Aaaand that about sums up my work day. ;) Hahaha.
Monday and Tuesdays are the two days of the week in which my schedule is completely full with classes. And so with only a communal breakfast break and a communal lunch break, finding "me" time to not be around crazy children or ridiculously friendly teachers gossiping about the crazy children in Spanish so quickly that I can only get the kid's name, but not what stupid thing they did this time (omg it's SO FRUSTRATING) is near impossible. And "me" time is really a necessity when having five classes in a row... I mean, the classes themselves aren't so bad, but let's be real: Each grade definitely comes with its difficulties:
1) For 1-3 grade I have to do the whole lesson myself -- and it never seems to go how I plan it will... at all. Today I had a class plan all prepared and we got to and almost completed ONE BULLET POINT of my nine bullet pointed list... wtf? Yes, it literally took ONE HOUR to say "50 stars equal 50 states and 13 stripes equal 13 original states from when the US was a baby country" (YOU try explaining what a colony is to a bunch of 6 year olds who don't understand a word of English) and then to color half a sheet of paper red and blue and cut it out, paste it and put a straw on it. How!!?!? And the best part was the 1st graders still probably can't tell you which country the flag they made today is from. Not even in Spanish! One girl game up to me and asked why weren't they coloring the Spanish flag. Uh... o_O I'm pretty sure I was a WAY more adorable 1st grader than these fools... just say'n... plus I swear I could color tons faster... RAWR. ;)
2) For 4th grade I just have to sit there and listen to the teacher's tell the students to do their book activities because clearly they have planned nothing actually interesting for the class period and I get to be the one who reads the answers, because that way they don't have to look in the teacher's answer guide and can sit there. I don't feel like language was ever taught via a book every single day to me? If it was, I did a great job of blocking it out.
3) For 5-7th grades I am the guinea pig teacher for some new project they are introducing in the school called Enterprise without Boarders. Nobody really seems to know what this is and finally after school today I was given a 20 page booklet of teacher information - but it turned out to mostly be about how to use their website to complete all parts of the project yourself for your students. o_O It was explained to the kids that they will be divided in groups and create their own "company" in which they'll have to come up with a product to make themselves that is original and unique and they will sell it in March when the school has their annual "race" (which I guess culminates in a party or something?) Kids were coming up with hand made greeting cards, newspapers, cupcakes, bracelets, etc. Or, at least, those were the good, plausible ideas. Others were thinking along the lines of cars, backpacks and florescent light bulbs (??????)... yeah, I don't know, either?? Anyway, after glancing over this booklet of information, it looks like the project is waaaaaay more complicated than that. Apparently they're supposed to sell MANY items and do so THROUGHOUT the year ONLINE with their own website and get REAL COMPANIES to DONATE supplies to create the items they sell and to create ALLIANCES with other "kid companies" throughout the WORLD - and ALL of this should be done strictly in ENGLISH.
O_O ARE YOU SERIOUS??????
This sounds more like an activity for your Senior Year Thesis - or maybe even something done in a class for International Business majors in COLLEGE. Not 10-13 year olds who aren't even completely comfortable with English yet. The whole thing sounds completely ridiculous and like the teachers will end up doing 90% of it all and the students will think it's a stupid waste of time and stop caring after - oh, wait, they stopped caring about 20 minutes into class today - and our "native English speaker time" will be wasted with them. Jeesh.
4) The 9th and 10th graders have two people per class that clearly understand me very well and are excited to learn and show off their skills, while the rest of the students couldn't give less of a sh*t that I'm there and that English exists as a language. Cool.
5) The 11th grade class is my favorite. Probably because they were the first class I spent two whole days with and I feel like they're my "home class." Probably also because we bonded over dubstep. Probably also because my internship director teaches that class and she's very chill and nice. Probably seriously because they actually speak English and actually are interested in the language and culture 'cause their friends have been partying it up in the US (mostly Miami it seems) and they want to be next. ;)
6) The 12th grade class is a joke because I've only ever heard them speak one sentence in English each (introductions) and other than that it's their free-for-all period when they can just hang out - and they talk so fast and with so many colloquialisms, that I have absolutely no idea what they're going on about so loudly for an hour and I try to make sure I bring something to pretend to work on while I'm in their class. Next week, after my Master's program starts, I'll just bring my laptop and use it as MY free-for-all period, too! ;o)
Yes, yes... I know... it's only the beginning of my second week at the school and it takes time to get used to new people, in a new language, teaching something you've never seriously taught before, to an audience who probably doesn't even understand you... but still. I've been let loose in this zoo and have no guide whatsoever. I can see everything that's wrong but I have no idea how to make or do things right. o_O I thought teaching was 95% teaching but it turns out to be more like 15% teaching, 50% circus ring-leadering and 35% wanting to just stare at the kids and say "What is wrong with you???" and bop them. No wonder I only learned stuff in Challenge School and DUHS. Those were the only schools were each student was seriously screened before being allowed to attend.
