Last Monday Fraser (my brother) and I signed up to do a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course with TEFL England. The way it works is that we have to do 100 hours online, made up of 50 hours TEFL, 30 hours of grammar and a 20-hour video course, and an intense 20-hour weekend course. The next course in Manchester is on 31st August and 1st of September when I'll be away in France with my parents and Ethan (youngest brother) which meant that I couldn't do it although Fraser could as he's not coming to France with us. I decided to do mine in Sheffield last weekend instead as it's not that far away.
The course ran from 9am until 8pm on Saturday and from 9am until 6pm on Sunday so was long and tiring! I booked myself into a hotel for the Saturday night as if I went home I would have had a late night on the Saturday and early morning on the Sunday. Fraser dropped me off at Stockport station on Saturday morning and I got to the venue without any problems, he then picked me up from Sheffield to take me home on Sunday.
I was one of 8 students on the course with a tutor who guided us through everything for the weekend. She made us to various activities which I didn't envisage doing including making us touch the floor with varying numbers of body parts, throwing a soft toy around and having a lesson completely in Thai. The idea was to put us in the role of the student and learn the different ways that you can teach rather than constantly working out of a textbook. We were given the chance to teach a couple of lessons ourselves as well, one on each day, which meant that we could practise planning lessons and be given feedback on both lesson planning and delivery (body language, enthusiasm etc. ). This proved the most difficult for me as I'm not always the most confident of people but I'm glad I did it as it helped improve my confidence and watching other people teach gave me some good ideas. The easiest part for me was probably when we looked at grammar. Being a languages student I'm more aware of the names of the different tenses than other native English speakers as we simply do not learn our own grammar at school. When I was in Spain, the girls I looked after had lengua (Spanish language) classes at school in which they did learn how to form different tenses and other grammar rules in their native language.
I'm hoping that this qualification will mean that I'll be able to tutor Chinese students during my year abroad and gain a bit of money and experience before going to a French or Spanish speaking country to teach next summer, I'm not being an au pair again! Just need to get through all the online course now... Would be nice to get it done before China.
Yesterday I got the train across to Norwich to visit my grandparents meaning that I didn't have long at home after Sheffield! I haven't seen them since Christmas though so it's nice to catch up before I go away again. I normally see them every Christmas but I'm not planning on going back to the UK for it this year as it's still term time in China and flights are expensive. My gran took me out for lunch today before we looked through my photos from Spain and had a walk in the sunshine this afternoon with gramps.
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
20 August 2013
2 July 2013
School's out for Summer!
The girls have now been on school holidays for a week and we've got used to our new routine. They celebrated their last day at school last Tuesday by having a water party - went to school dressed in their swimming costumes and had what sounds like a two-hour water fight! After school we sang the Alice Cooper classic "School's out for Summer" as I always used to sing that song when I had school holidays. Later on that evening the equivalent of the PTA put on a bit of a party with bouncy castles, soft drinks, crisps and music which was a bit of fun for them and a way of saying goodbye to friends they won't see much over the summer.
Now I'm with the girls all morning until 3-4pm when Mónica madre comes back from work. Mónica and Jose have composed, typed a printed a set of instructions for me to follow to make sure I do everything exactly how they want. I now have to wake the girls up at 10am and do the usual morning routine - breakfast, make sure they get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, make beds etc. After this I then do a couple of pages from Mónica's Trinity English book with her, spend half an hour on her school's blog which has loads of games, videos etc. for learning English or go on starfall.com - a website with games for children to help them learn to read English. With Carlota we translate a story a day from English to Spanish, made easier by the fact that they've got a couple of bilingual story books with exercises at the back to check the comprehension of new words and expressions in the story. At about 12 we go down to the pool where I sometimes give them swimming lessons (in Spanish as it's a more dangerous environment with the chance of drowning) before drying off in the sunshine playing various games in English. We go back upstairs at 2:15pm for lunch and watch TV at 3pm, it's banned any time before that. I think the girls have enjoyed it so far and I have too, I only wish I'd made more use of my free mornings whilst they were at school!
