This past week I began my new job, and I simply love it. There is no elegant way to put it, I am made to educate. The students are so quirky and so excited to have me there, I honestly couldn't tell if I was more excited my first week or them. I have the opportunity to work with five different teachers in all different levels and subjects. The school, CPI Plurilingüe dos Dices, teaches preschool through sophomore year, it's quite an age range, but it is in a really small town and many of the students don't even live in Rois. The school is classified as a multilingual school, which means the students are taught multiple languages through regular courses and language courses. For example, I help in computer, technology and arts courses because these are taught to the students in English. I also help in English language courses, where the students learn the grammar and syntax of the English language. The other two main languages at the school are Gallego and Spanish, with courses being offered equally as in English. There are also French classes, though I am not certain that there are regular courses offered in French or if it is just the language courses. Regardless, this means some of these students are studying four languages in a rural, public school in Spain. While Spain not have everything perfect in its education system (what country does), this is an astonishing opportunity for these students. For those of you who are interested here is a link to CPI Plurilingue dos Dices, it is written in Gallego, but manageable to navigate.
My first week of classes consisted of getting to know the students, I work with seven different grades, in twelve different classes, in five different courses. This means I also spent the first week trying to understand my schedule. I don't believe that all auxiliares have schedules like this, but I am working in a rural school. I talked one-on-one with each of the students, asking them questions about their hobbies and families and favorite futbol teams. In the English classes I gave a presentation and asked the students questions afterwards to test their comprehension. My presentation was about life in Idaho, our customs, holidays and activities. I spent a lot of time editing and preparing the presentation because I am really proud of where I have come from. So of course something would go wrong. I was flipping through the slides in one of the classes, feeling pretty damn good about my presentation as I had done it twice without a hitch, and arrived to the slide about Halloween. As I finish explaining dressing-up, trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving I motion to the slide. In what felt like slow motion, as I gracefully turn and emphasize the pumpkins with the palm of my hand, I see that this slide show has uploaded the original photos, somehow. Projected on the white board was this gem of a pumpkin, so maturely carved by old roommate Arius.
Nothing says English is fun and American holidays are the best like a giant pumpkin penis. For those of you wondering how I fixed this problem, I basically ran away from it. "And we also carve pumpkins (motioning) like these...(click) And on Thanksgiving we get together with our families." Giant fail. Because I showed a group of 12 year olds a giant penis on my first day. I checked all the slides before giving the presentation in other classes, I learned my lesson the hard way. (cue laughter)
Apart from this glitch, my first week was fantastic. The students are so smart. I tried to trick them with my questions because every class was getting the answers right, even the 5th grade class, but the students remembered every detail. There was one boy, in 5th grade, cute as a freaking button, wearing a sweater vest and button up shirt, that came with a whole list of questions for me. (The teachers all told the students to come with a few questions for me) He went down the list and asked me every question: "Do you like ice cream?", "Do you like Galicia?", etc. He wrote down my answer for every question. My heart absolutely melted when I saw what he was doing.
My first week of classes consisted of getting to know the students, I work with seven different grades, in twelve different classes, in five different courses. This means I also spent the first week trying to understand my schedule. I don't believe that all auxiliares have schedules like this, but I am working in a rural school. I talked one-on-one with each of the students, asking them questions about their hobbies and families and favorite futbol teams. In the English classes I gave a presentation and asked the students questions afterwards to test their comprehension. My presentation was about life in Idaho, our customs, holidays and activities. I spent a lot of time editing and preparing the presentation because I am really proud of where I have come from. So of course something would go wrong. I was flipping through the slides in one of the classes, feeling pretty damn good about my presentation as I had done it twice without a hitch, and arrived to the slide about Halloween. As I finish explaining dressing-up, trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving I motion to the slide. In what felt like slow motion, as I gracefully turn and emphasize the pumpkins with the palm of my hand, I see that this slide show has uploaded the original photos, somehow. Projected on the white board was this gem of a pumpkin, so maturely carved by old roommate Arius.
Nothing says English is fun and American holidays are the best like a giant pumpkin penis. For those of you wondering how I fixed this problem, I basically ran away from it. "And we also carve pumpkins (motioning) like these...(click) And on Thanksgiving we get together with our families." Giant fail. Because I showed a group of 12 year olds a giant penis on my first day. I checked all the slides before giving the presentation in other classes, I learned my lesson the hard way. (cue laughter)
Apart from this glitch, my first week was fantastic. The students are so smart. I tried to trick them with my questions because every class was getting the answers right, even the 5th grade class, but the students remembered every detail. There was one boy, in 5th grade, cute as a freaking button, wearing a sweater vest and button up shirt, that came with a whole list of questions for me. (The teachers all told the students to come with a few questions for me) He went down the list and asked me every question: "Do you like ice cream?", "Do you like Galicia?", etc. He wrote down my answer for every question. My heart absolutely melted when I saw what he was doing.
Upstairs in the secondary building (seventh-tenth grade)
Outside the secondary building, to the left is the main building and up the stairs across from it is the elementary and preschool building
To the right of the building is a free area, for P.E. and recess
Today was the orientation session for all the auxiliares in Galicia. There are about 400 people working in positions like mine all over the state of Galicia, though they are not all with my program. There were people for English, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Chinese. And the session was so long and boring. They told us how to find a flat, I've found two, how to apply for a NIE, I'm just waiting for my hard copy, and finally how to open a bank account, this was what I wanted to learn. It was the last part. I believe that most of the people there were in the same boat as me. It sounded like most people had flats and many are from Europe so they don't need a NIE. The govenor of Galicia came, which was quite the to-do, he spoke for a few minutes and then left. Isabel informed me that elections are in two weeks in Galicia, so it was only appropriate that he would show face at the orientation that is directed at improving the future of Spain.
On that note, I will let you know how the Spanish feel about Romney's comment. He made headlines here with this quote appearing in most papers and on the broadcasts:
“España gasta el 42% de sus impuestos en el Gobierno. Nosotros gastamos
también el 42%”, ha dicho el exgobernador de Massachusetts. “No quiero
seguir el camino de España”.
The teachers at CPI informed me that Spain also does not want to be like Spain. They would also like their nation to have money and leave the crisis, just as we would. I choked when I heard Romney say this (from laughing), I was not sure how it would be received by my new Spanish friends, but alas they are too smart to pay attention to Romney and just say "No shit Sherlock, who would want to be this broke?"
Finally, this week Angel and I found the new best park in Santiago.
I did this maze, without getting lost
Another beautiful sunset in Santiago
Santiago, a mini-Granada look alike. And now I want to be in Andalucía again...
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