Yesterday was my first day teaching. I had to be there at 12, so I left my apartment around 11:15, which is a little on the early side. Our director had taken us there before, but the bus stops aren't marked clearly, and I ended up getting a little lost. I made it there just in time. I was talking to the other girl from my TDP group and she offered to take the 3 year olds, so I agreed. Then when we walked in, one of the teacher's of the 3 year olds said I was with them, so I ended up going into the classroom where I had volunteered the day before. However, the class was a bit different. I guess the volunteering I did was a mix of 3 and 5 year olds since it is an extracurricular activity. The classroom is pretty big, with six tables of about 6 seats, in the middle, each a different color. I was immediately glad that I got the three year-olds. They were so little and cute! They had just gotten back from recess, and the teacher shut the blinds and played some calming music. They were in their seats and were supposed to sit there with their heads down. The teacher gave me some stickers and asked me to put them on their shoulders if they had there head on the desk. After they calmed down for a few minutes, the teacher brought out her "English Monkey". She played some song about the monkey, and the kids danced around the room and each got a kiss from the monkey. They had to say "Hello Monkey" and they sang along with the song. Then she introduced me to the class and asked them to say "Hello teacher Danielle". Their accents are so cute! Today's lesson was about frogs and how they jump, and fish and how they swim. She showed the kids pictures and had them repeat the words, then jump, and then run around the class pretending to swim. One of the little girls, Alicia, kept running up to me and hugging me. She had cute little curly pigtails- she's adorable! Then the teacher had them seat in their seats, and Alicia grabbed my hand to sit next to her. The teacher played a little video about fish and frogs, and Alicia wouldn't let go of my hand the whole time. Then each table (there were only four there that day) got something to work on. One had puzzles, another blocks, one coloring, and another cutting paper. I tried to make it around to all of the groups to check on them, but the little girls at Alicia's table kept coming over and telling me to come to their table. So I would go over there, and most of the kids were playing nice, but this one little girl, Coral, kept seeing other kids play with puzzles, and then she'd take it from them. Coral is really cute - white blonde hair, which is surprising for a Spaniard. My friend Nicole lives with her and her Mom. She actually just switched out because she did not like the mother, apparently she's crazy. Coral can be really sweet, but she also seems bratty. At arts and crafts the other day she kept jumping on me and hugging me. And she was rubbing her finger on my eyelid, trying to take my eyeshadow off and put it on her own eyes- it was adorable. Anyways, so I had to mediate the little kids sharing issues. Luckily I heard one of them say something about "compartir", which means to share - a vocab word that I had forgotten. So I was playing with the little kids and their puzzles, and if I went over to check on one kid two seats away, Alicia would say "Ven aqui a mi lado" (come sit next to me!). So I would go over and talk to her, and another girl would ask me to come sit next to her. It was tiring! I feel bad when the little kids talk to me and I have no idea what they're saying. I smiled a lot, and just said yes to everything. Some of them were really cute about it - the understood they should talk slower, but I still wasn't getting some of it. They're soooo cute though I had so much fun. Over at the block station there was a little boy who I love. He is so smiley- he just kept coming up to me, not saying anything, and just smiling. He has the biggest, cutest smile and he's missing some of his teeth and it's the cutest thing ever. I hung out with him for a bit. He had made a structure out of leggos that was almost as tall as him, and for the whole 45 minutes that they were playing with the leggos, he was walking around or sitting there holding it. I asked him, in Spanish, what color is this(pointing to the yellow leggo) and he said "yellow" with a little Spanish accent. It's impressive that at three years old they already know some English. The kids cleaned up, and then got ready to leave. Before they left they sat on the floor and listened to a story. It was a little book about Peter Pan in Spanish. One of the little kids gave me a flower that they had made before they left.
So overall, the little kids are SO cute (in case you didn't get that from reading what I just wrote), and so much fun! However, today I woke up and met with my teaching teacher, Luis. We do this once a week for forty five minutes to discuss how teaching is going, any questions, concerns, etc (he's an awesome teacher). He was explaining to me how we're going to learn about English grammar, so that when we teach, we'll know what we're doing. I kind of feel like I should be teaching secondary, or at least primary. The little kids are awesome but I want to actually be teaching not just playing games. I am going to learn a lot from working with little kids (especially about patience and dealing with isseus) and I do love it. So we'll see.
Back to yesterday..
After teaching I went home, had lunch, and then met up with Holly (a TDP girl) and Nicole. We were working on a project for our teaching development class. The three of us (we all teach infantil) had to teach the peers in our teaching development class, about how to express wants and needs. So during class we were the first group. I brought my stuffed dog with me, and explained to the class, in English, that we were going to discuss what the dog wants, and what he needs. Nicole and Holly each explained what one of the words meant. We then held up pictures of different things a dog may want or need (example toys, food, water, to go to the park), and asked the students to repeat the word, and then went around the room, asking each student about a different word - if the dog wants it or needs it. They then had to come up and put it on the board under "want" or "need". Afterwards we went through and had them repeat the words one more time. After that we handed out a piece of paper with a picture of a dog at the top - half was labeled "want", the other half "need". We had them draw a picture of something the dog wants/needs, and then we went around asking them what it was, and writing the word underneath it. This exercise was very helpful. It gave us the chance to utilize what we saw in the classroom (a lot of repitition and visuals) and practice making a lesson plan. Plus it was funny teaching our peers as if they were 3 years old and don't know any English.
After class all of the TDP group, minus two, went out for Nicole's birthday. We went to a little pizza place. Got margarita pizza, bacon pizza, and veggie pizza. All very good. Went out for a little after, met some kids from France and Belgium ( where the speak French - I did not know ). It's really cool how many people you meet from different places here.
Today I met with Luis at 10, and then had class at 11. We got to taste test olive oils. It took up the whole hour and a half - awesome! The teacher came around and gave us bread, and three cups. She filled the first one with olive oil arbequina. We had to describe what it looked like (transparency, density, clean or dirty, color) and then how it smelt. Then we had to take a sip of it and describe it, then taste it with bread. We did it together as a class. The second was picnal, and the third hojiblanca. The first was my favorite. Went home afterwards, had left over paella and pork with a cream sauce for lunch. Took a nap, went to flamenco class. The class is kind of weird. We take notes, but it's really different taking notes about the history of a dance. And she plays songs and videos of different kinds of dances - but they're all so similar. Came home, had dinner. It was some soup that was okay, and a turkey sandwich that senora totally burnt (I'm talking like black bread). She was like if it's not good I'll make you another one! But I just ate the inside because I was hungry.
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