“Shhh!”
“Silence!”
”Sit down!”
“Only English”
“My name is Miss Mikey.”
“My favorite color is Blue.”
These are the phrases I say over and over every day and I love it!!!
The first day of School for me started on Friday. I wake up super early get dressed in a comfortable outfit and walk 15 mins down hill to my school in Motril. I’m super excited yet so nervous my stomach could barely hold my breakfast. I get to the school super early, which is unusual for Spaniards, so unusual they didn’t know what to do with me until the Bilingual coordinator got there. Well she got there late so they told me I could wait in the teachers lounge for two hours or just come back. I decided the latter and went out for some good’ole Spanish pastries and some hot chocolate. Once I got back I was given a tour of the school and was introduced to some classes. The kid’s eyes were so big and they all wanted to tell me their names. After meeting the teachers I would be working with and seeing some of the kids I knew that this year in Spain is going to be great!
Sat morning my roommates and I got on a bus to Algeciras to meet Tads Uncle and pick up the car his Uncle is letting us borrow the eight months we will be here. Yeah I know, I’m really lucky…. road trips here we come! Not to mention we can make one big trip to Al Campo instead of small trips in the matter of days. His Uncle was a great host, we ate great food and we had a free place to sleep. I practiced my Spanish in small amounts with is Aunt and played with his little cousin who was only 5. Overall my favorite thing about the trip was the drive home. Put my IPod in my ears and stared out the window. The view the whole way was gorgeous, filled with mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Here are the Pictures.
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| The rock of Gibraltar. We could see it from the beach in Algeciras. Can you see the smog? |
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| Roommate Emily |
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| Roommate Tad. Looking good there Tad! |
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| From the road |
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| Mediterranean...do you see it? |
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| Me and Daniel (Tad's cousin) isn't he adorable? His English is great as well! |
After the weekend I was tired yet ready to get back to the school and start officially working with the students. Instead of a bell ringing to start off the day for the students, they play American music instead to get the kids pumped up to learn. It's great! One other American works with me at the school, Mitch from Philadelphia. Our Bilingual coordinator asked us what levels we would like to work with. Immediately Mitch said he would like to work with the older children, which was perfect because I really wanted to work with the younger children. Two days have now passed and the first thing that has come to my attention is there is no disciplinary system within the classroom. The children get up from their desks every two seconds and talk to each other while the teacher stands there and does nothing to get them to settle down and listen. It is crazy madness!!!! I constantly have to scream over their voices, especially with the little ones. Today I had asked a teacher to help me get the classroom quite by having the children put one finger over their mouths and to keep in their seats. It didn’t work. There is no such thing as organization in the classroom. Listening and paying attention isn’t that important here. How these kids learn anything is to my surprise. But this is the culture of the Spanish classroom. This is Spain. I’m not in Texas anymore.
It might be the toughest job yet, but I'm loving every minute of it. The kids absolutely love learning about me and about Texas. Quick shout out to Caden Forst for letting me borrow the Texas map he got in his Highlights magazine. The kids love looking at the pictures and it has been a great help when explaining where I am from. Thanks!
