One week in

A week into the stay in Moncada now and settling in. Michael from UKLC joined us at 4.30 am in Manky as we went for our flight and Amy and the team here have all been really helpful and well-coordinated too since our arrival. Enjoying the orange trees everywhere and elegant doorways of the houses as dash around this suburb of Valencia. It has been very interesting to take part in the CEFIRE project to support English teachers in schools across the region, and a privilege to meet the many teachers involved, learning about the challenges of their environment in the local primary and secondary schools and the requirements of their own professional training. Meanwhile, have also been mainly observing my classes at Schola for this first week, where all the tutors have been delightful and very welcoming, with the amazing Oana at the lead for those of us assisting with CEFIRE too. After settling into the apartment, am now focusing on lesson planning for Schola and on getting to know speaking exam assessment criteria for the students' upcoming exams later in March. Yesterday it was two lively classes with the B1s and B2s both grappling with conditionals, and being impressed by how much the students are obviously very motivated and eager to practice their English more...