Beginning my adventures as an auxiliar de conversación

It's hard to believe I've only been in Barcelona a week and a half. It feels like I have been here like a month! Wednesday was my orientation for the program, and it was held at this large auditorium by Plaza Espanya. My roommates are both in the program as well, so we made the journey together. The program began at 9:30 which is much earlier than I had been getting up! Anyways, we were hoping also to meet some other "auxiliares" there as we'd had trouble networking and arranging meetings with other young people in our program. Unfortunately, there was no time in the schedule for socializing. I did finally meet the principal of my school, Angels (who I had previously thought was a man, but nope, she's a woman) and Maria, one of the English teachers at my school. They were more than welcoming and they brought lots of information about the school and a print out with the names, positions, and pictures of each staff member!

The orientation program itself wa snot super useful, except for the last part where they explained how we got paid, health insurance and this pesky card/status I need to register for known as the NIE. Even the program director was not sure exactly of what to do and where to go to register for the NIE. I spoke with another American girl in my program who has been getting the run around at all the offices we are supposed to go to, so I want to do more research before I wait inthe wrong office for hours. I am hoping to learn from the mistakes of others! I am sure it will all work out. I am not the only one in this boat...all the North Americans and Australians have to sort it out as well.

So Thursday was my first day at the school! They suggested I come when school starts at 8:30. I had not taken the route to get there yet, so I left extra early. It was easy. I only had to take the metro line 3 stops to the station where I transfered to the "ferrocarril" which is a commuter train. The commute took 20 mins total and then the school is a 10 minute walk from the station. The name of my school is CEIP Catalunya. It is located in the city of Sant Cugat, which is an affluent suburb of Barcelona. Sant Cugat reminds me a lot of Irvine actually! There are single family homes and everyone has nice cars. All of the kids are form upper middle class families. It is quite a different population than the low SES kids I taught in National City. The principal met me in front of the school and introduced me to all the staff. It's hard, she wants to practice her English and encourage the staff to as well, so she wants me to speak only in English. It makes communicating hard at times. Even though most of the teachers speak Catalan, the native language of Barcelona which i a halfway step between Spanish and French, I understand it pretty well. But, the principal wants me to pretend I don't! It's more dificult than it sounds.

So I got a tour of the school form the principal. She took me around to each classroom and introduced me to the students. Then she had them try to ask me questions in English. It was so cute, I felt like a celebrity! The school starts with pre-school (age 3) and goes all the way to sixth grade. There are 2 classes per age group, so you can imagine how many classrooms I went to!The students were told i speak only English (which is a lie!) but a good incentive to have them practice their English. Most of the younger classes could only say "Hello" and "Goodbye" but in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades students asked me how old I was, where I was from, my favorite color, if I was married...haha One of the kids in 5th grade had an American accent and was proud to say "My mom's from L.A." then he started naming off cities he knew in southern California.

I had a meeting in the afternoon with the two English teachers. Maria is 50 and spent several years living in northern California. The other teacher, Joan (a man), is 30. I had a chance to observe a third grade English class. I also was able to look through the textbooks and curriculum. They teach British English, but a very standard universal form, not like the sometimes difficult accent and vocabulary my roommates use! I had a great conversation with Joan about what he likes and doesn't like about the current English curriculum and how I could help. The textbooks and methods are similar to how I learned Spanish: thematic vocabulary and verb conjugation. I am hoping to work with small groups to apply the vocab and grammar in scripted conversation (think "sentence frames") I am very excited about this role and I have a lot of experience and background knowledge on the subject so I hope to make a real difference in thier English program. I want to motivate te students to produce the language and give them confidence in their speaking ability. A small group is a good place to do this. I would have benefitted from this type of activity when I was learning Spanish.

The day went well; I had such a warm reception. As I walked around the school during the day, I heard "Hellos" from left to right from students. I felt like a true celebrity! I iwll be working 3-4 days a week, but not all day. Also, I have fridays off! Teachrs are given free lunch and snack and they actually have cooks and a kitchen! Teachers have a very lax dress code which is a welcomed change to the no jeans and sandals rule I had to follow last year. I'll post soon more about my social life, roommates and photos of my cozy piso! Until then, adeu! ("goodbye" in Catalan)