Teaching English Spanish-Style

My summer ended on Wednesday, October 1. In the brisk morning hours, I walked down Calle Don Ramón de la Cruz to the Manuel Bacerra Metro station, took the grey line two stops down to Sainz de Baranda, passed through Calle de La Moneda, and strolled up to Ciudad de Roma (my school), which is located on Calle Juan Espandiú. I waited for the portero, Juan, to let me pass through the gates, and I entered my workplace as an official employee. Immediately upon my arrival, I sat down in the teachers’ break room with the bilingual coordinator, Carmen, and the other three returning auxiliares: Sergio from California, Julie from Pennsylvania, and Arielle from Boston. Carmen passed out our schedules, explaining in Spanish that this year’s schedules were very difficult to create and are a little haywire. However, I don’t think I’ll be complaining. Here’s why.

Los Auxiliares de Conversación participating in Spain’s Bilingual Program are only allowed to work 16 hours/week, but as you can see, my hours of class time do not add up. This is what Carmen was talking about when she said that our schedules were crazy this year. I will use my “EM” (Elaboración de Materiales) hours to either prepare materials or pull kids out of their current class in order work with them individually or in small groups on their English lessons. Another responsibility of the auxiliaries is to teach the teachers. On Wednesdays, I will be holding conversational lessons for small groups of teachers, one lesson during the first half of our lunch break and one after school. As you can see, we have Fridays off (no, I’m not gloating at all… I’m just making plans to travel around Spain and Europe every once in a while). All in all, I think I have a great work schedule, and I’m very excited about my 2nd and 3rd grade kids.

Second Grade: I am working with one class of 23 second graders, helping with their English and Science lessons. Cristina, a tall and thin woman who pulls off the ever-popular skinny jeans better than a lot of teens, is my 2nd grade English teacher, but her English is just ok. My second grade class is a little difficult to manage, because there are at least 2 children out of their seats at any given time, and they hardly ever follow along with the lesson.

Many Americans would be shocked by the way Spanish schools operate and the methods employed for classroom management. I imagine that if a teacher from Spain were to conduct an American classroom in the same manner as her Spanish classroom, she would either be fired or sued within weeks. In just two days of school, I’ve seen more teachers yelling at their students, grabbing them to make them stand up when they are caught not paying attention, and exerting more effort in maintaining crowd control than on the actual lesson than I’ve seen in all my life. From an American standpoint, it seems quite harsh, ineffective, and just wrong. I don’t understand how the kids are expected to learn in such an environment, but I’m hoping my doubts will come to rest once I become more accustomed to the Spanish-teaching methods.

Third Grade: I’m already in love with my third grade class, and that’s partly because I’m so pumped to be working with Pilar. Pilar speaks English very well, and the things that come out of her mouth are hysterical. I think I’ll have to start keeping a list of Pilar Quotes to share with you all.

The third graders also have a greater grasp on English, which makes working with them more enjoyable. I like our science lessons better, too, because learning that “planets, stars, and satellites are the three types of celestial bodies” allows for a much more interesting vocabulary set than “the body is made up of three parts: the head, the trunk, and limbs” (something I’ve already said a dozen times to the 2nd graders).

More to come: As I left my school Wednesday afternoon, I was pleasantly satisfied with the idea of having a schedule and a job that will allow me to be flexible and creative and that will enable me to work with children and adults alike. As I’m about to dive into a new educational experience, I hope to share some fun and crazy stories with you along the way.