Tomorrow we're off to Santander for a long weekend by the beach which everyone's quite excited about. Mónica and Jose have booked Thursday and Friday off work so that we can go and stay in Mónica's brother's house up there for a few days. The plan is to leave at about 4pm tomorrow when the parents are back from work as it's a 4-hour drive up to the north coast from here. Yesterday I was chatting to Mónica madre who asked me if I actually wanted to go with them as before they'd just assumed I did. Apparently they'd thought that I might fancy staying in Madrid to go to intercambios, go out at night, be fully independent and use the WiFi (there isn't any internet at the house in Santander), but of course I said that I wanted to go with them having never been to that part of Spain before. This may mean that there won't be another blog post for a while unless I go to an internet cafe or something! I'll probably post about my time in Santander when we get back though.
Hasta luego!
Now I'm with the girls all morning until 3-4pm when Mónica madre comes back from work. Mónica and Jose have composed, typed a printed a set of instructions for me to follow to make sure I do everything exactly how they want. I now have to wake the girls up at 10am and do the usual morning routine - breakfast, make sure they get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, make beds etc. After this I then do a couple of pages from Mónica's Trinity English book with her, spend half an hour on her school's blog which has loads of games, videos etc. for learning English or go on starfall.com - a website with games for children to help them learn to read English. With Carlota we translate a story a day from English to Spanish, made easier by the fact that they've got a couple of bilingual story books with exercises at the back to check the comprehension of new words and expressions in the story. At about 12 we go down to the pool where I sometimes give them swimming lessons (in Spanish as it's a more dangerous environment with the chance of drowning) before drying off in the sunshine playing various games in English. We go back upstairs at 2:15pm for lunch and watch TV at 3pm, it's banned any time before that. I think the girls have enjoyed it so far and I have too, I only wish I'd made more use of my free mornings whilst they were at school!
Tomorrow we're off to Santander for a long weekend by the beach which everyone's quite excited about. Mónica and Jose have booked Thursday and Friday off work so that we can go and stay in Mónica's brother's house up there for a few days. The plan is to leave at about 4pm tomorrow when the parents are back from work as it's a 4-hour drive up to the north coast from here. Yesterday I was chatting to Mónica madre who asked me if I actually wanted to go with them as before they'd just assumed I did. Apparently they'd thought that I might fancy staying in Madrid to go to intercambios, go out at night, be fully independent and use the WiFi (there isn't any internet at the house in Santander), but of course I said that I wanted to go with them having never been to that part of Spain before. This may mean that there won't be another blog post for a while unless I go to an internet cafe or something! I'll probably post about my time in Santander when we get back though.
Hasta luego!
20 June 2013
Back to school!
Yesterday was not only back to school for Carlota after being ill, but I went to school too. Mónica had told her English teachers about me and they had invited me into class to talk to the children. The girls' school is now bilingual and has been for a few years. As Carlota was there before the change, she doesn't have anywhere near as many English lessons as her sister (2 a week compared with Mónica sometimes having 2 a day). I had met the auxiliar de ingles (English teaching assistant) for Mónica's class last week - Tessa, a girl from South Carolina - so she met me at the main entrance and walked with me up to the classroom. Once I got there I met the another auxiliar, Ronan from Northern Ireland, and the children's English teacher, Elena, who had spent some time in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA.
I had two classes with Elena and two classes with another teacher, Sara, after the break. Each lesson started off with the children asking me questions. Elena also showed them where Manchester is on a map in relation to Spain, Northern Ireland and the USA. These are the questions I was most often asked:
"What is your name?" "Imogen... but call me Imi" (Spanish people really struggle with my name, some Americans I've met here have struggled too!)
"Where are you from?" "Manchester in England."
This was sometimes followed by "Manchester United or Manchester City?" Neither, I don't really like football.
"What are you doing in Spain?" In the first lesson, this was answered by Mónica very very quietly. She's like a completely different girl in class, so quiet and shy! The auxiliars didn't believe me when I said she was the opposite at home. In the other classes I had to explain that I was an au pair living with Mónica and Carlota. Many of them knew the girls and a few told me things or asked questions about them.
"Do you like Spain?" "Yes"
"Have you been to Spain before?" "Yes. I have been to Barcelona twice and Segovia once but this is my first time in Madrid"
"How long will you be here?" "Until August, two months"
"Can you speak Spanish?" "Yes, I study Spanish, French and Chinese at university"
"Can you speak Spanish now?" "No, this is an English lesson"
"Ooo, Chinese. How do you say house? Can you write it?" (They sometimes wanted to know hello and goodbye as well and I ended up writing Chinese characters on the board!)
