Resumen del curso por Amy Baker

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as an English language assistant at CEIP Salvador Allende. From day one I felt welcomed and put at ease by the staff and I soon came to feel part of the bilingual team.

I spent the year helping in lessons with years 4, 5 and 6 in Natural and Social Science. My role in class was to give the children a chance to practise English and get used to a native English speaker. So, generally in lessons I read from the textbook and did vocabulary and speaking activities with the children. Also, I often worked with a small group of children at the back of the classroom, which personally I found was a much better way of engaging with the children and allowing them all to participate in activities.

I learnt a great deal from working with the different teachers. Amongst other things, I learnt about the role of the teacher, the factors that affect their work, how to deal with classroom problems, and about different methods of evaluation. Also, I attended the weekly meetings of the bilingual staff team, from which I learnt how the teachers organised their work. I am very grateful to Gracia and all of the staff I worked with for giving me the opportunity to be part of the bilingual team and to learn from them.

I have some great memories from working at the school, with some of my favourites being the Halloween celebrations, seeing the year 6 Christmas play (a very impressive version of Dickens’s  A Christmas Carol, all in English), sharing my presentation about A British Christmas with the whole school, and working in a year 5 lesson where they made their own model ecosystems.

It has been a fantastic experience working at Salvador Allende, where I’ve learnt a lot, both personally and professionally, and I will really miss working here.

 

My incredible year as an Auxiliar at Salvador Allende

It is now June 4^th, 5 days after my last day of teaching English at a primary school in Spain, yet here I am, back at school to see everyone because I have come to love being here so much. The year has been incredible. For me, it was not only an experience in teaching, it was a life experience that gave me so much to learn from and lessons to take home with me for the rest of my life.

At the beginning, it was all about getting use to life in Spain, and getting familiar with the school and what was expected of me here. A lot of effort was put in by the bilingual team to make me feel welcome, but most of all to ensure that strong organisation existed between us all. Our weekly Monday meetings were invaluable during my time here, as they allowed us all to be clear about in what ways I was to be of use in the school. Making my life in Spain comfortable was also important during this phase, and I found that making myself feel comfortable and useful at the school helped with this enormously. Once I felt useful and appreciated by students and staff, my mind could begin to relax into my new Spanish life.

Gradually, as the school year progressed, I developed my skills in communicating and in teaching. There was never a point at which I felt I was out of my depth, or that too much was expected of me. As I became more competent, I was able to take on more responsibility and contribute my efforts with more confidence. The teachers around me were fantastic with allowing me to express my creativity and teaching ideas with the students, and were always supportive of my work and very accommodating with my limitations and concerns.

As we spent more and more time together, in class and in the break time, I got to know the kids, and this made coming to school so much fun! And all of a sudden, work was no longer work. School was fun, because I was free to contribute in ways that I was comfortable with, and I was welcomed and loved by the kids in each class. For me this really made a difference in my happiness throughout my experience in Spain, because without family and friends from home, you need another source of love and another place to call home. Having positive and enjoyable relationships with the teachers was also hugely important for me, and with them I have made life long friends.

As Spring came to Andalucia, life in Spain became a little bit like paradise. Here I was, going to ´work´ 12 hours a week at a job I loved, living in a beautiful part of Spain with more beaches on offer than you can imagine, and watching the sunrise every morning from my high apartment over the port of Malaga. I had been travelling a lot to other European countries, but on the weekends I had free in Malaga I would spend them mostly exploring nearby beach villages, eating ´berenjenas con miel´ at the absolutely delicious restaurants in El Palo, or running through the mountains with my fitness buddy.

 

But May finally arrived, and I couldn´t believe how fast the year had gone. I really felt like a part of the school now, like maybe I could actually be a teacher one day! My last presentation I did for the kids was one on my city Melbourne, because at the time many of the classes were studying ´Cities and Towns´, so what better way to relate the topic to reality. It was also a very appropriate way for me to get accustomed to the reality of going back home, which I was looking forward to. It was sad to arrive at the end of the school year, but I felt that it had been the perfect amount of time to gain what I needed from the experience, and I was ready to begin my next phase of my life. In my last week at school, I was very happy because I got to spend the last of each class doing something compeletely of my own chosing: YOGA! So, in strange poses on the floor, with our shoes off, all groaning in pain, the students and I stretched and breathed our way to the end of our time together.

During my experience as an auxiliar de conversación, I have developed my skills, my personality, and my knowledge of the world and people in some truly amazing ways that I will take with me for the rest of my life. Thank you Spain, and thanks for having me Salvador Allende!

Tess´ time as an auxiliar at Salvador Allende C.P

It´s now April and I´ve come so far!

The biggest change that I notice when thinking about how I began this experience, and how I am feeling now, is my sense of comfort and confidence in what I do here at the school. I came to be an assistant teacher, and I now actually feel like I am assisting to teach these children, helping them to learn not only the English language and science concepts, but about me, Australian culture, and our strange accents!

