Closing out 2017

Well, the year 2017 is closing out since there really aren't that many working days in December - I only have 8. So far it has been an eventful second year. I have no complaints about anything at the school, despite having much more work this year. The living situation has been interesting this year, and much more complicated than in the past, but things seem to be starting to work out. I'm grateful for the experiences I've had this year, the good and the bad. At work, I have learned more about lesson planning and running a class in these few months than I did in most of my first year. At home I've learned a lot about my patience, and exactly how much I can put up with and still be polite. Not something I really wanted to learn, but I think it's something important for any teacher of any subject/activity to know. I've never lost my patience with students, but now I know what my potential triggers are, and I have a lot more ways to act like I still have patience when I'm running out.
I read a quote some time this year that said something about good times being memories and bad times being lessons... either way you get something out of them, if you can bring yourself to eventually step back and look at both sides objectively.
Because we all get things wrong sometimes.

Lesson Planning

Last year, I didn't do a lot of lesson planning, and it had been one of my biggest concerns about actually becoming a teacher - something I have been considering for the future. How long do I need to plan a lesson? How can I make facts, even boring formulas, fun? Will the lesson be adaptable if it doesn't seem to be working for those students? Is the planning part boring?
These were some of the things I was hoping to learn about during my time here. Fortunately, this year I've had the opportunity to do more of this. I also have a lot more classes that play to my strengths: Sciences and English classes. These are my passions, and what I studied in school. Last year I had more classes like Arts and Tech, that I just didn't feel as helpful with, no matter how much I read up on it on my own time, and help is really all I could do. But science and English make planning lessons rather more straightforward for me. I already know the material, and I'm already passionate about it. All I have to do is make it relatable and fun, and having passion for it makes that part easier as well. And thinking about ways to teach it in an interesting manner with the technological limitations at my school makes me more creative.
I know it's still not the same as if I were working 40 hours a week, but it gives me a good starting point. Plus I get to try out some of my ideas and see how they work. To means I already have a bunch of usable lessons planned, and revised for if I do become a teacher. For that this blog, which started as an assignment, has already become a useful tool for me. Lesson planning already seems less daunting, as long as I break it down.

Reflections on the New Year

Last year, I made my final reflections, grateful to be done with this project and the MOOC course that we were required to do. Then I came back for second year, and I realised how useful this could actually be. All of my projects and plans in one place. All the things I've been reminded of and learned. It's like my own personal time capsule, I can look back and see where I started, and what I've done. It may have seemed a bit of a hassle at the time, but I'm glad I put in the effort now.
I've  only been back a month so far, but this second year already feels so different than the first. Being back at the same school means that I already know a lot of the students and several are happy to have me back to practice English with them. The second year also means that I know some of the teachers, and they know me - my background, skills and teaching style - so I could get right into the work. I'm already working on a project with the 4th ESO physics and chemistry students that I am incredibly excited about. The teacher gave me some guidelines, then I came up with the project requirements, ran them past the teacher, and then off we went. I have new ideas that I was too shy to pitch last year for whole school projects as well well, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they go. I have a little more responsibility, but it doesn't seem so daunting. I'm more confident discussing how I can help with the teachers I hadn't met before, letting them know my background at the start rather than waiting for it to come up. I know what I can do, and they know how they want to run their classroom and we find a way to put them together that allows me to know what I'm doing before every class.

Final Reflections

My contributions to the LA programme

I'll admit that assessing my own contributions is something I've always found difficult. As I mentioned in “about me” my goal is to always look for what I could do better, which sometimes makes it hard to recognize what I've done well. I do believe that I have helped the students improve their English by helping them become more comfortable practicing with me. Many students were hesitant to speak with me at first, until they got to know me a little, and, now, the seem to feel at ease when speaking with me which results in them wanting to practice their English more with me. I have had the opportunity to plan lessons and activities to help the students understand concepts and ideas in various classes and have offered different ways of explain these concepts to facilitate their understanding without needing a peer to translate for them. Through individual and small-group work I have seen their confidence in using English to express themselves grow. And I have tried to expose them to different teaching styles in order to help them find a learning method that works best for them.

In addition, I have helped to promote, and encourage students to participate in, school or course-wide activities. I have helped on class field trips and encouraged the students to use English outside of the classroom. Finally, I have encouraged students to talk with me outside of our classes to practice everyday conversation and have been pleased to watch them become more comfortable with this, and even be the ones to initiate such conversations.

Highlights of this programme

As always for me, the best part of this experience has been the children: watching their confidence using and understanding English improve; seeing that moment when they finally understand some concept after having changed how I explained it to them; and having rim become more comfortable speaking with me and practice their English on various subjects. The second best part of this opportunity has been the learning/growth I have seen in myself: from learning different ways to express myself (due to improving Spanish as my own second language) to experiencing different ideas and cultures. This part involves learning more about teaching in a classroom setting, but also through opportunities out of school such as being able to travel and learn to use Spanish a second language. And I hope I have been able to pass some of that learning and interest on to the students.

