It's my goodbye and I'll cry if I want to

Its been a rough few days, yesterday in particular. Monday was my last day of work and I said goodbye to the rest of my students. Our goodbye was similar to our "hello" when we first met. In 3rd, 4th and 5th level they all asked for my John Hancock- "FIRMAME!!" I wrote them each a little note saying how much I enjoyed teaching them and good luck in the future, but all they were concerned with was my signature. So whether they still think I am BFF with Hannah Montana or that one day I will actually be famous myself, it was a sweet way to end the year.

Yesterday we had our goodbye lunch with the teachers. We ate at an outdoor restaurant in Torre del Mar called, "Las Americas." We had a typical Spanish lunch, plates of olives followed by shrimp, clams and anchivoes to start and then a massive pan of paella. I managed to have a pitcher of beer and some after meal shots which might have contributed to my emotional breakdown when it actually came time to say goodbye. The teachers gave the other auxiliar and I each a card that had been signed by all the teachers in the school and a beautiful wooden, hand painted fan. So Spanish. Love it. They taught me how to open it like a proper Andaluz. Super sexy. Can't wait to show it off at home.

After 3.5hrs, it was time to say goodbye. We all stood up and I just started balling. I didn't realize how much I would miss the teachers I worked with this year. We have become so close and I will miss seeing their smiling faces every day and sharing stories. I was pretty embarrassed, I couldn't even form sentences because I was choking back the tears. I think it just all of a sudden felt so real that I would be leaving the next day. Which is now today. My room is packed, my suitcases are extremely overweight and my flight gets in at 4pm to JFK. I had planned to write a really thoughtful conclusion and reflection on this year, but I have been so busy and nervous and anxious the past few days that I haven't thought of anything profound to say. See you in the states...

Above: Me in 3rd grade

Above: Me and Choni, the Music and English teacher, at lunch

Above: Me and Elo, the third grade Science and English teacher, at lunch

Above: the whole group

Above: traditional paella lunch

Above: My demise ?

"Viva Alex"

I just had the most touching surprise party ever. I´ve never had a surprise party before, but I think if I had, this would have topped it. Mari Carmen told me to come a little late to class today because the 5th graders were preparing something special for me. I had planned to go to the supermarket in the morning anyway to buy them some candy for the last class so I showed up around 9:20am. I knocked on the door and then slowly opened it to see if they were ready for me. The entire entrance way to the classroom was covered in all different colored balloons. They all screamed, "surprise!" when I walked in. On the white board they had written, "we will miss you" and "viva alex" and ""we love you." They read me a poem in English that they wrote together. Although it does not translate the same into English, it's so cute and I want to frame it in my room at home.

After, the girls, who were the ones in charge of this whole surprise, told me there were 4 presents hidden all around the room and they would give me clues to help find it. The first present was, "under a bag." I discovered it all wrapped up in smiley face wrapping paper- a pair of sungalsses! The next present was, "in an umbrella." Low and behold a bracelet with matching earrings and a ring!! Soo cute! The 3rd present was "on the shelf"- a pink scarf. The 4th present was "next to the computer"- a WATCH! I was so touched and was not expecting anything like this. It was so over the top! They said they wanted to give me some "recuerdos," to make sure I wouldn't forget them.

After my treasure hunt, I said some words about how I will miss them and that I hope they will continue to study English and they can email me with any questions (that might have been a mistake.) I wrote my email address on the board and they all copied it onto their arms. We had a short English lesson and then I spent the next 20minutes after our class writing a note and signing my name on a balloon for them (for each student), but also on to paper, beause they said the balloon wouldn´t last forever. At the end they gave me some of the pin wheels they had made for Martin Luther King Jr. Day that say, "USA," "peace," and "protest" on them. The whole thing was such a sweet, touching and thoughtful thing to do and I will never forget it, or them.
Above: The girls reading me the poem they wrote about me
Below: The poem

Alicia en el País de las Maravillas

Today the parents at my school put on a much anticipated theater performance of "Alice in Wonderland!" It was ADORABLE. Tomorrow they will perform "Pinocchio." What dedicated padres!!

P.S. If you haven't seen the recent movie, you are seriously missing out. The costumes and graphics are amazing, as is Johnny Depp. Go rent it!

Raining on our parade

Don't judge but this is what I wore at school today:
Hot I know...We all dressed up to celebrate the "Día de Andlaucía." Obviously it had to rain and ruin our celebration. The children had prepared dances and poems to present to the entire school in the playground. Many of them forgot their costumes, but the ones who didn't looked so cute!