"What's your favourite colour?" "Purple"
"What is your favourite sport?" "Swimming, I am a swimming teacher"
"Do you like football?" "No"
"Do you like basketball?" "No really"
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" "I have two brothers"
Followed by "What are their names?" "Fraser and Ethan"
"How old are they?" "18 and 13"
There were plenty of other questions but you get the idea! After question time was story time. In the first class, one of the mums had come into to read to them. She had lived in the US between the ages of 5 and 10 and now works as a translator, translating Disney films amongst other things. Elena decided that as we had three English speakers (Tessa didn't count as she had a sore throat and barely any voice), we could tell the story together reading a page each. At the end of the story, she asked the kids whose accent was easiest to understand and they said Tessa's (even though she didn't speak) followed by Ronan's Northern Irish accent (really?!). This same lesson format was repeated for the next three classes, minus Nora's mum. I think I read "How to catch a star" three times! The children were really sweet though and fairly well behaved given that they were aged 7-8.
At break time I went to the staffroom and was treated to cake and coffee along with all the teachers and auxiliars. I got to speak Spanish with some of them so it wasn't a completely English morning.
If the children continue learning English at that rate, they will be so good! I was surprised that the whole lesson was conducted in English seeing as I don't think I had a lesson completely in a foreign language until at least AS level!
I had two classes with Elena and two classes with another teacher, Sara, after the break. Each lesson started off with the children asking me questions. Elena also showed them where Manchester is on a map in relation to Spain, Northern Ireland and the USA. These are the questions I was most often asked:
"What is your name?" "Imogen... but call me Imi" (Spanish people really struggle with my name, some Americans I've met here have struggled too!)
"Where are you from?" "Manchester in England."
This was sometimes followed by "Manchester United or Manchester City?" Neither, I don't really like football.
"What are you doing in Spain?" In the first lesson, this was answered by Mónica very very quietly. She's like a completely different girl in class, so quiet and shy! The auxiliars didn't believe me when I said she was the opposite at home. In the other classes I had to explain that I was an au pair living with Mónica and Carlota. Many of them knew the girls and a few told me things or asked questions about them.
"Do you like Spain?" "Yes"
"Have you been to Spain before?" "Yes. I have been to Barcelona twice and Segovia once but this is my first time in Madrid"
"How long will you be here?" "Until August, two months"
"Can you speak Spanish?" "Yes, I study Spanish, French and Chinese at university"
"Can you speak Spanish now?" "No, this is an English lesson"
"Ooo, Chinese. How do you say house? Can you write it?" (They sometimes wanted to know hello and goodbye as well and I ended up writing Chinese characters on the board!)
"What's your favourite colour?" "Purple"
"What is your favourite sport?" "Swimming, I am a swimming teacher"
"Do you like football?" "No"
"Do you like basketball?" "No really"
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" "I have two brothers"
Followed by "What are their names?" "Fraser and Ethan"
"How old are they?" "18 and 13"
There were plenty of other questions but you get the idea! After question time was story time. In the first class, one of the mums had come into to read to them. She had lived in the US between the ages of 5 and 10 and now works as a translator, translating Disney films amongst other things. Elena decided that as we had three English speakers (Tessa didn't count as she had a sore throat and barely any voice), we could tell the story together reading a page each. At the end of the story, she asked the kids whose accent was easiest to understand and they said Tessa's (even though she didn't speak) followed by Ronan's Northern Irish accent (really?!). This same lesson format was repeated for the next three classes, minus Nora's mum. I think I read "How to catch a star" three times! The children were really sweet though and fairly well behaved given that they were aged 7-8.
At break time I went to the staffroom and was treated to cake and coffee along with all the teachers and auxiliars. I got to speak Spanish with some of them so it wasn't a completely English morning.
If the children continue learning English at that rate, they will be so good! I was surprised that the whole lesson was conducted in English seeing as I don't think I had a lesson completely in a foreign language until at least AS level!
9 June 2013
My daily routine
I haven't written a post in a while so be prepared for a long one!
I've survived my first week here now and I think everything's gone pretty well so far. You might have seen a bit of what I've been up to on my other posts but I've been doing so much that I haven't had time to write about!