I have learnt a lot in my time here so far, and I expect this to continue all the way up until the last day. I am learning how to communicate ideas to kids, of all levels of English, and of all different learning capabilities. I am learning how to manage the classroom in a positive way, with all sorts of personalities, trying all sorts of tactics. I am learning about people, about different types of kids, different types of teachers, and about the journey of education for the human being and how much we as teachers and role models really impact a childs life. I am learning how to construct worksheets, and cater them to the right level of ability. I am learning how to make presentations to convey ideas and information to the students in a straight-forward, entertaining and visually pleasing way. I am learning how to teach concepts orally to a whole class and keep the students participating and active in the questions and answers. I am learning many things, but one of the most valuable things I have learnt is how to cleverly structure and simplify ideas and language to communicate to others in a way they can relate to. This is a skill I will take with me into all aspects of my life in the future.

I have enjoyed working with the different teachers, and have been fascinated at observing each of their different styles. Each Monday we have a team meeting with all of us to discuss the coming week´s work, and this I really enjoy as it makes me feel organised and confident that the teachers are able to get from me the help they need. Some ask me to stand before the class and teach and explain the concepts of the topic, while some ask me to read and explain tasks from the English textbook. Other teachers ask me to take small groups of kids and work on reviewing the topic through discussion, while others ask for my input in planning big art projects on the topic for the class. The work I do in each class is different, and my relationship with the students and the teacher varies because of this. I am enjoying very much the close relationships that I am developing with some of the students, as at this stage in my work experience at the school I can see each child as an individual personality, and they see me the same. They give me a lot of love, which is nice when your home is all the way on the other side of the world!

Overall, I am proud of the work that I am doing at the school, and of all the things I am learning, about teaching and about myself. I feel like I am part of a team here at the school, where my opinions and efforts are valued and appreciated. As for the practical side of things, the whole process has been problem-free. The school are very flexible, accomodating, and friendly to me, with the expectations of me and my work always made very clear. I expect to spend the remaining 2 months here continuing to learn about teaching and communicating, and enjoying my abundant free time living the Spanish life in a beautiful part of  the world here in Malaga.

My first few weeks as a Language Assistant

I came to Spain to learn Spanish, to travel, and to try out this teaching thing to see if it is something that I might want to do as a career. I have had no prior experience with kids, nor with teaching, and only a little with the Spanish language. This program as a language assistant seemed the perfect way to ease myself into the teaching environment, and also to have enough time for all the other things I came to do. The few meetings we had in Melbourne about the program sufficiently prepared me for the trip, and gave reasonably accurate expectations. Basically, I work 12 hours a week, assisting the classroom teacher and helping to plan activities for learning. I hope to become a valuable member of the teaching staff, to become a positive presence in the school, and to make friends here with whom I can practise my Spanish.

I was lucky to have met Gracia, the bilingual co-ordinator of C.P Salvador Allende, before my first day of teaching as a language assistant, so I knew a little about what to expect of the school. Gracia explained all that is expected of me during my time here, and helped me with any administration issues. I feel supported the whole way through my experience so far, and that has been a huge part of my happiness levels! Nevertheless, my lack of Spanish meant that as I was introduced to the staff I realised I would need to get my skills up to scratch as soon as possible if I truly wanted to feel like part of the teaching team. But despite that, all the teachers were friendly, and I could see myself becoming comfortable and at home here very soon. Gracia showed me around the school, which rooms I would be teaching in, and where the kids play. Immediately I noticed that this was an environment I have not experienced since I was a primary school student myself, and that it would take a little getting used to!

My first week consisted of sitting passively in the classrooms, watching and learning about my new students and my fellow teachers. Occasionally, I would walk around the class to help students with their work, or get up to read something out loud in English. My first week, said Gracia, was to introduce me slowly to my new life, to make sure I felt comfortable in everything that I needed to do here. During this first week, I also had a meeting with the 167 other language assistants in the Malaga provence. This was basically a few speeches from a few important people in the Department of Education, and some additional and very helpful information about the administration side of things, like how to open a bank account, how to get your NIE, when we get paid etc. The down side was that the whole thing was in Spanish, with no translation, so I had to constantly ask my neighbour to translate for me. The other assistants also had helpful information for me, as I found out the different types of schools some of them were at (many seeming to be a lot less organised), and also could ask them about their experiences settling in to Malaga, and about their experiences the previous year if they were a second time language assistant.

My second week began with the weekly Monday morning bilingual teachers meeting. There are 5 teachers that I work with, each in their science class, from grade 1 to grade 5. In this meeting we spoke about how are going to work together in the classes and what activities we could do in the upcoming weeks. It is really nice to start the week with a rundown of the activities covered in each class for the week, so that I can organise myself and know what each teacher expects of me. For this week, I made a power point presentation about myself; where I am from, what I like, why I am at the school, and a bit about Melbourne and Australia. I also made some worksheets which asked the kids questions about the information they saw in the presentation. They loved my pictures of Australian animals, the beach at the Gold Coast, and of my cat, Molly. So overall, a success, and now the kids know a little about me! And now, its off to plan my next weeks activities...