Visitors

As part of the bilingual initiative, CEIP Blas Infante has partnerships with primary schools in Cornwall, England. As part of this, the schools have set up a pen-pal system to practice English and Spanish. This week we have had the pleasure of hosting two teachers from two different schools in Cornwall. They have been observing and helping out in the English classes while trying to practice a little Spanish.

It has been really interesting speaking with them about the education system in England and how it differs from Spain. I have found that many of their observations and questions were similar to mine upon arriving at the school in October. Aspects such as the physical formation of the desks and chairs in the classroom (in rows as opposed to clusters,) the pace of the class, the integration of all levels of children into one classroom doing the same activities have all been topics for discussion. The British teachers brought with them prepared questions from their students in Cornwall. The students wanted to know things such as:

1. What time do you eat lunch?

2. What is your favorite food

3. Do you have a cafeteria?

4. What time is school over?

5. Do you have a playground?

On Tuesday I went out with the teachers and visitors to a typical Spanish lunch, with vino tinto, cerveza, calamares fritas, and paella. It was a lot of fun to hang out outside of school and compare and contrast our home countries and upbringings as well as our opinions on education.

School of Rock?

Last week when I was teaching the 5th level about Martin Luther King Jr., I gave them a vocabulary worksheet that they first put in alphabetical order and then looked up the terms in the dictionary. One of the words was "Alabama" and the students could not stop saying it. They loved the sound, I think in part because they know the name "Obama" and it sounded like that. So I asked them if they had ever heard of the song and movie "Sweet Home Alabama." No one had heard of it and since the internet in the classroom was not working I put on my "thinking cap" and used my blackberry to play the song on youtube. They loved it! I told them they had to think of a name for our band and that we could sing the song the next class. They still have not come up with a name for our band, but I printed out the lyrics and we all sang along to the live version on youtube today. Maybe our name should be: School of rock? or Colegio de rock?

El Día de la Paz

This Saturday, January 30, is "El Día de la Paz" in Spain. It is to honor the life and message of Ghandi and is similar to our celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. This past week in school I have been teaching the children about Martin Luther King Jr. and why we celebrate his life and dream in the United States. I created a story book with pictures and bolded words such as "freedom," "equality," "civil rights, "boycott," and "African American" for the children to learn. I also gave them a coloring sheet that says "I have a dream" with a giant dove on it and below the image the word, "peace."

I also played a "game" with them to help them understand the inequality that African Americans experienced in the US in the time of MLK . I told them the right side of the classroom no longer had any rights. They were not allowed to speak during class, go to recess, go to the bathroom or talk to any of the kids on the left side of the room. I told them they were ugly, stupid and annoying to everyone. The children on the left side of the room could always go to recess and the bathroom whenever they want and were all good boys and girls. We continued class for 5minutes in this roleplay and then after we discussed how the children on the right side of the room felt without having any rights for what seemed like no particular reason at all. They all understood the message that we are all equal and should have the same rights no matter what our physical, or in this case geographical differences are.

The activity I really would have liked to do was something I found online. You take a white egg and a brown egg and you talk about the differences between them. Then you turn around and crack them both open and show that even though they are different colors, they are the exact same on the inside. Just like people! The main problem with this is it is impossible to find a white egg around here.

Above is a picture of the mural that the kids made in honor of this holiday.

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Tomorrow I will travel back to the US for the first time in three months. Therefore, I will be taking a short hiatus from my life in Spain ( and this blog) to celebrate the holidays with friends and family at home. It is unbelievable how fast it went by! ¡Feliz Navidad!

Pen Pals

As part of the bilingual program in my school, the fourth grade has "pen-pals" in an elementary school in England. So far they have written one letter back and forth to each other in English introducing themselves. Most of the letters looked the same. Here is a typical example of one of the British letters:

Hello Maria,

My name is Charlotte. I am from England. I have one sister and two annoying brothers. I love pets. I play cricket at school. I have six fish, 2 cows and 5 chickens.

Are you a boy or a girl? Do you have any brothers or sisters? Do you like sport?

Anyway the letters were all so cute, and now they are working on a Christmas card in both English and Spanish to send to their pen pals. After Christmas our school will send a letter in Spanish to the British pen pals. It's such a fun way to learn another language and hopefully they can eventually visit each other.