The most annoying part is how it seems the good kids who seriously want to learn are the ones who get reprimanded half the time. I would yell "TEACHER!" too if some idiot was getting all the attention for being obnoxious and I was being totally ignored when I was doing everything right. Ugh.
It's like I want to put them all in their place, but then I realize, it seems no one really knows how to do that, or it'd already be done... I think? All I know is I thought I could do way better and I was left alone with a class for 10 minutes and in that period of time, I totally misread and activity and had the kids do something really simple and pointless and then when I tried to threaten them to quiet down or do something silly (I wanted to say embarassing, but it would have translated to them as "pregnant" - oh, Spanish), one boy said he loved being silly and refused to be quiet until he could do something to make everyone laugh, at which point he jumped out of his seat and started to attempt an 8 year-old's version of break dancing/epileptic seizure on the floor. o_O What is wrong with some of these kids...?
Just as I was starting to think it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had a boy...
Not that the girls always make sense or behave, either... but at least they're cuter.
The good part of the day was I had a 9 year old girl compliment my Target boots and a 10 year old boy compliment my Citizens of Humanity flower printed jeans. Good taste kids, good taste. ;)
As soon as I got on the bus to go back home, I was determined I would not waste my only night of the week off, and so I resolved to drop my school stuff off at home and head straight for the train station.
Brilliant idea.
A little Atocha, Gran Via, Fuencarral, Callao and Sol was EXACTLY what I needed to get myself back in my oh-so-perky ILOVESPAIN! mindset. ;) I got some much needed sunglasses (how did I not pack any?) and a much needed belt (epiphany - wear pants that are a little big with the help of a belt, rather than pants that are too small the suffocate you and make you feel fat). The belt was courtesey of the 5th floor of the Callao Desigual - the OUTLET floor - OH YEAH! It's black with the word "Desigual" written in studs across the hip - way adorable, not to mention way on sale! ;)
I also got a sweater for fall (not that fall is here yet... I'm told that happens in mid-Octoberish), but all the summer clothes are picked through and all the fall clothes look so crisp and seductive, and I know the only long sleeved shirts I have are ALL hoodies... and I'm clearly not wearing a hoodie to work (damn). I picked this particular sweater for a reason, 'cause, uh, you see...
Well, there's this commercial airing in Spain right now. It's for El Corte Ingles - which is sort of like a crazy big department store of everything. I suppose it's like Nordstrom's meets Target - it feels chic and rather classy, but they also sell just about EVERYTHING and is giant (like, way bigger than Target - floors and floors and buildings and buildings of everything). Anyway, while I've been lazying around on my Spanish Family's couch the past few Sundays, I've been seeing this commercial and falling more and more in love with it. The music is so elegant and pretty and the woman is just so CONFIDENT looking and GORGEOUS. Like, tenacious and fearless and beautiful and alluring and SO EUROPEAN looking. *contented sigh*
And so after the millionth time of drooling over this commercial I made a decision: From this day forward, I will only buy clothing that makes me feel as gorgeous and confident and chic as this woman in the commercial looks. Seriously. I have enough PINK sweat pants and random hoodies and VS/Forever 21 tank tops to go to college for the next decade and never look out of place. It's time to start feeling a little more... sophisticated. To start radiating that chic, fearless Spanish woman vibe.
This sweater, this shall be one of my inaugural pieces into this new wardrobe. The first day it gets a little nippy, this sweater will be draping effortlessly around my little figure and I will feel like I can kick some serious ass.
~*~
On a non-sequitor side note, a couple Spainish observations I've been meaning to write down:
1) You must greet each person when they come in a room and say good bye to them when they leave a room. The teacher's room is a constant song of "Hola! Hasta luego! Hola! Hola! Hasta luego! Ciao! Que tal! Hola! Hasta luego!" At first it was really adorable and I thought they were just being nice. But no - it's a cultural thing, and it's starting to drive me a little batshit. I remember when people at the International Co-op used to do it and I quickly quashed their habit because it annoyed me so much. Can't quash a culture while living in their country, though (unless you're a foreigner in the USA - and then, by all means, tell us how we should respect your culture instead of our own.... *ahem*), darn.
2) I kept thinking people were really bad at walking on sidewalks when approaching each other from oposite directions. In fact, it turns out that they're fine and it and I'm the crazy one. In Spain you pass people on the LEFT if you're in a on-coming pedestrian vs. on-coming pedestrian situation. This, of course, makes no sense, as cars are driven on the RIGHT side of the road here just like they are in America... but they don't seem to get the logic. And so until I can explain that we're not in the UK or in South America or anywhere else where driving on the left side of the road is considered acceptable, and thus walking past people on the left side would make logical sense... I'll just have to keep reminding myself each and every time to do the really uncomfortable thing and step to the left. So strange.
XOXO
No comments:
Post a Comment