What I know for sure is that I came here unsure if I wanted to be a teacher. I had enjoyed teaching swimming, but thought that this would be very different. But I truly believe that what I learned teaching swimming helped me in a classroom setting as well, I just had to learn to adapt it to being a teacher out of water. I believe that this experience has helped me to define and clarify my future goals; for the first time, I feel like I have a goal/direction in life, I can actually see myself being a teacher.

Teaching styles.

Between teaching swimming lessons, and the time I have spent here in Spain, I have come to a better understanding of my own preferred teaching style. As I've mentioned in my last post, I have found that the general teaching style in Spain is much more rigid than what I have experienced in my own school. And, let me be clear, I can sometimes understand why that is, it just doesn't work for me. Teaching swimming I had to be active, and the more the kids were moving the more they paid attention and learned because they didn't have time to talk. Obviously, that doesn't work in a classroom setting (unless the classroom happens to be gym class). But for me, having a little fun in school doesn't have to give way to have good classroom etiquette. As long as everyone is respectful of each other I don't mind a joke here or there, or letting them have a minute to talk something out if they need. I have found that the more work I put into a lesson, the more I enjoy a subject/topic I am teaching, or the more fun I am having when teaching, the more the kids pay attention and the more of it they remember. I've also found, I don't like just telling the students things, they get bored and so do I. I prefer to discuss a subject, either in small groups (social constructivism) or as a class, and ask them questions, letting them find the solution or come to the answer together (enquiry based learning). Usually, I will then reiterate the main points in a logical order to makes sure everyone is on the same page, or have them explain how they understand it to their peers.
This sort of teaching just works better for me. It's what makes me enjoy the work I do, and, I hope, benefits the students as well.

What differences have I noticed in schools between Canada and Spain?

Firstly, similarities: I've had teachers here ask me about education in Canada, if the classes are smaller, and if there is more respect for teachers, and what kind of funding schools get. Well, mostly, they all assume it's better than the situation is here. Truthfully, class sizes are probably about the same; though I did have a high school class with 40 students in it, the room wasn't big enough for all the desks to fit.  Teachers still have complaints about funding, education and healthcare are always the first things to get cutback by new governments.. And sometimes the students don't care, and there are always the people tat seem to think that teachers are just glorified babysitters: I'd like to see them  survive a week, or even just a day, in a class full of 27 6-year-olds, and then try to get them to learn the curriculum. And just like here, different class work differently than others, and different teachers have remarkably different teaching styles.

All that said, I have noticed more than a few differences The schools I went to had already moved past the idea of having students copy notes while the teacher reads aloud from a textbook, more often than not we rented the textbook from the library as a reference or additional resource rather than the main way of learning. Reading the textbook was an introduction to a subject, to get the students thinking about a subject and seeing if they have any questions; or it was a reference at home, if there was something you couldn't remember fully, or understand well, from class. In class time, however teachers usually used a presentation of worksheets or projects to help students understand the material being discussed. We almost never read our  textbooks in class, and we never had to write or copy out the textbook from dictations. More often than not, class time was used to complete practice problems or discuss the material. I realise that, in the school I work at now, there is less technology available than I've been accustomed to in Canada. I've often had ideas about how I would like to help teach a particular aspect of a subject, only to remember that I can't do it without access to a computer lab, or smart-board, or projector.  But I am still a firm believer that  that a teacher's job is not to read me the textbook, as a student I was more than capable of doing that on my own. The teachers presented the material in a different or new way which gives a student a new way to understand. Additionally, I was surprised by some expectations of the teachers here. I'm not saying that their expectations are unreasonable or anything, but there is a certain rigidity in how the students are expected to behave. For example, I so often hear the phrase "sit properly" if a student is sitting just ever so slightly sideways, regardless of whether they're doing the work. Even I sit sideways when I write because I find it more comfortable.

Maybe it's a product of living with my mother, who teaches children 5-7 years old and believes in alternative seating, maybe it's having been a swim teacher where I know that one size does not fit all (so to speak). I don't mind if someone's standing at their desk to do their work if that's hat works best for them. I don't mind students sitting sideways or making a quiet comment to their neighbours while they work. 

Why am I grateful for this opportunity to be a language assistant?

For me, the experience of working as an auxiliar de conversacion has provided me a million new opportunities to learn - from trying to communicate in and improve a second language, to helping with English in a geology class (which I've never had the opportunity to take before), or learning to cook some new Spanish some new dish/food. The truth is I'm here to learn  much as I am here to teach English. I even learn new things about English every time I try to explain one of its many generalizations or inconsistencies. Teaching swimming healed me to realize that kids don't learn the same way, and with some kids you Hve to explain the same thing a million different time and in a million different way before you find the one that will work for that child. This is just as true now as it was then, and it can seem infinitely harder to explain something with just the right words for the understanding of an ESL student. Something I try to do without using too much Spanish.
I've only been here for two and a half months, but I have already learned so much. What will I learn in four months? Or six? Or a year?