Christmas in the classroom

It´s Christmas time in the classroom this week! Each class will learn the same Christmas vocabulary in English and then have different activities and worksheets to complete...Christmas bingo, Christmas multiple choice, Christmas connect the dots, Christmas coloring...
Here is the list of vocabulary:

Merry Christmas: Feliz Navidad
Santa: Papa Noel
present: regalo
candle: vela
cracker: petardo
stocking: calcetín
star: estrella
reindeer: reno
Christmas eve: noche buena
Christmas tree: árbol de Navidad
Christmas card: carta de navidad
snowflake: copo de nieve
holly: acebo

In every class we will be singing,"Santa Claus is coming to town:"
("Santa Claus se viene a la ciudad")

Estate atento
y no llores mas
no hagas pucheros
te digo por que
Santa Claus se viene a la ciudad

El hace una lista
y la vuelve a hacer
Apunta a los buenos y a los malos
también
Sant Claus se viene a la ciudad
El ve cuando tu duermes
Y también tu despertar
El sabe si vas bien o mal
Te tienes que compartar

Lesson Plan: Food

This is a lesson plan I have created for my 3rd year "Conocimento del Medio" (science) class. The resources I listed are very helpful, especially for ESL students and I highly recommend them if you need to write a lesson plan. Since the students are beginners and have trouble paying attention for long periods of time I will probably want to cut out one of the practice activities as well as the production activity and replace it with a game. For now this is what I have:

Objective: This lesson will teach students vocabulary and conversation tools about types of food and also help students to make healthy food choices by using a food pyramid.

Type: Food

Vocabulary: food, diet, healthy, unhealthy, food pyramid, water, carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, protein, fats, vitamins, yogurt, bread, cheese, meat, eggs, tomato, potatoes, carrots, peas, apple, banana, pear, orange, grapes, strawberries, pineapple, pasta, butter, oil, rice

Levels: Beginner (3rd grade science section B)

Materials: food flashcards (with visual and name), 1 filled in food pyramid, 1 blank food pyramid, blackboard and chalk.

Resources:

http://www.eslflashcards.com/

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-flashcards.htm

http://www.esl-kids.com/flashcards/food.html

Time: 60 minutes

Interaction: Student to teacher, Teacher to Student

Potential problems: Students may have trouble remembering vocabulary and pronouncing vowels while trying to speak in English.

Presentation:

Pre-work:

Before the lesson begins (one week before) students will be told to bring in a list of their favorite foods. If they know the words in English they can write them and if not they will write them in Spanish and learn them in English when they get to class.

Create Interest in Topic:

Students will come to class with their list of favorite foods. I will ask them the following questions before we begin:

What types of food are there?

Why do we need food?

What does food give us that helps us stay healthy?

I will also ask them in Spanish because most likely they will not know the answers in English. I will write the different types of foods on the board (carbohydrates, protein, fats, vegetables, fruits) and explain how they each keep us healthy. I will also draw a giant pyramid (but leave it empty, to be filled in later)

Then I will call on the students and ask them what they wrote down as their favorite foods and copy these onto the blackboard next to the pyramid.

Practice:

1. Pronounciation is what we focus on the most. I will hold up a flashcard that says the name of a fruit/vegetable/meat (along with a picture) and the students will repeat after me. After they are able to pronouce the vocabulary well I will fold the sheet in half so that they can only see the picture. I will then ask them, what type of food is this? A fruit? A vegetable? I will do this for every vocabulary term.

2. Then I will hand out the filled in diagram of the food pyramid. Students will use this as a study tool and it will help them in this activity.

I will ask the students what they like to eat, and what they eat for each meal. They will respond with:

“I like to eat ____.”

“I don’t like to eat ____.”

“For breakfast I eat _____.”

“For lunch I eat ______.”

“For dinner I eat ______.”

We will make a list on the board of breakfast, lunch and dinner foods. They will also write this beneath the food pyramids I have given them. We will talk about the different categories and how much of each we should be eating (serving size).

3. Then I will ask the students to come and use tape to place the flashcard in the proper box in the food pyramid.

Production:

1. Lets make a salad. Ask the students what type of foods you put in salads? Name some of the specific foods you would put in a salad. (review vocabulary again)

2. Students will be given a food pyramid diagram that is blank. They will begin to fill it out in class with the names of the new foods they have learned. If they do not finish in class they can bring it home for homework.

