A Different Kind of Class

Today I was able to do something different from my normal routine.  I go by the same schedule every day and work with the same kids.  I work with the "bilingual" groups and rarely interact with other students.  Last year I interacted with the non bilingual groups during PE lessons, but this year I have only been into one non bilingual group just to introduce myself.

One of the teachers who drives me home during the week is the "ESL" teacher, if you will, in the school.  Where we had ESL teachers in our schools, in Spain they have teachers who teach Spanish as another language.  She works mostly with Moroccan and Romanian students who have recently come to Spain and who don't speak any or a lot of Spanish.

While she was talking to me about a project that she wanted to do with her students for a cultural week that's coming up, I told her that I had made a similar presentation at the beginning of the year to introduce myself to the students.  She asked me if I would be interested in coming in to present it to the students to give them an idea about what they should be doing for their own presentations.  I said yes, of course, and this morning I gave my presentations to three different classes consisting of only 2-3 students each.

It was pretty interesting for me to do this because normally I give all of my classes in English, but this one was done completely in Spanish.  I was really pleased to have the opportunity to do this because it allowed me to connect with students that I don't normally work with and to show them that as long as they keep practicing with the language, they will keep improving and learn it.  I was able to connect with them because, obviously, just like them I am a foreigner in this country who is struggling with cultural differences and learning the language.  I was able to share some of my experiences with them.
I also think that I gained respect from the Moroccan students who got excited when they saw a photo I put of myself from my Morocco trip last year :)

I am trying to take any opportunities that I can because right now I'm trying to decide what I am going to do when I finally go back home.  I have many possible options, teaching is one of them.  I cannot decide though, if I am going to teach, if it will be Spanish or ESL.  I cannot decide that when I finally end up in a social work job, which population I want to work with.  So I am here trying to see as much as I can to see what interests me most and where those interests lead me.

Most importantly, I hope that I gave these kids a little bit more hope and optimism.  Some of them did not seem too motivated to be doing the project, but I tried to make it sound interesting and show them that they can personalize it as much as they want.

Now I am looking forward to seeing their presentations within the next couple of weeks :)