Working in a bilingual school has been eye opening and nice. There are a couple of things that caught my eye; calling teachers by their first name, constantly talking even know the person was told to be quiet & having two hours for lunch. I grew up calling my teachers by their last name, found out first name until college, I shut my mouth when was told and only had an hour or less for lunch. I have to constantly tell myself that it’s a different culture and that I just have to go with the flow & enjoy this time in my life.
I teach English and science in English for first to fourth grade and about 45 minutes with kindergarten which is a waste of time because they don’t pay attention at all & it’s right after lunch: I would be daydreaming! First grade is nice but the difficult part is that they are learning Spanish at the same time and they tend to get confused or not bother learning English. Second and third grade have to be my favorites because they do follow orders (some!!) and are eager to learn. I do come across kids who do not want to learn at all because they don’t have an interest or no support at home from parents to learn. The kids that loose interest due to lack of support tend to be children of immigrants who have been born in Spain, in my experience. I can put myself in their shoes because I’m an immigrant who grew up with two cultures & two languages. Yes, I understand that once a family finds a new home they will want to settle and live comfortably but the reality of an immigrant is to emerge and look towards the future. The kids will be trilingual if Spanish is not their first language and imagine the possibilities with those tools in life. Learning how the school system is really interesting as well because everything is based on points.
During orientation we were told that the Spanish teachers who teach Spanish, math and religion would be a little distant from us, the auxiliares & I was a bit worried. Luckily it didn’t turn out that way, I would start conversation with whoever managed to drop in the teachers lounge & soon enough they opened up.
The kids are starting to open up slowly also, the second graders tend to be more welcoming.
Kids in Spain do not believe in Santa Claus but in the Three Kings, I ran into a third grader & asked if he has done his gift list for Santa and what I got was an awkward face and a big fat: no!
My school ended up winning the Nativity prize in the Madrid schooling community! It is all made from recycling paper and other products.
you want, first part is the soup & the second is a combination of meats, sausages, veggies and garbanzo beans: so good!
