Land of Oranges and ESL

For whatever reason I was both anxious and excited about our first week in Valencia. However, from the onset it was a fabulous trip. I bumped into Jonathan before boarding the train in London and we met Mark at the airport in Manchester. It was also enjoyable travelling with the UKLC group. It just reminded me of an episode of Are You Being Served, particularly when the security people refused to let go of Angela's shoes.

The UKLC hosts (Alicia, Mampa and Amy) in Valencia have also been fantastic. They accompanied all of us to our residences with a bag of food to keep us going on our first day.

I had an early start on Monday and had to wake up before 6 am to make it to the school on time. Alicia was waiting for me in front of the school at 7:55 am and accompanied me inside and introduced me to my host teacher Blanca. Blanca has really been nice and helpful throughout. She has given me a free hand for preparing my classes, and has just indicated to me the lessons she has covered and those which she wishes to cover in the coming days.

The ancient Greeks believed that all cannot be good, or otherwise the gods would strike us with a thunderbolt. Therefore, I had to get ill and lose my voice right after my first day of teaching. Again the UKLC team and their Spanish counterparts were fantastic. Amy and Mampa took me to a Clinic where a doctor saw me within 20 minutes. I am now on medication and was told that my voice should return within 4 days. 

It's a pity as I really enjoyed the school, watching and teaching the children (even the noisy Segundo) and interacting with the teachers in my bastardised Spanish which they all detect to be Italian after the second word!

I can't wait to take the stage and be in front of the students. I just need to find an entertaining song in order to strike a deal with the students and reward them when they behave (particularly the Segundo).

One

Welcome to Valencia

We have now been in Valencia for 4 days. My week so far summarises as a long list of little adventures. The euphoric feeling of quitting my bar job in Cardiff to become a teacher, the mental battle I have everyday about weather or not it's acceptable for me to wear shorts yet (Shorts worn so far: 0), and the pure bliss of walking round a place that you have never been to before, where zebra crossings and cafe menus become little tasks for you to work out, hopefully without ****ing it up.

I have been abroad before, but there is something both sweet and bitter sweet about this particular trip. The fact that it is so fantastic is uplifting, I am in a place where I can live like I am on holiday, early morning walks to the beach and sauntering around parks with my camera, but it doesn't feel like my life has paused so I can do and enjoy these things; the life that I want to live is just starting.

As uplifting as this is, I find myself falling back down again when I remember that it will be short-lived. I've met some great people here, and part of me could see myself continuing the experience outside of UKLC, so it's a shame to know that in 4 weeks it's back to 'sunny' (it's not sunny) Cardiff to sort my life out. Yet this time limit can be inspirational; when you have a time-limit to events in your life you want to live every minute like it's the last one, although I do prefer the term coined in 'Dodgeball' (Nope, it's not "if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball"), it's "grab life by the balls." And that's just what I'm gonna do...


Catchya later,

Alice x

memories as I get on with my job search

What an all-round interesting time I had in Gandía, despite the cold and carrying heavy books around and sometimes feeling that I was trying to rediscover the wheel with my learning plans. Daunting at first, but you do settle in to a place and get to know the students, especially in the smaller classes. On the whole it was such a valuable experience, being able to take part in lessons across a broad range of learning levels, getting to know what it feels like to be in a classroom full of students, along with the necessities of classroom management (possibly the most demanding skill). When a lesson plan works teaching becomes such fun and when I can develop a good rapport with a class it's so rewarding. The work experience in Gandía has broadened my understanding of what it takes to teach and I'm encouraged to find work where I can carry on learning. So here I am back in London, registered with Protocol and geared up for a job search that includes online teaching, possibly some voluntary work and hopefully an ESOL placement in further education. And maybe later, back to Spain.
Very many thanks to UKLC for organising this Erasmus+ project.

Y Viva Espana!
I just can´t believe I´m here in fabulous Moncada on a beautiful sunny morning preparing to start teaching CEFIRE to native teachers looking to improve their English and teaching methods. Living in such a beautiful apartment with access to a swimming pool is bliss though the water is quite cold! Schola school is just the best ever! All the staff are so, warm, friendly, supportive and encouraging which makes the whole experience, a marriage made in Heaven. Thank you UKLC! The journey here from the UK also provided a three hour sightseeing tour of Valenciana as we safely delivered the Erasmusers to their accommodation which was a good way of getting your bearings unless like me you get lost easily!! Then yesterday we had our first briefing session with the wonderful Oana ahead of our first CEFIRE session today in which we will have a series of ten minute 1:1 sessions with the teachers on the course as part of a ten session project. We also met course director Paco who was also lovely and explained his hopes for the CEFIRE initiative and his expectations of all of us. Then last evening I did a bit of team teaching with small groups of B1 and B2 level teens who are working on a climate change project. This was great fun developing their vocabulary and sentence construction with much warmth and humour in the process! You know me! The last session was 90 minutes with only one student but what a treat. He was great fun and again I was able to develop his vocabulary, language use, syntax and pronunciation in discussing our experiences of education. I even shared the time when I was at school and threw a blackboard rubber back at the teacher who threw it at me because he thought I wasn´t paying attention LOL!! We all had a good laugh about this and my student also told some great tales from his own classroom experiences in what was a lovely lesson.
I´m so grateful to Ivona and Veronica for the feeedom they gave me to interact with students in my first lessons from which I´ve drawn loads of confidence! Thank you both!It has been a fabulous first day. Now for CEFIRE! The stakes are raised! Good luck everyone in whatever today holds for you!! Mucho amor! X

Hasta Las Fallas!

