El tiempo es el que es

Entry 5, Sun 27 Nov

Well, unfortunately it seems all good things must come to an end, and the end of my time here in Moncada is fast approaching :(

On Saturday however, we were all invited to spend a few hours at the 'Valencia Club Cocina', where we had the opportunity to cook some fantastic recipes and get to know a few typical Spanish dishes, such as: Andalusia Gazpacho, Paella Valenciana and Coca en Llanda. Whilst the food tasted great, and I had a lot fun preparing the dishes with the others, the best part of the day was seeing everyone again and finding out about their teaching experiences after several weeks apart. In many ways, it felt like a final farewell dinner, and one in which we all recognised the hard work that both UKLC and the staff at Scola had put into organising everything for us.

It's also definitely worth mentioning my observed lesson on Friday with 6° Primaria, which actually went really well. I chose to revise the past simple with them, as they've only recently started getting to grips with it and I felt they needed more practice. My 45-minute lesson was made up of two main parts: a relatively easy listening comprehension activity and then a more difficult writing exercise in the context of summer holidays. The students were remarkably well-behaved during the observation, (perhaps Carolyn's permanently serious expression helped me out there haha) and they were duly rewarded at the end of the lesson with sweets all-round.

In order to give them an example so as to form a basis for their essays, I decided to tell them about my summer holiday using a PowerPoint presentation and then got students to answer my questions using the past simple. They really respond well to visual stimuli like holiday photos and it got them really engaged which was awesome. I hope they enjoyed learning during that lesson as much as I did teaching as, sadly - with my time being their teacher finally coming to a close - there won't be many occasions like it in the near future. But hey, time is what it is.

Hasta la próxima vez,

Giacomo