I completed my first "working week" on Friday which seemed to go ok, could have been better, could have been worse. It's been a bit hard to know exactly what's expected of me with regards to house rules, speaking English/speaking Spanish etc. The girls are still at school until the end of June but finish at 1 rather than 4. In previous years the girls have had to stay in school until 3pm when their mum could pick them up after work so this year it's all a bit of a new routine for them as well as for me.
I set my alarm for 7/7.30am (depending on whether I'm planning a shower or not) and get up, get dressed, make coffee and get the breakfast ready. At 8am I go into the girls' room to wake them up, open the blinds and say "Good morning! Wakey, wakey!". This has worked to various degrees throughout the week as the girls have got more tired. We then have breakfast together. After breakfast, Carlota has to have some medicine for fatigue which comes in little glass vials. I learnt the hard way that to open these you need to snap both ends off before pouring it into a glass - I cut my thumb on the first day! I've learnt that it's best to use a tea towel to avoid this... The girls get dressed, brush their teeth, get their bags ready and off we go to school.
The walk to school takes about 10 mins and once we get there, we say our goodbyes and the girls go in with their friends. I then have the morning free to do whatever I fancy. As it was the first week, I haven't been particularly adventurous. My aim has been to go out somewhere every day so if I know that Mónica's got something planned for the afternoon, I've stayed in in the mornings. I've had to send various emails to do with China and have been learning more Spanish vocab so I've kept myself busy. On Tuesday I did go into the centre though, something I should do more often. The problem is that by the time I've got there, I've only got about 2 hours before I have to go back!
I pick the girls up from school at 1pm and we walk back to the flat. I try to make light conversation with them in English but there are times that they are more willing to talk than others. It tends to be Carlota who's more keen to talk in English, being the eldest. We play "I spy" or "Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and I bought... ". Hopefully Mónica will join in with us soon! Mónica madre tends to prepare our meals for lunch the night before and all I have to do is heat it up. So far we've had lentils twice, pasta with tomatoes, tuna and olives twice and puré (a thick soup) with hake (this last one has to be my least favourite!). The problem is that the girls constantly want to watch the tele while they're eating. On the first day we ate in the kitchen but on the second, they rang their mum and asked if they could eat in front of the TV. She said that they could so then I was a bit confused as to where exactly they were supposed to eat. I'd never been allowed to eat in from of the TV as a child! Yesterday I spoke to José and found out that this is not allowed. Seems I may have to argue with the girls a little bit next week...
The girls then have homework to do before we play together.
Mónica madre gets back from work at about 3/3.30pm so then I'm free again unless we go out somewhere together like we did on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. On Thursday evening I went into the centre to the Reina Sofia art gallery as it's free between 7 and 9pm. I went in a little bit early so that I could have a look around the area. The queue was massive so I only really had time to see the temporary Dalí exhibition which was well worth the wait. Mónica and José told me afterwards that they'd been wanting to go so I may go back to see it again with them! As well as the famous paintings of melted clocks were many other paintings throughout his career, two films, poems and some 3D art. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.
Yesterday I sat down and had a chat with José about how we thought things were going. He asked me if I was happy with how everything had gone or if I needed anything to which I told him that everything was fine. He said that his main concern was that he wanted me to talk to the girls in English a bit more, that I could practise my Spanish the rest of the time with him and Mónica madre. He's also trying to improve his English by going to evening classes so wants to sit down with me for an hour a week to talk English/Spanish so that we can help each other improve, at the moment though, he seems a bit shy to talk to me in my native language!
After the chat he gave me my pocket money for the week and we went out to the Retiro park before going to the grandparents' (Mónica's parents) appartment for lunch where I met not only the grandparents, but also two uncles and the wife of one of them. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so I didn't take many photos! I will definitely go back to Retiro park though as it's massive and I'm sure there's plenty to see.
Hasta luego!
I've survived my first week here now and I think everything's gone pretty well so far. You might have seen a bit of what I've been up to on my other posts but I've been doing so much that I haven't had time to write about!
I completed my first "working week" on Friday which seemed to go ok, could have been better, could have been worse. It's been a bit hard to know exactly what's expected of me with regards to house rules, speaking English/speaking Spanish etc. The girls are still at school until the end of June but finish at 1 rather than 4. In previous years the girls have had to stay in school until 3pm when their mum could pick them up after work so this year it's all a bit of a new routine for them as well as for me.
