El Colegio Kursaal

I have twelve hours a week at Kursaal as una auxiliare de conversacion. I spend three hours a week in 3 different 10th grade classes. The kids are separated into the different classes according to their level. The lowest level only has 8 students in it. In Spain, students are only required to finish 10th grade to finish secondary school. If they wish, if they want to go on to university, they can continue to study two more years. I also go to one class of primero de bachillerato (11th grade) once a week. I’m never supposed to be in these classes alone and I don’t even completely take over the class either. Although the teacher I work with in primero de bachillerato normally tells me ok, the class is yours, which really took me off guard at first. Of course, not as much as when I showed up to class on Monday morning and found out that Christian (the teacher) wasn’t there. Bear with me while I switch to Spanish for a second.
I ask the strange teacher who was in the classroom: “Donde esta Christian?”
“Esta enfermo.”
Um…well, “Normalmente estoy en clase con el.”
“Cuanto tiempo?”
“Todo el clase.”
“Entonces, adiós. Estaré en la sala de profesores si me necesitas”
uh….
Thankfully I had a whole lesson plan worked out and had done it with some of the other classes. The students were only a bit more naughty alone with me, than when Christian is there. But I had never realized how much difficulty many of them have understanding me. I was explaining the activity and I was getting a lot of blank faces, so I asked “Do you understand what I am saying?” and I still only got blank faces. I wasn’t sure what do to if they can’t understand that. They aren’t used to having to listen to English and many of them don’t really want to concentrate enough to understand I think. Also they are used to British English. But I was able to make one student understand me by repeating and talking really really slowly. I did catch one student saying ….aburrido.

I also have 3 hours spread out over the week to practice English with the professors who are learning English. It’s interesting to talk with the different professors and get to know them a bit better. Many of the professors are from lots of different places in Spain. I think in general many teachers don’t have an option of where they work. Many people live and work in Algeciras during the week, but go back to their hometown every weekend, including my Spanish roommate Maria.

I also work with teachers who will be teaching part of their classes in English next year. I’m working with Ciencias Naturales, Informatica, and Educacion Fisica. Thirty percent of the entire course is required to be in English. So for example in Biology, the book I’ve seen teaches concepts to students in English and Spanish. Most of the activities use a combination of directions and questions in English and Spanish. I’m really curious about how this will work next year. First of all most of the professors who will be teaching these classes are still not very good at English, and of course secondly neither are the kids. I’m sure some kids are going to be somewhat resistant to having to learn the concepts in English as well.