Teaching: A New Thing

I am here through the Auxiliar de Conversación program. With this, I was randomly assigned to a school in the Huelva province. My school, La Arboleda, is an instituto, which is roughly equivalent to a high school in the US. The students range from about 12 to 16 years old. After students graduate from here they have the option to go to a "college" which consists of a 2-year education in a specialization. After this, they can go even further which their education if they choose.
La Arboleda is one of the biggest school's in the Huelva province, which has made my job pretty complicated at times. It is large enough that there should be multiple auxiliares, but since the crisis, they only have me. This means that I work with nine different teachers in a range of subjects: history, science, math, technology, music, social science and physical education. Some of these teachers have different classes with each of these subjects. In effect, everyday varies a lot for me. My role in the classroom is an assistant teacher. I am only to speak English with the teachers and the students to help them speak and understand the language better. All of the teachers and students I work with are part of a bilingual program at my school. For the classes that I am in the teachers teach the class in their subject in English. I usually read the materials or present the lesson for the day and lead activities with the students. Some classes go better than others. In some classes the students do not care to learn or are too timid to try to speak in English, so the class seems to drag on with little participation and energy. Other classes are better, these are usually with the younger kids who are more excitable or with the oldest students who have a higher level of English. I am still trying to get used to this work. It is out of my comfort zone to be in front of the class, especially if the class is struggling to understand my English.

I also teach English at an academy in Huelva called Kedaro. This is an adult class of A2-B1 level English speakers. I usually enjoy this class. The students are my age or a bit older so we can joke and connect more easily. For this class I am teaching out of the Cambridge English book. I feel more like a teacher here.

And lastly, I teach 3 private English classes where my students either come to my apartment or I go to theirs and we have 1 hour twice a week practicing English conversation and grammar one-on-one. So far I am enjoying these as well. The hour goes quickly.

So English, English, English--this is my life here. I swear sometimes I wake up at night thinking that people need me and are asking me questions about how to say things in English or about grammar. It's silly but true! I have never thought about grammar so much in my life.