As I sit at my computer, with my family dog at my feet, a cup of propa' English tea at my side and the central heating on full blast I finally have time to  reflect on the past month.

I know one thing; I haven't written nearly as many  blogs as I should have but time, like everything in life, slips away.

As I look back I am filled with a warm glow for the memories I hold and the experiences I have gained. Don't get me wrong, there have been many ups and downs. There have been times when I felt frustrated; like during the useless 'game theory' training afternoon where really, we could have spent the time more productively actually learning how to play games rather than the partial theory behind them. Or was that zero? Full? I'm confused?

There have been times where I have felt lonely. Eating lunch in a canteen where no one is willing to speak to you, even with your best Spanish efforts, can be a little isolating. Or, living so far from everyone else on the Erasmus that you only see them once a week or running out of the door to their school as you get in.

And, there have been times where I felt cold, very, very cold in my dark and horribly utilitarian flat.

But, there is a big 'but', the incredible people I have met on this journey totally outweigh any bad feelings I may have felt.  The teachers, the kids, and the nuns at my school exude positive and loving energy that is so infectious that I left every day feeling more and more assured that this is the path I am destined to follow as a career.  Endless hugs, kisses and "Eeeeehello" is something I will miss as I journey onto my next adventure. My tutor Maria and the Prim Sports teacher Gloria totally took me under their wings and made my whole experience exceptional- not only teaching me a lot about EFL teaching, but also introducing me to Spanish BBQs, cheap beer and some great locals that I now consider friends.

As, I round up this blog for the last time I cannot avoid mentioning the thing that has made this whole experience, as my tutor would say, INCREDIBLE - The others on this January Erasmus. An amazing group  of individuals who bring unrelenting laughter, loving support and positive energy  (even in their darkest hours) to every meet up and night out. It has been amazing to watch the blossoming of friendships in such different individuals and, be part of it myself. I feel truly blessed to now call them my friends and thank UKCL for bringing us together.

This is not good bye from me but rather Hasta Las Fallas Amigos!

xxx

First impressions

So cold, so very, very cold. We've had to eat the last of the huskies. Sorry, wrong blog!!!

We're just over 24 hours into our Spanish adventure and I'm really enjoying it so far. As I write this it's 17 degrees and the sun is out. It's certainly better than the UK (I've checked!) Moncada seems to be a very pleasant place to live, though I haven't yet explored it fully. There will be plenty of time for that as I have been fortunate with the timetable given to me. The apartment is of a good size, clean, and well-furnished. Yesterday night's meal was tapas...hopefully the first of many, and today, a bocadillo de tortilla de patatas that would have satisfied the mightiest of appetites.

We have been introduced to more lovely people: Alicia and Mampa at Spanish2enjoy; Oana and Laura at Schola; and Paco at CEFIRE. Also, a big thank you to Michael who ensured that we all got on the plane at Manchester Airport! Tomorrow night is the first CEFIRE session where we'll be helping Spanish teachers improve their English language skills and teaching skills. The first part is fine, let's see how the second part pans out. I'm hoping to visit my school (San José) tomorrow so I can meet the tutor and observe a few lessons.

I've even been able to speak a little bit of Spanish (emphasis on 'little bit'). Todo está bien 👍

Downs and ups

Yesterday was hard going. My 1st Gestion class couldn't (or refused to) respond to "What are you wearing?" and generally gave the impression that they knew no English at all. My 4 ESO were uncooperative and sullen. My 2 ESO were just noisy and wouldn't try to speak English   (though they were better on a reading task).

What a difference from today! By the end of today's teaching I felt that this must be one of the best jobs in the world! My 1 Gestion class (the same one as yesterday) picked up on the ideas from "What was the last thing you read?" (taken from our course in Chester) and even managed the pronunciation of "read" distinguishing "to read a book" from "I have read a book". For my 1 ESO class I was asked not to do the lesson I had prepared but to get the students ready for a visit by an Australian Olympic athlete who is coming to the school next week. I elicited lots of different Olympic sports while I was frantically trying to think what to do next, and the whole class went well.

In my free period I had really interesting chats with three teachers (a PE teacher, an infants teacher and another whose subject I can't remember (science, I think) but I now know that she has been at the same school for 29 years and loves her job).

One of my 4 ESO classes (not the same one as yesterday) got really engaged with the topic of good and bad manners and came up with lots of ideas. I have done this subject with other classes and it always seems to work. And my last class of the day was my observed lesson, with another 4 ESO class. Alex, their regular teacher, had told them that I was having an "important examination" and the students were astonishingly well behaved. They answered questions and even spoke to each other in pairs in English. At the end several of them came up to wish me good luck. By 2pm I felt I had had a worthwhile day.

So to celebrate and having the afternoon free, after an unusually good lunch at school, I got the bus to the beach and had a walk there. Now that the weather is getting milder even Gandia is growing on me!