I set my alarm for 7/7.30am (depending on whether I'm planning a shower or not) and get up, get dressed, make coffee and get the breakfast ready. At 8am I go into the girls' room to wake them up, open the blinds and say "Good morning! Wakey, wakey!". This has worked to various degrees throughout the week as the girls have got more tired. We then have breakfast together. After breakfast, Carlota has to have some medicine for fatigue which comes in little glass vials. I learnt the hard way that to open these you need to snap both ends off before pouring it into a glass - I cut my thumb on the first day! I've learnt that it's best to use a tea towel to avoid this... The girls get dressed, brush their teeth, get their bags ready and off we go to school.
The walk to school takes about 10 mins and once we get there, we say our goodbyes and the girls go in with their friends. I then have the morning free to do whatever I fancy. As it was the first week, I haven't been particularly adventurous. My aim has been to go out somewhere every day so if I know that Mónica's got something planned for the afternoon, I've stayed in in the mornings. I've had to send various emails to do with China and have been learning more Spanish vocab so I've kept myself busy. On Tuesday I did go into the centre though, something I should do more often. The problem is that by the time I've got there, I've only got about 2 hours before I have to go back!
I pick the girls up from school at 1pm and we walk back to the flat. I try to make light conversation with them in English but there are times that they are more willing to talk than others. It tends to be Carlota who's more keen to talk in English, being the eldest. We play "I spy" or "Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and I bought... ". Hopefully Mónica will join in with us soon! Mónica madre tends to prepare our meals for lunch the night before and all I have to do is heat it up. So far we've had lentils twice, pasta with tomatoes, tuna and olives twice and puré (a thick soup) with hake (this last one has to be my least favourite!). The problem is that the girls constantly want to watch the tele while they're eating. On the first day we ate in the kitchen but on the second, they rang their mum and asked if they could eat in front of the TV. She said that they could so then I was a bit confused as to where exactly they were supposed to eat. I'd never been allowed to eat in from of the TV as a child! Yesterday I spoke to José and found out that this is not allowed. Seems I may have to argue with the girls a little bit next week...
The girls then have homework to do before we play together.
 |
| There's a little Mónica somewhere beneath all those teddies! |
 | ||
| The girls love arts and crafts. Carlota had a friend round the other day, as Mónica was at a friend's house, so we went out and bought some coloured foamy/plasticy stuff to make things out of from one of the "Chinese shops". The top two are Carlota's bird and Chinese girl, the bottom left one is Carlota's "here's one I made earlier" and the bottom right one is my fish! |
Mónica madre gets back from work at about 3/3.30pm so then I'm free again unless we go out somewhere together like we did on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. On Thursday evening I went into the centre to the Reina Sofia art gallery as it's free between 7 and 9pm. I went in a little bit early so that I could have a look around the area. The queue was massive so I only really had time to see the temporary Dalí exhibition which was well worth the wait. Mónica and José told me afterwards that they'd been wanting to go so I may go back to see it again with them! As well as the famous paintings of melted clocks were many other paintings throughout his career, two films, poems and some 3D art. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed.
 |
| Reina Sofia art gallery |
 |
| One of Madrid's older streets near the gallery |
 |
| Old vs. New |
 |
| The Ministry of Agriculture |
 |
| Atocha Train Station |
Yesterday I sat down and had a chat with José about how we thought things were going. He asked me if I was happy with how everything had gone or if I needed anything to which I told him that everything was fine. He said that his main concern was that he wanted me to talk to the girls in English a bit more, that I could practise my Spanish the rest of the time with him and Mónica madre. He's also trying to improve his English by going to evening classes so wants to sit down with me for an hour a week to talk English/Spanish so that we can help each other improve, at the moment though, he seems a bit shy to talk to me in my native language!
After the chat he gave me my pocket money for the week and we went out to the Retiro park before going to the grandparents' (Mónica's parents) appartment for lunch where I met not only the grandparents, but also two uncles and the wife of one of them. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so I didn't take many photos! I will definitely go back to Retiro park though as it's massive and I'm sure there's plenty to see.
Hasta luego!
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