Well it's all been a bit of a whirlwind! We left Newland Park at 3:45am and had a big surprise when we saw it was snowing outside! The snow only managed to delay our flight by an hour. We had to wait for our plane to be 'de-iced' as they say.
Once we landed in Valencia, we were greeted by Alica and went on board a coach. Some of the group dropped of their luggage in their apartments. We were then taken to SCHOLA and were given a presentation and lovely Spanish spread laid out for us. After this me, Diana, Jody and Rhiannon were taken to our flat in Valencia. We then discovered we would be sharing twin bedrooms and one bathroom. Four women and one bathroom. Mission impossible you might say. But we are finding ways around it. A military operation in progress. The bedroom sharing also involves quite a bit of tip-toeing about night time when getting into bed. We have been bonding over this all and get on very well though of which I'm very pleased about. We've shared in lots of laughter and a tad bit a of moaning on the side. But hey ho, it's still a bonding process.
On the first evening, we decided to pop out in Valencia to find our schools. When leaving our building we could not open the door to get outside. We were pulling and pushing ferociously, turning this and that. But the door just would not open. Rhiannon (the only one who speaks fluent Spanish out of all of us) had to knock on a neighbours door and ask how we get out! The neighbour kindly showed us the buzzer to get out and was excited to speak a bit of English. We relaxed a lot more when we saw our beautiful surroundings. The park was truly delightful. The sun, the warm breeze, being able to finally stretch our leg. Bliss. We had an early night that evening!
Ok now for the most important part. My school! So, me and Jody arrived at our school and were greeted by our lovely tutor Maria. We had a quick tour around and were straight into our first classroom. Luckily these first few days involve observing, getting-to-know my teachers and students and getting familiar with the HUGE school building which literally covers kindergarten to college. It has been vey interesting seeing the teachers' style of teaching and how they teach English here in Spain. I can see a lot of focus on grammar and getting through workbooks. I'm looking forward to starting to plan and deliver lessons now, in which I can try out some more practical activities.
So far I have seen many of my 16-17 year olds classes (varying levels) and my 12-13 year old class. The classes are very big with 40 students. I can see this makes setting group work and monitoring everyone very difficult for the teachers, because the lack of space left in the classroom.
The students have been very interested in mine and Jody's arrival and have been very keen to ask us lots of questions. One does feel a bit like a celebrity when the kids spot me outside the school and shout my name out and wave. It also always seems to make them chuckle when they hear the way 'Caroline' is pronounced. The 12-13 year old class were so cute! They all came running up to me, gathering in a huge circle.
I'm very much looking forward to my primary classes tomorrow. First time I meet them. I'm still getting use to all this. Our teachers have been so kind and welcoming and really helped us in settling in. There is still so much to say, but it's 23:30 and I'm absolutely shattered so will update you with more soon.
Night x
No comments:
Post a Comment