I’m going to be honest– teaching was the part of my Fulbright experience that I gave the least thought to. The logistics of travel, securing a visa, and finding housing… the thrill and fear of being in a foreign country… the anxiety and uncertainty about making friends and building a social life… all of these took precedence in my mind over the day-to-day experience of teaching. Now, with my first week of work under my belt, I’m getting a better sense of what my Fulbright ETA experience will be like.
First Day(s) of School!!
I was surprised by the nerves that crept up on me the night before my first day. After an unsatisfying night’s sleep, I woke up on Tuesday morning, donned my confidence-boosting green dress (pic below lol), and made my way to the school. Between my anxiety and the steep walk up a hill, I arrived at school drenched in sweat, which didn’t help me feel calmer AT ALL. I had very little communication with the school over the summer, so I wasn’t sure where to go or who to talk to first. Eventually, I found my way to the front office (which wasn’t really at the front of the school #confusing) and met the directora, vice directora, and secretary.
After meeting a lot of new people in a short amount of time without being sure what their roles were, I met the English teacher who I will spend most of my time collaborating with. Her name is Mar and she has been so helpful to me this week as I get settled in! From what I can tell, the school has a handful of full-time English teachers (I think it’s 3 or 4) who float between the grades. They teach English as a foreign language, but they are also implementing a program where they teach certain subjects in both English and Spanish to promote bilingualism. This year, they are teaching science, art, and physical education as bilingual subjects to certain grades. Since the English teachers did not have a set schedule yet this week, we were mostly helping out in the Infantil 3 classroom– preschool children aged 3 or turning 3 by December 31.
Beautiful Chaos
Returning to the familiar chaos of a preschool classroom as an assistant rather than a lead allowed me to view the classroom dynamics with fresh eyes. First of all, it was a relief to see that three-year-olds are universally crazy no matter where you go. Unlike the school I worked at in Indianapolis, the infantil classes here are divided by age– there are two 3’s classes, two 4’s, and two 5’s. I always thought that having mixed age groups was an odd choice, since five-year-olds are so much more advanced than three-year-olds, but I can now see that having a classroom with 20 three-year-olds has its own drawbacks. Almost all of them are away from their homes and their families for the first time, so almost all of them cry at some point during the day. There’s also more potty-training setbacks than I typically saw in my classroom back in Indianapolis, since the kids are newer to the using-the-potty-game.
I was surprised and excited by the diversity at my school. I would estimate that less than half of the children I saw in the infantil classroom spoke Spanish at home. The rest of the kids came from Morrocco, India, Bangladesh, China, the Phillippines, Germany, Scotland, England, and more! This diversity creates some challenges, especially in the three-year-old classrooms where the students haven’t been exposed to any type of school routines before. The teachers only speak Spanish and some English, I only speak English and some Spanish, and the kids are left in the dark a lot of the time because many of them don’t understand the instructions we’re giving them. It’s also hard to understand them when they get upset or ask for things, just like it’s hard for them to understand us when we try to comfort them. In our Fulbright teaching orientation we were told that we might see some ~teaching practices~ that we wouldn’t approve of in the US, and I’ve definitely seen teachers resort to yelling at kids who don’t understand or losing their patience with kids who cry. Unfortunately, saying something louder in an unfamiliar language doesn’t make it easier for the kids to understand. I empathize with the teachers’ frustrations because I felt the same way in my old classroom for a variety of reasons. Since it’s not my classroom and it’s not my culture, my approach has been to try to be as calm and friendly as possible with the students. I speak slowly and use a lot of gestures and smiles so that they can start to feel comfortable with me and with being in a school setting.
Even with students who are native Spanish speakers, I am only allowed to speak English at school. This seems to be the rule across the board for English assistant-teaching programs like mine. I once took a class on bilingual education, and I need to dig up some of those old readings about the pros and cons of this approach. So far it has been difficult because I’ve only been with very young children who are only just beginning to understand that different languages exist anyways. I also got to observe the two first grade classrooms where I will be working, and the teacher told me I don’t have to pretend not to understand the kids, but I have to respond to them in English. Starting next week I should have more of a schedule and will be leading lessons in the infantil and first grade classes. I had asked about working with a variety of age groups, but the early grades are where they are beginning to implement the bilingual curriculum, so that is where they needed me most.
By the end of the week, I was surprised by how tired I was for only having worked half days. I was ready to spend the weekend relaxing and exploring the city that I will be calling home as soon as my lease starts in October!
Arrecife
Outside of school, I’m still in a state of limbo because I don’t move into my apartment until October 1. My AirBnB host in Puerto del Carmen has been wonderful, but I’m excited to move to Arrecife and really start building a community there. I’ve been into town a few times to explore, and so far I’ve been happy with what I saw. The teachers at my school were surprised that I had decided to live in Arrecife, since it will be a bit of a commute by bus (or guagua, as they call it here). As the capital city, Arrecife is the biggest population center on the island with around 50,000 people. It is much more of an authentic living experience than Puerto del Carmen because it is less of a tourist destination. While it is a little less charming than the tourist-y towns nearby, it is also less kitschy and less overrun by sunburned Irish people (not throwing shade, since I basically am also a sunburned Irish person). I think that living in Arrecife will be a better home-base for building a social life and having easy access to stores, restaurants, and buses.
Claire y Canaries 