It was brought to my attention that I’ve never posted about my school—oh, that small detail aka the WHOLE reason I’m here. As I’ve mentioned before, I am an Auxiliar de Conversacion, which essentially means that I am an English Language & Culture Assistant at a school in Madrid—well, sort of. While I am working in the Madrid province, my school is in a town 30km outside of the city center in Alcala de Henares. My commute takes me about 1 hr & 15 minutes (one stop on the metro + train for 35 min. + bus 10 minutes (or walk 15 min.)) While that sounds like a lot, it’s pretty standard because Madrid is such a big city!
Anyway, MY SCHOOL. I work at a bilingual colegio (elementary school). Throughout the week I am in about six classrooms with kids ages 5-7 (kindergarten to 2nd grade). The kids—at least the 1st and 2nd graders—have Science, art and English in English and math, phys. ed., music, and Spanish in Spanish. I mainly assist whatever the teachers need help with: passing out papers, helping kids with activities in their workbook, pronunciation, reading, etc. I also present on American culture (holidays & traditions) and also often take small groups of kids into another room for conversation practice.
A lot of people have asked me what my favorite age is…and my answer is: ALL ages! They are all so darn cute, and I feel like a rock star. When I walk around the school grounds, kids run up to me saying “CRISTINAAA CRISTINAAA” and hugging, kissing and grabbing my hand. It’s awesome. I love how all my kids are affectionate, young enough to not be too scared to try to speak English and will go along with anything. Little kids are really goobery though…it’s amazing how much food doesn’t end up in their mouths and instead on their face & hair, as well as how much snot can come out of one child. Thank god for hand sanitizer.
The teachers are also really great at my school; especially the ones I work most closely with. I usually look forward to school and feel like I am welcome. I am always greeted with a "buenos dias" or "hola" and a smile. I try to make myself present at recreo (a coffee break + breakfast...yes, it's awesome) and listen to conversations and try to participate when I can keep up. I hope as the year goes on I will continue to form friendships with my coworkers.
All in all I really like my school and I feel really lucky because I’ve talked to a lot of other Auxiliares who haven’t been having such a good experience in their schools...hooray! Life is good ;)
halloween party...second graders
and again...
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