For those of you that don't exactly know what I'm doing, (which is probably none of you because I think beyond my close circle of friends and my mom and dad, nobody reads this) I am working as an assistant to teachers in bilingual public primary schools in Madrid. I work in a school in the northeast of Madrid called Dionisio Ridruejo which is about a 35 minute commute from our apartment. The school has been bilingual for 2 years meaning that the 3rd graders are the oldest students in the bilingual program and that the 4th graders don't have bilingual classes. I work Monday-Thursday approximately 10 am to 4 pm (not bad eh?). The big role-players in my work-life are Carlos, the Bilingual Coordinator and 3rd grade teacher, Manuel, the physical education teacher, Laura, the infant education teacher, Mercedes and Inma, the 1st and 2nd grade teachers, and Susie and Andrew, the other two assistants in the school. I teach primarily with Carlos in 3rd grade and then 3 hours a week with Laura with the 5 year olds. I have the good fortune of having PE with the 3rd and 2nd graders as well.
In the Bilingual schools in Madrid, the kids have Science, English Language, Arts and Crafts, and Physical Education all taught in English. The rest of the subjects are taught in Spanish by different teachers.
So. My job is basically to support the teacher and help in whatever way I can. With Carlos, I do a lot because I know the kids and I know the topics that we are covering and I am in the class every day of the week. With Laura, I typically get to play with adorable little kids and tell them to keep coloring. Another big part of my job is giving oral exams to the kids because the vast majority of their education is oral up until grade 3 and 4 and the teachers cant just step outside and give a 1 on 1 oral exam to each child.
Anyways. My 3rd graders are absolutely brilliant and awesome. They are (typically) very well behaved and very motivated. They also only speak in English when in an English class which is extremely impressive. The big excitement of the month is the Winter Festival that we are having on December 19th. Each grade does a dance, song, or play related to Christmas and, for all of the bilingual kids (Ages 3 - 8), it has to be in English. The 3rd graders are doing a play about Rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer that I made up. Its pretty adorable.
The 5 year olds are also really smart. Some of them know all of the colors, all of the parts of the face and the body (arms, hands, fingers, legs, knees, feet, tummy, etc.), all of the school objects (scissors, book, school bag), family members, and rooms of a house. Phenomenal. Plus they are adorable and precious. See exhibit A (I'm in the middle of all of them)
I also give private English lessons to a very intelligent 13 year old girl named Andrea. She's super smart and speaks very well. We basically just read books and talk about them and about life since the class is supposed to be strictly conversation.
We get a few weeks off work starting December 20th and we are going on a week long trip to Turkey during the Christmas holiday and then returning to Madrid to spend Kings day with my Spanish family and my Mom and Dad who are coming over.
P.S. I think I'm going to be in the school newspaper pretty soon. I'll obviously keep you posted.
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