Hello, girl. English?

Classes have begun. I have officially been a “teacher” for two days.  Mondays and Thursdays I will be going to the high school IES Jaranda.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays will be spent at CIEP Conquistador primary school.  Divina, my tutora, picked me up from Navalmoral and drove me to Jarandilla for the first time Monday morning.  The drive is so pretty as Jarandilla is a the base of the Sierra de Gredos mountains.  I will have the pleasure of watching the sunrise each day during the 20 minute commute from Navalmoral.  I don’t know if this is really a good thing—waking up early isn’t my cup of tea! But, it is so pretty and I am happy to see it.  We pass lots of tobacco fields and pine trees on the drive to Jarandilla as well. Pictures will come soon…

Day 1: high school.  I arrived to school to find my tutor, Antonio, was still in class for 20 minutes.  They took me to the teacher’s lounge to wait for him and told me I could get on the internet while I waited. YES! You don’t realize how much you take internet for granted until you don’t have convenient access to it.  Teachers kept coming in the lounge, and I didn’t know what to do!  I just sat there until Antonio arrived.  Antonio finally arrived after what seemed like an eternity and introduced me to a few people; we went on a tour of the school.  IES Jaranda is a nice sized school consisting of several buildings: 2 main buildings each with 2 floors, 1 gym, and the technical classrooms where cooking and nature type classes are taught.  I will talk to the nature classes twice a month to teach them vocabulary about nature, animals, trees, etc. as many of these young men are studying to be nature guides in the nearby national park.

Antonio and I were waiting outside the nature classrooms to talk with Juan Antonio, one of the teachers who will give me a ride to school.  Juan Antonio teaches boys aged 18-19 years old who are studying to be nature guides at a nearby national park. Suddenly, all I hear is “hello girl, hello. English?” as all the boys have come to the door.  Antonio simply said “Americana” and they all went crazy.  However, none of them wanted to practice their English, just to stare and say “hello!” Well, I guess it will be nice to talk to them during the year, it could be interesting. Maybe they won’t be scared to talk to me after a few class periods.  Seriously, I think everyone is scared of me because they are fearful they will have to say something to me IN English!

Antonio and I tried finalizing my schedule of classes and rides from Navalmoral to Jarandilla each day.  After we finished, I attended one of his classes.  The students were well behaved as this was a class studying to enter university.  We played a game where I asked them questions like: “If you were an alcoholic drink, what would you be?” and “If you were a celebrity, who would you be?”  Yes, I was asking these “high schoolers” what alcoholic beverage would they be because the drinking age in Spain is 16/non existant.  After asking the 15 questions, we collected the papers; I picked answers at random for the students to guess which classmate had said what.  It was hard for them to understand my “accent” because they have learned British English and all their teachers speak in British accents. Living with Maria, I know how different verbs and words can sound. They all had strange looks upon their faces when I would say words like “building” or “cartoon character”!  I think they are happy for me to be in the class though, as it is a fun time to learn English from a native Speaker vs. a Spanish/English teacher.

Day 2. Today I woke up at 6:30am in order to meet my ride, Eva, who would take me to Jarandilla for day 2 of classes.  Eva works at the high school, which is just as you enter Jarandilla on the hill to the left—the rest of the town is to the right, up on another hill.  Because the high school and primary schools have different schedules, I was 40 minutes early for school; I’m either going to be hanging around late or arriving early since this is the only way to work out the commute.  Oh well.   Eva took me to the high school – but today is Tuesday – so I needed to get to the primary school.  I decided to take off on foot – never having set foot inside the town.  Well, I overheard teachers talking yesterday about a bridge that could take me to the primary school… yeah, well I didn’t know where this was this morning.   It just so happened that I spotted this student walking up a dirt path as I was walking down the hill from the high school – I decided to take it.  I found the bridge…down a long dirt path, then up another hill, and into the town.  I was told “the primary school is next to the castle” so I just started walking in the direction of the castle (called a “parador” because it is government owned and now a hotel) well, about 25 minutes later I found it.  Seriously, in a town of 3100 people max, I don’t understand how it could take me so long to find this huge parador that is in the center of town. I blame it on the hills and my lack of physical activity these last few months!  I stopped to ask two different people “where is the primary school of Jarandilla” and they just said straight up the street… Had it not been so early, I might have seen the statue of a mother and child and realized it was a school.  Anyway, I won’t get lost tomorrow, it is impossible to be lost in Jarandilla!

I walked into the school, not knowing where to go.  The first lady I saw greeted me and said “Hi, are you the American girl Whitney?” It was so nice that she knew who I was! Everyone knew who I was and was expecting my arrival today! It was such a warm welcome. I went to the principal’s office and teachers just kept coming to meet me.  They all said they wanted to learn English and how excited they were to have me this school year.  Divina met me and took me to my first class of the day; 5^th graders more or less with teacher Javier.  The students are 9, 10, and 11 years old.  Javier is so nice, and I have 4 classes with him in total. We went around the room saying “Hello, my name is ____. I am ____ years old. I like ____.” (most students said they like playing soccer or rollerblading, some even said English.)  Some spoke good English, for others it was difficult.  There seems to be a lack of discipline and respect in the classroom.  When a student would answer wrong, all the other pupils would laugh and say phrases that I assume were slightly hurtful – I couldn’t make sense out of the mix of whispers and shouting.  However, the student just kept going until they got it right and it didn’t seem to bother them! I guess that’s good. 

The little boys were scared to look at me when introducing themselves!  One little boy even refused to look at me he was so embarrassed!  In one of the classes, there is a little boy who lived in Ireland for 2 years.  His English is very good, as he was reading an R.L. Stine Goosebumps novel as he carried on a conversation with me! Our conversation? “Are you from New York?” “No…” “Puessssss, well have you seen the White House?” “No!” I guess he judged me then and there.  Europeans don’t realize the size of the United States… it’s practically 50 countries put into one.  

Tuesday afternoons will be spent with Divina and students aged 4, 5, and 6 in their first English class ever!  They are currently doing a program situated around “bug world” with characters of “ant, caterpillar, snail, butterfly, bee, ladybug” and I think it will be very rewarding being with these little kids to see how quickly they can learn English!

With two days down, I really think I am going to like my teaching experience in both schools, as each have something fun and new to offer!  I think I will be able to give private lessons in Jarandilla on Monday and Wednesday after school, as Javier comes to Navalmoral on those evenings and is able to bring me back home on his way to the language school in Navalmoral.  Tomorrow, it is back to the primary school for day 3. I couldn’t be more excited!

Day 3 went well! I only had two classes but they were good classes! The kids all greeted me with “hello!” as they walked into the school building in the early morning. I had a 6^th grade class to start the day.  One of the girls even wrote down “Jefferson City” in her notebook to do research at home! Haha Several of the little boys were very talkative and kept asking if I could speak Spanish – because they would make a joke, I would understand part of it, I would laugh and then they would say “ella habla Espanol!!!!!” but, yeah. Anyway, next week when I am their teacher, we will only speak in English. I also had a class of kindergarteners and they are busy bodies! They kept showing me their work, and asking me “how do you say ___ in English” – when I would tell them “dog” or “cat” they got the biggest smiles on their faces!

I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks and starting real classes! This weekend is “Puente” or bridge, where it is a long weekend. Since I don’t work on Fridays, my Puente has already begun! I will be heading to SALAMANCA until Tuesday! I couldn’t be more excited to be “going home”.