4 weeks on

I am grateful, having now completed the four week placement near Valencia, to have gained the experience of observing the work of a private language school in a suburban town there, even if I didn't find much time to blog while at it! It was very helpful to learn about the Cambridge exams and the sorts of lessons taught and how the students need to prepare. Thankful too for the chances to practice skills learnt on Celta, to begin teaching full lessons and building on feedback on performance from the school's tutors. Confidence was helped by the end, meanwhile, by all the ideas bursting forth while assisting with others on the CPD course - over 10 evening classes - given at a teacher training centre in Valencia, where a comprehensive overview of up-to-date resources and techniques on teaching English for Spanish primary and secondary school teachers was presented by an amazing trainer - with contributions too from all the individual teachers attending. It was wonderful to experience the warmth and friendliness of these teachers and to spend a session during each evening focusing with some of them on their spoken English, as well as hearing from them their feedback on implementing the 'communicative approach' and on the challenges they face teaching English in state schools day to day.

Thanks to the tutors at the private school I was placed in - who were so gracious in allowing me to take their classes at a time of year when they are preoccupied with upcoming exams for the students - also to the very lovely placement group, as well as the coordinators and trainers at UKLC for all the organising, and not least - enormously - to the two teachers who invited me to observe classes at their very lovely state school in Albal.  It was really nice to be so near Valencia - a bit of an unexpected treasure that would love to get to know better with a return trip sometime. It's always sad to leave Spain - not least after 4-weeks of trekking back and forth from classroom to desk - and then just starting to settle in as it's time for the plane back! However... now just need to build on the experience with the lesson plans coming next...