It’s two weeks late but here it is; the end of my contract at the school. I don’t think I can really describe how tired I was on the Saturday after 4 pretty hectic last weeks. Maria was on a planned leave from the school so I took over as the teacher for year 5 and 6 again and I LOVED IT! Because it was the end of the year I started to speak little bits of Spanish around them when I needed to. Once was by accident which lead to a lot of laughter at my English accent and once was when I had to tell some boys off for messing around and the look on their faces when I shouted “QUE HACEIS?!” was hilarious! Needless to say, they behaved themselves very well the rest of the class!
I planned my timetable for the week so that I could go to all 22 classes that I’ve taught this year and planned simple lessons so that it wasn’t too much stress for my busy self! (I worked 9-5 every day and then did an hour and a half of either Spanish lessons or pole dance every evening!)
Pre-primary 4 year olds and 5 year olds – A few songs like head shoulders knees and toes
Year 1 and year 2 – I read “We’re going on a bear hunt” with pictures on the whiteboard so they could understand (although they know it in Spanish too)
Year 3 and year 4 – Dancing to Superman (you know they song that they used to play in holiday camps?)
Year 5 and year 6 – I taught them all some slang and other things that you wouldn’t see in a textbook. Having a class repeat after me shouting yippee, woohoo, yeah, great, awesome was so funny that I wish I’d done it earlier!
Year 1 and year 2 – I read “We’re going on a bear hunt” with pictures on the whiteboard so they could understand (although they know it in Spanish too)
Year 3 and year 4 – Dancing to Superman (you know they song that they used to play in holiday camps?)
Year 5 and year 6 – I taught them all some slang and other things that you wouldn’t see in a textbook. Having a class repeat after me shouting yippee, woohoo, yeah, great, awesome was so funny that I wish I’d done it earlier!
With every class I also got a nice group picture. In order; 4 years A, 4 years B, 5 years A, 5 years B, 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 6C. No, I didn’t manage to learn ALL their names! 550 students, some of which had names I’d never heard of when I arrived here, is a lot for one person!
My favourite (although most mentally challenging) part of the week was announcing that I speak Spanish and have understood everything they’ve said all year! I got a video of all the classes except year 5 and 6 because some of the reactions were incredible!! Obviously there were gasps and then absolute silence for about a minute while they all processed the bombshell I just dropped on them all. After that were a LOT of questions, so having to answer 25 children’s questions simultaneously and in a foreign language was probably why I was so tired on Saturday! I’ll give you a brief summary of some of the reactions;
-One class of 5 year olds gave me a vocabulary test. “What’s this?” “What’s this?” etc
-One class applauded and chanted my name
-A lot of sassy children were annoyed that I’d kept it secret and made them struggle in English all year
-One year 3 class includes a boy called Izan. Izan has been genuinely in love with me all year so he went VERY red as the whole class shouted “Izan loves you!” and I replied “I know!”
-Two boys (one aged 7 and one aged 9) asked me to marry them
-I asked one year 5 class if they knew that I spoke Spanish and they said “yeah well we know you can say some words” and I was surprised that they really had no idea how much Spanish I really knew!
-But my favourite one of all was with 5 year olds. On my first day with them I went through the class asking them all their names in English and one boy replied with “My name is Culo”. Culo is Spanish for bottom!! So after 8 months I could finally tell him that I knew exactly what he said! There was a lot of laughter and a very red faced Carlos!
-One class applauded and chanted my name
-A lot of sassy children were annoyed that I’d kept it secret and made them struggle in English all year
-One year 3 class includes a boy called Izan. Izan has been genuinely in love with me all year so he went VERY red as the whole class shouted “Izan loves you!” and I replied “I know!”
-Two boys (one aged 7 and one aged 9) asked me to marry them
-I asked one year 5 class if they knew that I spoke Spanish and they said “yeah well we know you can say some words” and I was surprised that they really had no idea how much Spanish I really knew!
-But my favourite one of all was with 5 year olds. On my first day with them I went through the class asking them all their names in English and one boy replied with “My name is Culo”. Culo is Spanish for bottom!! So after 8 months I could finally tell him that I knew exactly what he said! There was a lot of laughter and a very red faced Carlos!
I got lots of lovely drawings from the students and a few presents as well. I also had a LOT of group hugs which in this heat wasn’t always enjoyable but it was cute! On the Friday I went for lunch with two out of three of the English teachers which was lovely. I felt like such a bad teacher drinking beer when I had to return to school in the afternoon!! I also went to 6B again on Friday for one last visit (because they are one of my favourite classes) they greeted me with a massive group hug, chocolates and a signed card and then another massive group hug. I’d done so well all week but that was it; I cried. They all told me to stop crying and gave me more hugs which didn’t help! Then they performed a rehearsal of their end of year play which was super cute!
I really will miss this school as it’s full of such lovely teachers and students. I’ll miss being a BNOC (big name on campus) and all the attention I got wherever I went just because I’m foreign and different. I’m so lucky to have been placed in such an amazing school and I will definitely be back to make a few surprise visits!
I’m now on the countdown to when I return home for good because I have just 3 and a bit weeks left! Now I’m going to finish doing everything that I wanted to do when I arrived here. Flamenco? I think so!