Nuestro ayudante Comenius

My work as a Comenius Assistant in Málaga was a very enriching and rewarding experience. When I arrived in Spain in September I knew almost nothing about this country, I spoke no Spanish whatsoever, and I had a really vague idea of what my work there was going to be like.

Nathänael's corner in the school

I have been extremely lucky as to the person in charge of the bilingual program in the CIEP Salvador Allende. From the get-go, Gracia Sarria Perez has gone out of her way to make me comfortable, help me to find my place at the school, and guide me as to what I should do in her class. I cannot stress enough how rewarding it was to work with such an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher.

I worked with four classes in Salvador Allende, two 3^rd grades and two 4^th grades. My role in the class has changed a lot depending on the topic, the teacher and the kids. At the beginning of the year, I would take a small group of kids in a corner of the classroom to make simple scientific experiments or investigations, in English of course. Later on, I started to give actual lectures to explain in details a specific point, such as why do the stars shine, how does the brain receive informations from the sensorial organs, etc...
 

At other moments, when the kids were working on an exercise, I would go from one kid to another to see who needed help, give them clues as to how to translate an idea into English words, and so on.
 

And finally, I designed computer presentations on each of the science, geography or history subjects we worked on, as well as on Christmas in different cultures.

I think the flexibility and diversity of these approaches allowed us  to see what worked and didn't work with the kids and to find a way to get each of them interested in the subject at hand. The teachers learned to rely on me, and the kids started to use English when addressing me.

Halloween activity

I believe I learned a lot from the teachers ways of working, and from interacting with the students. On the other hand, I think I was able to give a new point of view on both the scientific topics (having a degree in sciences) and the pedagogical approaches (being a student of Education Science in France, where the methods used often differ.We both learned from each other, and of course having been actively teaching shall be a great help in my future job.

On a personal level, I'm leaving Spain having learned a new language, but also with a new mindset. I believe I learned a lot this year, about teaching, about working in a team, and about myself.

Nathanaël Dufour

        

Nuestra auxiliar lingüística

 During the 2012-2013, I have had the pleasure of being a Language Assistant through the program Auxiliares de Conversación at Salvador Allende School in Puerto de la Torre, Málaga, Spain.  During this school year, I worked exclusively with First Cycle, which is made up of both first and second grades.  I was at the school 12 hours per week.  I spent the most time working with 2ºB and they improved tremendously over the course of the school year.



Making materials



A typical day in second grade involved explaining the themes of science class to the students.  Pedro, the teacher that I was an assistant for, and I always tried to provide fun examples to help the students remember vocabulary.  When we were studying the human body, we taped the names of the body parts all over one of the students in order to give them a real life visual.  We also made lots of flashcards and coloring pages for the students to remember the vocabulary for each theme.  Normally, Pedro would lead an activity in one of the second grade classes and I would lead it in the other class.  We worked very well together in the classroom all year and he often asked for my input about the students and I would help to make new seating charts.



 In my opinion, first grade is a more difficult level to teach because it is their first year in primary school and they are still learning how to communicate in Spanish.  A typical day in first grade this year was practicing science vocabulary with the students.  Using visuals, there was no need to translate to Spanish because the students could plainly see and understand the meanings of the vocabulary words.  Sandra, the first grade teacher, and I found it to be the most helpful when I would leave the class in small groups.  In this way, I was able to check the understanding of each student and help correct pronunciation.  It was also very important that I was present when they took the exams because many of them are still becoming used to the school environment and the culture of test taking.



Amelia's talking about USA



 In the beginning of the year, the teachers and I had to discuss proper classroom behavior with our students before we could successfully begin the learning process.  First grade had a lot of things to learn for the first time, such as raising their hands and asking permission to leave their seats.  Second grade had behavior problems from the previous year so we had to start from the beginning with them as well.  In general, if a class' main teacher provides rules and structures, the class will be easy to work with.  However, the students have many teachers with different rules.  If their main teacher does not discipline them, such as taking away recess time and writing notes to their parents, they will not behave for other teachers.  Discipline is an issue for language assistants because we are not supposed to be alone in a room with the students and many times the students do not listen to us when we ask them to stop talking or take away recess time from them.   

This year I was also part of the Bilingual Coordination Team that was made up of the four bilingual teachers of first, second, third and fourth grades, myself, and another language assistant from the Comenius program.  This weekly meeting was very helpful to ask for ideas from the other teachers and to learn what the other bilingual classes were doing to help improve the English skills of their students.  Our coordinator, Gracia, is very organized and helpful to both language assistants and teachers.  She always had ideas and advice for us and knew the things that were happening in each class as well as being an excellent and dedicated teacher to her own third grade class.

In conclusion, this year has been a tremendous learning experience for me both professionally and personally.  I plan to continue working with children in the future and will never forget the two years I spent as a language assistant in primary schools in Spain.

Amelia LeBlanc