The first three weeks in Spain has been absolutely wonderful! There are so many interesting things to see and so many new foods to try. Everyone I have gotten the chance to get to know have been so lovely and kind. Madrid has been beautiful, from the beautiful Retiro park to the street markets on Sundays. We’ve also been able to travel to some different spots in Spain over the weekends, which only has further shown us the beauty of this country.
We started off our week by visiting the school and learning about what classrooms we would be in and what teachers we would be helping out. Since we are only at the school Mondays and Tuesdays, we didn’t meet the kids until the 9th of September.
The first week consisted of getting to know the schedules of the 4th grade classes I would be fluttering between and getting to know the students. It was refreshing to see how fast the students warmed up to me and really interesting to hear all of the things they said. I am fortunate enough to speak Spanish at home, as my family is from Colombia but coming into the classroom, there were a few things that I had to ask my students about, like Spanish slang that in Colombia we don’t use or things that I needed some clearing up on because their accents can be hard to understand sometimes.
The student always come to school full of energy and always excited to see us. Despite not knowing us very well or in some of the cases, not being able to communicate well, the students are not shy to come up to us and ask us things. Both students and teachers are super open. The students I’ve been paired with get along with the teacher so well, they talk to her like she’s their friend.
The culture in Spain is different from that in Canada. One thing that I noticed was that teachers are more open to hugging and being affectionate with the students, something that is not commonly seen in back home. This also makes the students more open to hugging us and being affectionate. Students are also taught in school how to eat, for example, students in 4th grade are expected to cut the fruits they are given with their meals instead of taking a bite out of it. They are also expected to eat the lunch provided to them, which consists of protein, carbs and vegetables. This week we had a nice plate of broccoli with our lunch and so many of the students struggled to eat them. The students are also enrolled in many extra curricular activities during the day. There are many classes provided at the school such as ballet, piano classes, karate, fencing and horseback riding just to name a few.
I’m so excited to continue learning from my students and fellow teachers and to continue improving myself as an educator!
