"One, two, three... look at me!"

I have stickers on my hands and the catchy, yet tragically annoying, melody of the ABC’s song is incessantly playing in my head. I have just come home from a long day at work.

Coming back to Madrid after Christmas vacation has been surprisingly good. I had such a fantastic and unforgettable holiday – spent with family, friends, and boyfriend in Barcelona, Atlanta, Alabama, Paris, and Granada, each trip distinct & perfectly special in its own way – and one would think it would be hard to get back into work after such a sweet break. Of course, it was a little tough to start back with a five-day work week as opposed to the usual four (yes, I realize that I am completely spoiled with this part-time work schedule). However, I was excited to return to Ciudad de Roma, to see my kids that I know and love but sometimes want to strangle, to see my co-workers who have become my friends, and to know my role and my duties of my job. My expectations haven’t let me down.

Over the past few weeks, I have done a lot of teaching solo. Let me remind you that I am a teaching assistant in a bilingual school, and I follow the lead of the “real” teacher of the class, speaking up when called upon to help out with irregular English pronunciations and vocabulary. However, that job description was thrown out the window with the year 2008. Many days I am given complete control over the course of the class and leading the lesson. I rolled into 3rd grade class at 9:00 AM one Thursday morning only to discover at 9:05 that Pilar was sick and would not be coming to school. I conducted third grade English and science classes on both Thursday and Friday in her absence.

My 3rd graders are ballers. Most of them have a very high competency of English and are able to use it well enough to make good comments on our English readings, in our conversations, and in our science lessons. Of course, there are a few who lagged behind the rest, but overall I am very happy with them and their progress. Also, I really appreciate how much they listen to me and respect me enough to allow me to teach class when Pilar isn’t there. In science, we just had a test on plants. Did you know that there four main parts of the flower—the petals, the sepals, the pistil, and the stamens— and that fruits grows from the pistil in order to perform the vital function of reproduction? Maybe? Well, they do. Or at least, I hope so! Seriously, these kids are learning about the difference between woody and herbaceous stems and about photosynthesis. Impressed? You should be, because these kids know a lot of crazy English vocabulary. But they don’t know everything. While reading a book today in English class, I had to explain the word “bully” because there’s not really a word for that in Spanish. Luckily, I don’t really have to deal with any bullies in my 3rd grade class. They’re not angels, but they seem like saints in comparison to my 2nd grade rugrats.

In 2nd grade, my co-teacher Cristina has gone MIA much more frequently over the past few weeks, consequently leaving me the reins to a sleigh full of 22 rowdy seven-year-olds. My 2nd graders would be way ahead of the game if they would just sit down in their chairs and remain quiet for ten minutes… or even just two minutes. I don’t exaggerate when I say that I’ve never seen a classroom resemble a zoo like this unruly wilderness. I will refrain from getting into the many problems I see with the Spanish education system (I’ll save that for another entry), but I will mention here that I’ve never seen so much disrespect from a student group –at any age– as I see from my 2nd grade kids. Amazingly, I still love them and hope that I can knock a little more English into their brains over the remaining five months.

With the 2nd graders, I’ve been working on teaching them time. This is difficult for several reasons. First of all, they are learning how to tell time the British way, where 3:15 is “a quarter past three,” 3:30 is “half past three,” and 3:50 is “ten to four.” Secondly, they don’t really understand how to tell time in Spanish yet. And of course, it’s almost impossible to teach properly when at least two or three kids are wandering around the classroom or are turning their pencil cases and notebooks into computers, disrupting class while "typing" messages. Needless to say, it’s been somewhat of a challenge when left alone with them and it's often quite exasperating. In 2nd grade science, we’ve moved on from learning that “water is odorless, colorless, and tasteless,” and we have moved on to learning about tools. Explaining the difference between a nail and a screw is more confusing than you would think. Daily, we work on vocabulary about clothing, the weather, the date, foods, and family trees. We have to prepare for the Trinity Exam that is coming up in a few months.

All in all, I’ve really enjoyed branching out from my assistant roll and taking charge of my classes. Yet, the additional power and responsibility is exhausting, and it would be so rewarding to return home once the 4:00 bell rings, but my days never end at 4:00. I still have my private classes to go to in the evenings.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to truly be enjoying my private classes. I’ve been able to keep the stress level low and even plan lessons the day-of during my down time throughout the day. I spend an hour and a half on Mondays helping a third grade girl with our science lessons. It’s a long time to work with a child who should be diagnosed with ADD (I wish I were exaggerating). Yet, it’s a bearable and easy job… and at least Maria Teresa likes me, even if I drill her on the same material over and over again. My Monday and Wednesday class with Lucia (age 5) and Paloma (age 4) has been going well, and they are responding well to the activities I’m bringing and to just me in general. Little girls will be little girls. They can always be convinced to color some work sheets; they love stickers (“las pegatinas”); and they like bickering back and forth.

Seeing the twins, Marcos and Aitor, on Tuesdays and Thursdays always warms my heart. Whether we’re playing with toy cars, superheroes, reading a book, or coloring farm animals, the boys are so used to me by now that they know exactly what I mean when I talk to them in English, and they respond in Spanish. I can get them to say individual words of colors, numbers, and animals, and I’m slowly breaking ground to get them to speak more English.

Last week, as I was singing the ABC’s to the boys and pointing to the letters in a nice picture book I stole from school (temporarily, of course), Aitor fell asleep on my arm. It was the most adorable thing ever. The poor little guy was so tuckered out from a fiesta celebration at school, which hadn’t allowed time for a proper nap, that my chanting the ABC’s caused his eyes to flutter and his breathing to slow and eventually lulled him to sleep while resting against my left side. When I lose Marcos’ and Aitor’s attention (or consciousness), I often spend the last few minutes of class talking with their mother, Marissa, a beautiful woman with a tender heart who has become a friend and confidant of mine over the past few months. We share stories of traveling; she gives me tips and advice on life in Spain; and we discuss life issues… like how to know which path to follow, etc.

I almost always leave the house of the twins happy, uplifted, and reenergized for my last and latest class at the Álavarez home with Fernando and Belen. It’s getting easier to come up with lesson plans for them, even though now their parents want me to leave homework with them to do in the days I’m not with them, and that makes it less stressful. We read stories or write our own, learn about the parts of speech and play Mad Libs, play card games like Go Fish or Memory, and write letters to our pen-pals (my college friends Anna Beth and Quinton). I have fun with them, and I think they do too.

I’ve realized that I have written well into detail and well into the night. After attesting to the long days, I should get some much deserved rest. I’ll close by saying that I am really content with the way work is going, and I’m also super happy with how my days and weeks have been filled with my great group of friends. More on those thoughts some other time, because I’ve got to go to bed!