So I was going to give you all a taste of yet another Spanish city in my blog post today, I was about to write about my interest group trip to Madrid complete with tons of pictures. However, as I started to write that post I realized my heart just wasn't in it today, despite that fact that I have two other trips I'm still dying to share with you all I was to preoccupied thinking about something else. That something else just happens to be that I taught a class BY MYSELF for the first time today. For an hour and some odd minutes I was in charge of nineteen, normally twenty-three but four weren't in school today, four year olds. I don't have any pictures because I was so nervous I forgot my camera (sorry Mom!) but I'll get some soon, promise.
A typical day in the infantil (preschool) English class starts off with their learning the basics of how to greet people and talk about the weather, day, month and season. Each day a different child helps the teacher take roll call and asks if each person is in school, and then the children are supposed to respond with a greeting, today's helper was Manuel. Listening to them greet each other is adorable and it usually goes a little something like this.
Manuel-"Is here Juan Delgado?"
Juan-"Am here, good morning."
I'm not sure why but this just cracks me and melts my heart simultaneously every time. Then we move onto singing the "Good Morning" song, this was awkward because I had to lead the song without any musical accompaniment this morning, and I'm an awful singer, which may explain the look of terror that was in some of their eyes, just kidding that's because I'm three feet taller than all of them. After that was going through the days of the week and what month it was, despite it being the last day in April I had to work really hard to convince them that it was in fact April, a common vote was for February, I'm not sure what that was about...
Then we reviewed colors, shapes, numbers and directions (such as up/down and near/far). I liked this part because I got to draw on the board with colored chalk! Also, by this time I was no longer nervous about teaching the class, and now that I look back it was a little silly to be afraid of speaking to four year olds.
Up next was a listening activity, where I played a tape where a voice said eight vocabulary words that they have been learning. The first time they just listen, the second time they look and listen, the third time they have to look, listen and then repeat the word. This got a little rowdy and María, the real teacher, had to help me settle them down. She told them how lucky they were to have me because I am from the United States so I pronounce everything correctly, one little boys response to this was "¿¿Con los vaqueros??" or "With the cowboys??". I thought that was so cute, but a lot of Spanish people actually believe the United States are still like how they are depicted in Westerns. During her explanation Gonzalo and Paz (ironic because it means Peace) got sent to their desks for being naughty, but after that things went smoothly.
The final activity was listening to the tape again and given three objects identify which object makes the sound that was played on the tape. I had lots of volunteers to answer these questions but a lot of times whenever I would call on one of them they would get nervous and either give their answer in Spanish or just point, both of which are no-no's. Lastly, Manuel and Teresa helped pass out their workbooks and they had to cross out the objects that made the sounds that they had heard. They were really good at this for the most part, but some of them crossed out the wrong object and were really embarrassed about it, but I just brought them an eraser and talked them through it until they found the right one.
During this time María asked me how I liked teaching a class by myself and I told her that although I was really nervous I loved it and couldn't wait to do it again next Monday, and that is the truth. It was such a great experience and the kids are all so adorable. There are two kids in particular who really like to come up to talk to me, Juan Delgado and Teresa. They talk to me in Spanish and although it's supposed to be an English only class I respond in Spanish because they don't understand me otherwise. Today we talked about where we live in Sevilla, Feria (the big holiday that just finished in Sevilla) and whether or not I know how to dance Sevillana also known as Flamenco (to which the answer is no although I'd love to learn). Turns out that both of them can dance Flamenco which is amazing because it is a complicated dance, and they're four.
All in all I loved teaching class for a day and that the kids are warming up to me. I wish I had more Mondays here in Sevilla to spend with them, I'll really miss my volunteering at Sagraga Corazón when I go home.
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