mi primer día

So with my personal blog, if I name entries, I name them as if they were titles of Friends episodes, like “The One Where I Move to Spain” or something. I thought with this one, I would go with Scrubs titles, but make it more Spanish by saying “Mi” instead of “My”.

I have many travels to write about in here, but for this entry, I’m going to focus on my job.

I am an auxiliary de conversación, which means I provide Spanish students with the opportunity to converse with a native English speaker, and I help the Spanish teachers teach English.

I am teaching at an IES, Instituto de educación secundario, which is comprised of 12-18 year olds. In Spain, mandatory education ends at 16, but 16-18 year olds who are planning on university attend a “bachillerato” which helps prepares them for the field of study they want to go into (arts, technology, etc).

I am teaching in a bilingual school, which means the school is teaching in both Spanish and English (or Spanish and French) so students will have an edge by knowing two languages.

One major difference between Spanish schools and schools in the United StatesSpain, the students stay in the same classroom all day and the teacher changes classrooms. Also, the entire school has lunch/recreo at the same time. Those were the two biggest differences I noted during my first day.

The group of students I met today seemed eager to learn and use English. They were the youngest in the school, and they had a bunch of questions about us and the United States. I think they seemed to appreciate my knowledge of Spanish fútbol. I guess Real Madrid is the team to root for here, although I still will support Valencia. As long as it’s not Barcelona, eh?

I’m excited about this job and what I’ll be doing this year. It’s good to know I’m on the right path.

Current Music: I Know It's Over by The Smiths