this experience, and I hope my pupils will also learn a lot from me.

My school is a public school, so it has a mostly blue-collar profile with some immigrants. The building is nothing special...brick, three levels with remarkably acoustic halls as children enter or exit noisily. I was so amused by the life-sized drawing the children made to welcome us. The American girl came out looking like Super Woman, the British boy looked like a superhero of some kind, and I was drawn...as a clown. How adorable!

The English teachers and their peers have adopted us into their clique. They immediately welcomed us to the group as friends and have since treated us as colleagues, joking, commiserating and more. On our first day, we went out together for lunch at a nearby restaurant. The group includes the five main English teachers plus other young, "cool" teachers: the speech specialist and special ed teacher, two infantiles teachers, and the former gym teacher-cum-jefe de estudios.

Every day we have an hour of either planning or English lessons with the other teachers, and then an hour for lunch. The lunch is free for us auxiliares and I make sure to fill up; we also have fruit and other snacks provided for us in the morning while the kids have recess. Before congregating in the cafeteria for lunch, our group also goes to "their" bar around the corner. It's a place to blow off smoke, literally for some, but figuratively for everyone. We joke that of all the school bells, the most important one by far is the one signaling it's cañas time.

Of all the English specialists, the infants' English teacher is the most fluent and always asking me and other English assistants about the correct term for this or that. The little ones are lucky to have him. He is a prepared teacher and can carry an entire class through almost entirely in English. The little ones are so cute; always smiling, waving and hugging you. Teaching them is comprised mostly of games and songs; my favorite song so far being "Hello Everyone, Tra-la-la-la-la."

The teacher that I see most frequently is the 3rd year English teacher. She is experienced and I think we have a friendly bond. But she won't take any nonsense--from other teachers or from her pupils. She has had these kids now for the past two years, and she knows them well. She also has a good relationship with most of their parents. Importantly, she always follows through on her promises and threats. If she says you won't have recess or she's going to call your mom, she means it.

I get to work with the third year kids for English, science (natural and social sciences combined) and art class. So far, my participation has been more limited, correcting pronunciation here and observing the curriculum, but already I have been given command by the teacher for conducting certain activities or reviewing homework assignments. I can tell the kids respect and like me too. I look forward to doing more creative activities in the future. I look forward to helping their English improve leaps and bounds.

Right now, I see a lot of quizzical looks and hear the (cute) refrain, "Can you repeat please?" and more often than not we have to resort to Spanish for explaining (or scolding). I hope we don't have to use Spanish as much as the year goes by, but the teacher argues it is important that they understand the basic concepts at least in their native language. Teaching science in English when they don't even have a base knowledge in Spanish is very difficult.

I think it is important to be tough at the beginning of the year. First you establish order and discipline, and later you can relax and joke together as a class. But without order, you cannot teach and the students cannot learn. A case in point is the stark contrast with the terrible 2nd year class. The teacher isn't bad but this is her first year. The main issue is that the second-year students apparently had a teacher last year who let anything go and never punished a single student for misbehaving.

These children scream at the teacher without being called on, hit one another, don't stay in their seats, take things from others without asking, complain about having to sit next to someone they don't like, and when we actually try to work, many copy the answers from their neighbor. I am convinced the only way to remedy this chaos is with a firm hand. Their learning was totally stagnated last year and as a group they are behind not only in English, but evidently in basics like the Spanish alphabet as well. To make matters worse, there are two children diagnosed as hyperactive. One possible approach would be dividing the 20+ class into two smaller groups within the same classroom so that we can give more individualized attention to them.

Right now, it reminds me of the kids in Room 207 (from the book Miss Nelson...maybe that could teach us a solution!) The 3rd-year teacher told the 2nd-year teacher that it is worth getting control of the class by being absolutely zero-tolerance on bad behavior, even if it means losing a few weeks of teaching time. It's really a challenge to impart knowledge when there is no order. I would be so pleased just to see an orderly end of class in which materials are stacked away, chairs are pushed under desks, the children line up and leave without running or shoving. The state of things especially worrisome because at the end of the year, the second years are expected to pass an English oral exam, as administrated by Trinity College contacts.

Yesterday, I gave the class one serious talking-to, and they finally paid attention. In Spanish, I told them how disappointed I was with their behavior after coming all the way from another country far, far away. I told them how much I wanted to teach them English and how I couldn't believe they were seven-year-old children, when they were acting like wild animals.

Then I worked with them for half of recess on the exercise at hand (alphabetically ordering sets of three words, like pear, apple and bananas). The teacher took them down to the patio for the second half of recess, but they had to sit and work in their books. I reprimanded two students individually (one who had been yelling and the other who had been fighting) but they actually seemed happy to have some constructive attention. "I hope things are better on Monday," I told the class. I really hope so.

I'm happy with my job at the end of this week. I feel like I am valued by the other teachers, and I enjoy working with the children. Stay tuned for our Halloween preparation, other adventures and my philosophizing on other educational topics.