Spanish Inquisition

What's it like teaching in a Spanish primary school? Glad you asked. An American teaching in one explains...

Hmm, so a typical day in a Spanish primary school.....well, right now I haven´t started classes yet. They are just starting today, and I won't actually do anything with the kids until October. I have classes with 4 year-olds up to 6th grade (so 4 -11 yrs.) The 4 year-olds are definitely my ankle biters, especially in my first class as I saw this savage little boy take another kid's arm and prepare to bite it. I swear the only thing he was missing was a salt shaker to put salt on the arm! They don't sit very well either and tend to get up and run around and do whatever the hell they want, so they're a huge challenge to get to listen or participate. We usually do about 15 minutes of songs, games, and flashcard work...up until we can't take it anymore and just give them a worksheet to color so they'll sit down and be quiet. My 5 year-olds I liked a lot better, and they ended up to be a lot of fun, even though they're exhausting. If you don't put a lot of energy into what you're talking about and act like an idiot, they just sit there and talk to each other. But they're still old enough that they want to play the games and participate, and they like to sing any kind of song where they move to it, i.e. head shoulders, knees and toes is a BIG hit. It took me awhile to get over being shy about acting like an idiot, saying corny stuff, way overdone facial expressions because I work with another teacher in that class. But after a while I thought, 'screw it.' Otherwise the kids don't pay attention at all. Although my favorite is when out during recess they come up to me and try to say ANYthing they can think of in English. So I get a lot of weird broken English sentences that make absolutely no sense, but I love it because they're trying. And every once and a while I'll understand something like, it's sunny.

For my older classes, I co-teach with another English teacher the 1st and 2nd graders, which is nice because if I didn't really have a good game, or story, or song planned...well, then I just help her out with her usual book lesson. Then for my 3rd up to 6th graders I take half of the class for half the hour and then go back and take the second half for the remainder of the lesson time and I do games or activities to get them talking and listening, since what Spaniards really lack in their English skills is the talking and listening. It's really not a tough job. I usually start at 10:00 and am done by 2:00, Monday through Thursday and have about two different grade levels in a day. Although, telling kids to be quiet, or explaining the same simple task over and over again to each group can get tiring. I try not to ever speak to them in Spanish, so most of the time I feel like I´m playing more charades and pictionary than actually teaching. and discipline absolutely sucks. I forgot how much kids talk, have to go to the bathroom, and pick on each other. Especially 6th grade boys and girls, as it's the only way they know how to flirt. It absolutely drives me insane in the classroom.