I started writing
this entry on the eve of departure to Spain and haven’t got round to posting
until now. I had been fortunate to have the opportunity to teach a three hour
class to an Italian residential group in Denbigh and plan alongside Richard and
Kiri from UKLC. Alex also arrived to teach on Friday, and Richard then went through a
series of kindergarten activities with Alex and I on Friday afternoon. With
Michael having also given us input on the last day before departure, by
the time of the flight I had reached the point of saturation for any more ideas without
getting to put lesson ideas into practice.
Upon arrival
at Alicante airport, Libertad from Top School met us at the airport and while
the other four went in a taxi to our apartment, I got a lift with Libertad
which gave me a chance to get used to using my very rusty Spanish again, though
trying to understand Spanish from crying three year olds in a kindergarten
class compared with Libertad’s clear delivery isn't always so straightforward!
Libertad herself is really approachable and was able to go through conversation
topics from talking about Elche as a town, vital info like where we would catch
the bus to San Alberto Magno, her love of her time spent as a student in
Sheffield, and my future plans for working in Japan. When she dropped me off
outside the apartment, Ben, Aaron, Sophie and Jess were waiting as I had
the only key. We said goodbye to Libertad before getting stuck with trying to turn
the key in the door to the apartment and wishing Libertad was still there.
Fortunately it turned out to be my own ineptitude and Jess easily outwitted me
in opening a door using a key. Once we were inside and saw the
really spacious apartment, with each room having an en suite and my room having
a balcony, we were pleased to say the least. The mood was only heightened
further by the beautiful spring sunshine streaming in through every window. We
wasted little time in getting out to La Glorieta and the Flashpoint bar which
would become the default meeting place in the first week, quite possibly due to
the €1.50 caña y tapa and the fact that men playing with the
wrong shaped balls would often be shown on the TV screens. It was fair to say
that outside in the warm sunshine at that moment, we were happy with our lot.
But what about the teaching? That note of nervousness on which I left
the last blog was born of the terrifying prospect of trying to teach TEFL to
3-5 year olds. Well the classroom management with 5 year olds is not easy,
especially when there are 18 of them in 5B and it’s the afternoon and they have
been in school since 9am. Two hours of English anyone? They are very sweet
though and love It’s time to say goodbye as
a song (acknowledgements to Richard Gunion and probably many teachers before
him!). The first week though has often seen me introducing individual new
activities and songs into Isabel’s classes rather than taking the lead in
teaching whole classes. On Monday I took the lead in preparing the year 5
afternoon class. They loved the competitive aspect of some of the activities I
introduced, but concentration span is a difficult issue at that time in the
afternoon, and ideas modelled on native speakers in a UK classroom don’t always
survive their first skirmish with a 5 year old’s concentration span (at least when I’m
teaching them). This is what the real teaching experience is for, however, and
I’m really looking forward to getting more classes under my belt and coming out
a better teacher. On a final note, if you teach kindergarten, expect stuff to occur that
no EFL training ever prepared you for. Assisting in one music lesson
(San Alberto Magno is a completely bilingual school and other subjects are
often taught in English) the music teacher introduced a song about elephants,
only for 3 year old Marcos to be afraid of the elephant flashcards and run to me to hide.
He could only be persuaded slowly back to his chair, and would only listen
tentatively without letting go of my hand. Perhaps CELTA needs to include a
session on classroom management for young learners afraid of elephants, or this
can be my recommendation to UKLC in the training for next year’s Leonardo
project!
This weekend will feature a bit of an adventure as I participate in
the Elche half marathon on Sunday. I’ll write a bit more about the development
of my own lessons as well as other weekend adventures in forthcoming blogs.
Cheers for now
Hywel
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