The First Week

What a week.

I completed my first week of work this Thursday, and, let me tell you, teaching is exhausting. Mad props to all you teachers out there. But I love it. I think. It’s always difficult to decide this early on how you feel about a job, but I definitely have high hopes.

I worked Monday through Thursday (which will be my regular schedule), joining classes the equivalent of Pre-K through 8th grade, working alongside a few different teachers. It’s interesting teaching such a wide range of ages, because their personalities and level of English are just so different, but the variety is one of my favorite parts of the job.

Another one of my favorite parts of the job is how excited the kids seem to be whenever they see me. Okay, they just like seeing someone new and different, so it’s nothing personal, but I love how they all greet me with, “Hello!” “What’s your name?” or “Bye!” when they see me in the hallways and are eager to ask me questions about my life in class. I finished my week with 4th graders, a noisy bunch who were a bit difficult to teach because I was working with no real plan alongside the religion teacher rather than another English teacher, but they were particularly charming. They had a million questions for me, one offered to make me a bracelet after she saw the international collection I was wearing (from Peru, Hong Kong, India, and Thailand!), another gave me earrings (which she had me put on right then and there…not exactly sanitary, but that’s a small price to pay), two made me drawings, and a few kept blowing me kisses.

Not exactly the drawing I would expect from a 9-year-old, but sweet nonetheless.

I’m far from being an expert teacher, but I’m excited to improve more and more as the year goes on, be more familiar with what I can do to help the teachers, get the kids to speak English more, and make an impact on both the school and myself.

Also this week, I attended orientation, which was all the way in Huelva (since my school is in the province of Huelva). Unfortunately, it seemed to be dedicated more to discussions that helped the school coordinators that us auxiliares, so it wasn’t the most helpful use of time, but, hey, there were free bocadillos de tortilla!

For the most part, things are going well in Sevilla. As this is now my regular life rather than just a long vacation, there are challenges and setbacks (which I’ll save for a future entry!), but I know this year will be fantastic.