Thoughts on being a "profe"

¡Buenos días, clase!

"Hola, me llamo Katie y tengo 22 años. Soy de los Estados Unidos y soy profesora de inglés." If you had asked me two years ago what I would be doing after graduating from college, I definitely wouldn't have replied "teaching English." Do I love kids? Yes. Am I passionate about education? Absolutely. But me in a classroom, writing on the blackboard as opposed to taking notes from it? No way. A year ago, the prospect of teaching abroad was much more of a way for me to come back to Spain for a year to better my Spanish language skills as opposed to a way for me to gain experience working in the classroom. Much to my surprise (and subsequent delight!) I love working at Alba Longa. I feel very at home in the school and I really enjoy working with my coworkers to come up with new lessons and activities for our students each week. That having been said, being a teacher (no matter the age, no matter the country) is not an easy task. After having accepted the position of "language and culture assistant in Armilla," last May, I distinctly remember spending the better half of the summer fretting over whether or not I would be up to the job. Sure, I had tutored various students in the past and had even volunteered in elementary schools in both the States and in Spain, but never had I been responsible for coming up with an entire lesson, let alone an entire nine months' worth of lessons. I remember watching some of my closest Stonehill friends- those who were education majors- dedicate nearly every waking hour of the day to teaching-related tasks during their "student teaching" semesters. After waking up at 7:00am each morning (an unimaginable hour for any college student anywhere), they would spend eight consecutive hours in the classroom, only to return to campus for a quick dinner followed by a long night of grading, searching through material, writing lesson plans, tweaking activities, etc. I was very impressed by their hard work and dedication and saw them go through the various highs and lows of being a teacher.

After having worked in a classroom for the past four months, I can definitely sympathize more with what my friends experienced as student teachers. I, too, have had a wide range of highs and lows working as a "profe" and have felt an even wider range of emotions- from frustration to elation to pride to annoyance. These past two weeks in particular have been two weeks of notable ups and downs at work.

I started off last week with a wonderful Monday. I worked with my younger group all day, my 1 ESO students, and was really excited with how all the days lessons went. We had physical education first, followed by English and then natural science. I was particularly pleased with how the day's English lesson went. I prepared a presentation on weather, the temperature, etc. and some speaking/writing activities to go along with it. At one point, I had the kids work using concepts that we've been studying in math (multiplying and dividing with fractions) to practice converting between degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius and vice versa. After a few explanations in English and a few more in Spanish, the students finally were able to do the problems on their own, without calculators, explaining to me both the necessary steps and the weather information in English. It was great to see them grasp and link the material from two classes together. I ended up having to make more examples using fractions to talk about the weather because they liked it so much! This Monday's English lesson with my 1 ESO students was another great success. As you all know, Monday was Valentine's Day and I spent the hour talking about Valentine's Day vocabulary, traditions, legends, etc. As the students drew their own Valentine's Day cards, I surprised them with Sponge Bob Squarepants Valentine's Day cards and candy hearts sent over to me by my dad (thanks Dad- they were a hit!). My students were absolutely thrilled and loved the "American" Valentine's Day surprise. It was a great, fun lesson and a nice break from the usual grammar and vocabulary that we usually spend our classes going over and I know that the students really enjoyed it!

Last Wednesday, however, was a completely different story. I didn't have a particularly good day outside of the school on Wednesday (you know, just one of those days when it would have been better had you stayed in bed the whole day- nothing seemed to go right!) but it was even more frustrating in the classroom. I had a math class with my 1 ESO students first and then I was with my 2 ESO students for three back-to-back classes- technology, math and English. When I arrived at the technology classroom, I learned that Javier, the technology teacher, would not be coming in that day. Normally, when a teacher is absent, a "profesor(a) de guardia" fills in for him/her; that is to say, a kind of "substitute teacher" only here in Spain, the substitute is one of the teachers who would normally have a free period during that class instead of a person not normally working at the school. Well, since I would be in the class with them, no substitute teacher came. On a few other occasions in the past, I have been alone with the students in the classroom and they behave fine. This time was a different story. The students had no interest in listening to me, whatsoever. My attempts to go over a worksheet were not received well and eventually I told the students to work on their homework or talk amongst themselves in their seats. I spent the entire class telling the students to "stop shouting," "stop throwing things" and "sit down." I eventually had to separate some of the male students who were particularly rambunctious. That, of course, didn't go over very well and I spent the rest of the class listening to the boys complain about how they had been moved. They just didn't want to pay any attention to me that day and whatever authority and respect I normally have from my students was gone. I felt very frustrated and disrespected and truthfully, I couldn't wait for the class to be over. During the following two classes, math and English, some of the students still continued to act up to the point where I had to talk to my boss about that day's classes and students' behavior. I was upset and frustrated after my classes with 2 ESO, but more than that, I was frustrated with myself. I don't know what it was about that particular day but usually, the students and I get along very well in the classroom and have a mutual respect for each other. I don't know why I wasn't able to command better behavior from them and the experience left me worrying about future classes sans a teacher/substitute teacher. Luckily, very few of my works days are anything like last Wednesday and since then, the students have returned to their usual good behavior in our classes.

Sometimes, I don't have a good day or a bad day... I have no day. What do I mean? Take today for instance. I arrived at work this morning at 9:00am sharp only to discover that I don't have work today at all. Apparently, today my students have a field trip to a science museum in Almería that I was unaware about. (Yesterday, the teacher that I normally work with on Tuesdays was sick so I didn't go to the school and therefore wasn't informed about the trip.) While it would have been nice to know about beforehand, especially in terms of saving some bus fare and getting in a few extra hours of sleep, truthfully, I'm not annoyed. I chuckled when I found out this morning and just thought "Oh well! I'll find something to do!" It has happened a couple of other times over the past four months and it's no one's fault, just miscommunication. You can say that I've definitely learned to accept minor annoyances and roll with the punches, so to speak. So, what will I do now that I'm at the school with four hours free?! I'll take advantage of the teachers' lounge, print some material for next week's classes and plan my tutoring lessons for today and Friday. As they say in Spain, "no hay mal que por bien no venga" which loosely translates to "every cloud has a silver lining." No classes today means that I've got more planning time!

All in all, I really do enjoy teaching. It's frustrating at times, sure, but also exciting, unpredictable and satisfying. There's something so rewarding about teaching students and watching them eventually light up as they exclaim, "ohh, profe, ¡ahora lo entiendo!" and finally begin to grasp the material and use it on their own. Will I be doing this for the rest of my life? I don't think so. Will I take advantage of the months I have left as a "profe" and enjoy every minute? You bet I will!