Primer dia de escuela

Today we had our first day of school! This morning I woke up at 6:45am and left at 7:20am to catch the 7:45am bus. Lo and behold, the 7:45am bus was "late" -- aka, it never showed up. Thankfully, while waiting for the 661 to El Escorial, I met 3/4 of my fellow auxiliares: Amber, Joyce and Sarah. We took the 8:00am bus and got to school right on time.

Amber is from Miami. Joyce is from LA but grew up in Mexico. Sarah is from Chicago. Ana is from New York. Ana is living in El Escorial, so we didn't meet her at the bus stop. They are all very nice and eager to work at our school. They are also all fluent in Spanish...thankfully we are required to speak English in class so I will not find myself comparing my Spanish skills to theirs everyday!

I had a great first day! For the first part, our bilingual coordinator Lourdes gave us an Auxiliares Tips sheet that she created. Then she had us answer a questionnaire with 6 parts, 6-8 questions each! It took awhile, but they were good questions for the school to know and for us to think about. They ranged from "what is your experience working with kids?" to "What would you do if a teacher never showed up for class?" to "What do you think is the difference between a noisy boisterous child and bad child?" (yes, those words exactly). After we finished, we watched a 15 minute video of an auxiliar interacting with a past classroom, so we could have an idea of what to expect. However, Sarah (the returning auxiliar) just chuckled and told us that we couldn't expect a classroom to be that behaved (despite Lourdes' tips sheet saying that Spanish school children are taught to be "silent and well behaved" compared to American school children LOL). We took a tour of the school. There are 3 separate buildings, with different grades in each one.

Lunch is really "desayuno" = "breakfast". It's at 11:15 and the school provides us small pastries, fruit and juice. Free food? Yes please! However, it's not a lot, so I will still be bringing something small with me to fill me up. It's really nice though that they do give us something. I was a little worried about packing myself lunches as I don't have any containers right now to pack meals and I don't want to buy them since we are moving in a month. I also get paranoid about bringing meat sandwiches without a cold pack.

After lunch/desayuno, I went to a 2nd grade classroom. Valorie is the teacher. I requested to be with the older children, however the 6th grade teacher I would be with was on break for the first period. I wanted to be with the older children because I am interested in teaching middle school or high school aged kids, and even though they are in primary school in Spain, the age and grade is still equivalent to 6th grade middle school in the USA. Also, the older kids have a much better (amazing actually) grasp of the English language than the little kids.

This was very evident as the 2nd graders spoke virtually no English. They were able to ask me very basic questions like "What is your name?" and "What is your favorite color?". I could ask them in return and get one worded answers, but they are still learning. For example, Valorie wanted the kids to say "Her name is Kim", but they had problems forming that complete sentence. They could answer "Kim" when asked what my name was, but not the full composition. "Her" and "He" is only one word in Spanish: "Su". So it's very confusing for the children. While the second graders are really cute, and I felt very needed in that classroom (they are a very talkative and loud bunch and I think the teacher appreciated having a second hand in the classroom to make sure everyone was staying on task and doing the work properly), I am so, so happy that I am going to be with sixth grade!

Once I made it to the right classroom, I ended up talking to the 6th grade teacher, Ana, half of the time. She had visited the USA for 2 months previously, seeing many states including Oregon! Her English is very, very good. It has helped me to feel more comfortable in the classroom and secure in my role.

Ana also told me about the Spanish school system, but I'll include that in a different post.

Ana's class was coloring the parts of the river on a puzzle grid. They were well behaved in her classroom and getting their work done. When two boys started horsing around, Ana said with a sense of humor, "Really? This isn't a circus! Sit down" and the kids smiled and sat back down. She really seems to have good control of her classroom and a nice classroom environment. Towards the end, as the 6th graders finished up, they started coming up to me and talking to me. One girl named Saray had just been to Miami and then randomly started talking to me about dogs. Another girl complimented me on my outfit, saying "Can I ask you a question? Why are you so cute? Like, your outfit is so cute!". Then another girl proceeded to bring up the topic of fútbol (soccer) and how guys think girls are just fragile and that they can't play and that they are mean (all the while, a fellow boy participating in the conversation but totally obvious to the shade being thrown). I was so amazed we were having a girl power conversation within 10 minutes. I'm in love, for obvious reasons already with my 6th graders.