Hi everyone from warm and sunny Moncada! "I can see clearly now the rain has gone!"
Wow what a fantastic first week! Schola is just the best school ever and the teachers without exception, warm, friendly and so supportive! The week began with some team teaching with Veronica and Ivona´s B1 & B2 classes which was great fun with students eager to learn and to please. Veronica´s class were working on a project about the environment so my role was to help improve vocabulary and lexis. Ivona only had one student but we had some fantastic discussions about education and what we both liked and disliked about being at school! Thrown board rubbers and detentions featured greatly in our discussion!
The CEFIRE project which offers training to Spanish teachers of English and other subjects in Valencia on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays takes up most of the first fortnight of my placement with Marc, Jonathan, Hazel, Laura and Alice. Oana is a fantastic teacher and mentor to us all and her briefing sessions leave us confident to execute the 1:1, 2:1 and 5:1 discussions with teachers in each session. It is both a privilege and great fun learning of their classroom experiences and also some of their fantastic ideas for lesson activities and behaviour management. CEFIRE really is a win-win situation and so wonderful to be part of this. I have even taken a dip into my landlady´s swimming pool! I have to concede this was a little chilly but soon got used to it for around 20 lengths despite the sub 50 degree temperature of the water!
My first week ended with my assessed speaking lesson on celebrations. I was initally a little disappointed with how I felt this had gone because I´m one of those darned perfectionists LOL!! On reflection however, whilst conceding the obvious room for improvement, I think I acquitted myself well with my A2 class, graded my language better as the lesson progressed and engaged all three students in discussion throughout, about the various images displayed during the lesson. One of them evening correctly identified the Gloucester cheese rolling festival! I then encouraged them to tell me about the Fire Festival next month and the great tomato fight that is 'La Tomatina'!! I soooo want to go to this festival! Sometimes even my own creativity just isn´t enough (I have made some mock tomatoes out of stuffed fabric to use in some classes)!! This has worked a treat as an end of lesson wind-down!! My lessons end in mayhem... sometimes!! The A2 students asked loads of questions too so that can´t be a bad thing and suggests they were engaged throughout so all in all a good start.
Saturday morning brought two observed B1/B2 Intensive classes with the delightful Araceli who is busy preparing them for their Cambridge speaking exams. Once again I helped with vocabulary and meaning with a much larger group of students despite being a few minutes late having just missed an earlier metro train from Masies! I have repented of my sins and said more hail Mary´s than a parson can preach about and think I´ve been forgiven LOL! The rest of the weekend was mixed. Saturday afternoon I went food shopping and spent some time with Hazel and Jemima before employing my culinary skills to prepare a spicy chicken, pork and chorizo stew with aubergine, red pepper, courgette, onion and tomatoes. Even though I say so myself it was very YUM!!! A San Miguel and a gin or two was the icing on the cake!!
Sunday was a different story however due to my own inept geography and map-reading skills!! I got up early, intending to join the 11am Eucharist at the Anglican Church in Valencia but having successfully negotiated the Metro and a number 89 bus to where I thought I should be, I then spent a further two and a half hours looking for the church which I was unable to find. In the end I conceded defeat (doesn't happen often LOL!) and got the metro back to Masies. If ever I´m stood in front of you teaching any geography you have my full permission to walk out LOL!!! This Sunday IT WILL BE DIFFERENT I HOPE!!!
As I entered the second week of a placement which is flying by too fast for my liking, I was determined to improve on my first taught lesson. However, Monday began with a pre-lunch CEFIRE briefing session with Oana followed by a break before teaching conditionals, imperatives and future time clauses to B1 and B2 classes in the evening. These went much more smoothly and I felt more confident in my delivery of both lessons. I even used the ice cream purchased that afternoon as realia to demonstrate the imperative "if the ice cream get´s warm, it melts"! Two great groups, fabulous interaction, Simon says, conversation using these granmmar points and an election campaign to boot - "If I´m elected, I will... (which elicited "I will recover Gibraltar for Spain" and "I will give a beer to everyone in Spain"!!)! Great fun! Confidence restored and loved it!
Today is a more gentle day so took my landlady´s gorgeous dog Thor for a walk this morning before a light lunch at the apartment and preparation for tonight´s CEFIRE session. As I finish typing this blog, the temperature is a balmy 17 degrees and I'm the happiest bunny in the whole wide world!! Who wouldn´t be on a day like this?! Thank you UKLC!
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