3 weeks in.

Like a lot of things in life this seems to have gone by rather quickly. I get the feeling that I will have really started to feel comfortable when we head back to the UK.

I've mostly learned my way around the school. I've been teaching more lessons (though I was sick a couple of days in week 2). Some of the lessons have gone better than others, this has been to a variety of reasons, the first is that teaching larger classes of teenagers means that how well they respond is quite a lot down to their mood and the time of day (later lessons can feel flatter). The other big factor is planning, some lesson I've done a better job of planning than others, some I have had little to no say in what has been planned, being handed the teacher's guide at the beginning of the class does not make for particularly fluid or interesting lessons but I suppose it has been a useful experience of "can I teach with zero prep?" apparently yes but it's not ideal.

In terms of what I've actually been covering, I've taught vocabulary and pronunciation, grammar (more enjoyable than maybe it sounds, particularly if I've had time to plan it, I think something you come to appreciate with grammar is that having a lesson where answers are clearly right or wrong is actually something of a relief). I've also taught lessons on manners in the UK, crime and law, and next week will be doing a reading lesson on social class.

Two things that have resulted in a bit of fragmented time table are having 17 different classes to teach (though, that has also meant repetition in teaching the same lesson to different classes of the same age group) and the fact that school has been in the midst of end of term exams (there's not a lot to gained from watching 25 students complete a reading and writing exam). I am looking forward to having a proper teaching job and having more control over what I get to teach and how, for the most part the teachers I am working with have been very open to me changing the work book tasks or coming up with my own, however, the number of different classes has limited that a little as I don't get to do very many follow on classes (I see most of my classes once a week so by the next week they're two or three lessons on from when I last saw them).

I'll be sad to leave Valencia, it's definitely somewhere I want to return to, maybe with some more free time so I can explore the area (and the surrounding wilderness) a bit more.