"Seño"

"Seño" is what my students call me. It is short for "Señorita" and I guess much easier than remembering my real name. It is very cute because they say it in kind of a whiney voice like "sennnooooooo" but since they are six years old it just makes me smile :)

1st day in 2nd grade with Danny

After my class with the 3rd graders I went to 2nd grade with a teacher named Danny. There are 25 students in Danny's class. Danny used to teach high school in Torre del Mar and this is his first year working with the 2nd graders. There are no separate special education classes in this school although a specialist will come in periodically and pull kids out who need special attention. Integration is huge. Danny told me there is one student who came last week to his class from an orphanage. His parents are unreachable and his brother is in jail. The student does not know how to read and write so Danny mostly gives him coloring activities. No one knows how long he will be here for. There is a girl who sits in the back of the room at least 3 feet behind the last set of rows in the center. She is in my direct line of vision since I stand in the front center of the room. I observe her for a few minutes and pick up that she is very autistic. Danny tells me she is repeating 2nd grade. He says he doesn't know how to say what her disorder is in English. He explains it in Spanish and basically says she is "half a normal person" almost "deficient." If she fails this year she will have to go to 3rd grade next year even though she most definitely will not be prepared. I want to save her. My plan is to kidnap her and place her in one of the autistic programs my mom has helped to implement in Washington Heights, NY.

Today the students learned the different parts of the body in Spanish and next week I will need to prepare a lesson plan of the body parts in English. It is my job to make it extremely easy and simple for the students to learn and to also make it fun and enjoyable. We have been told to focus first on pronunciation because if we write the words down the students will focus too much on the way they are spelled and not how they are actually pronounced. I will most likely use a game like "simon says" or "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" to engage the students.

I felt like a celebrity again when at the end of class Danny told the students they could ask me some questions. "¿De dónde eres?" they ask. "I am from New York." Then there are two more questions which I had to look at Danny for clarification because I could have sworn they were the same as the first question. One was "¿dónde vives?"and the other Danny translated to me as "are you REALLY from New York? there is no way!"

I'm a celebrity

It's pretty much official that I am a celebrity in Torre del Mar, Spain. I went into my first class today, third grade. The class had not started yet and since it was my first time in there I thought I would chat it up and see how their English was before the teacher got there.

Me: Hello, my name is Alex. I am from the United States.
Chica: "¿¡conoces Hannah Montana?!"
Otra chica: "¿¡ La conoces?!
Me: Si la conozco. ( I just made the critical error of mixing up "saber" with "conocer." )
Chica: (squealing) aaaaaaaaahhh. ¿Tu eres famosa?
Me: No I am not famous. I meant I know of Hannah but she is not my friend in real life.
Chicas: (sighing)
There are more questions about Hannah and comments on how much they all love her. I decide I really can't talk about Hannah anymore so I ask them if they want to see some pictures of where I am from in the United States. I tell them I am from New York and I whip out 3 postcards I grabbed in the airport before I left (one is of the statue of liberty, one of times square and one of the skyline). I am INSTANTLY swarmed. They scream "¡¡¡¡FIRMAME!!!!" All of a sudden the number of students surrounding me doubles, triples, and then quadrouples. Girls and boys alike flying out of nowhere. They are tugging on my shirt, standing on their chairs to see me, shoving pens, notebooks, napkins whatever they can find in my face for my autograph. I am finally understanding why celebs hate paparazzi and wishing that I had a team of security to fight them off. The teacher walks in as I am clearly powerless amongst her 9-year-olds. In an attempt to assume authority I say, "¡sientate! Después podemos ver las fotos." The children disperse to their seats and I can finally breathe. Then I taught them the different parts of the body in English. Not sure if they still think I am a celeb or not. I guess I will find out next week when I return to that class.

"Swimming with no direction"

This morning at work Jenny and I had a nice talk with the music teacher, "Chauny." Many Spaniards know English very well, but are nervous to speak and will therefore only speak to you in Spanish. I have definitely experienced this, but "Chauny" is great because it is clear she does not care if she makes mistakes with her grammar or vocabulary, she wants to practice. She has been helping to design our schedule along with several other teachers in the school. Today she explained that as "auxiliaries de conversación" aside from teaching we will also help the teachers to design the curriculum and to translate what they already have into English if they have not done so already.

Chauny also shed light on our role in the school (we are employed by the Junta de Andalucia and therefore a "project" of theirs). While she thinks the concept is very important she told us that she does not like the way the project is being carried out. She thinks it is extremely disorganized or like, "swimming with no direction." She said that when CEIP Blas Infante volunteered to have this program in their school the Junta said they would give them all new computers and paper etc. However, this has not happened yet. Since it is a fairly new program at CEIP Blas Infante (only three years), I knew there were definitely going to be some organizational challenges and obstacles. I told Chauny that we understand and it will be our job to prepare for anything, be flexible and take initiative. A big part of our position is to be creative. I consider this to be one of my strengths so I am actually looking forward something coming up last minute and figuring out a way to improvise.

By 2012 all schools in Andalucia will have "auxiliares de conversación."