So I have officially been here for a little over 2 weeks now and its starting to hit me that this isn't a trip or a vacation but that this is my new home. It helps a lot that I have really good friends as roommates, it usually makes home feel not too far away. This week home was definitely feeling far way. I knew this experience would teach me a lot about myself and life it's just that some lessons are hard to learn. At first I doubted myself and what I am doing wondering why I wanted to do something so far away from everyone. But as this bout of homesickness is passing I guess I am really just being reminded of how much my family and friends mean to me. It may be cliché and obvious but distance really does make the heart grow fonder and I am grateful that I have this experience and opportunity J
Which brings me to my job! What am I doing here everyone wants to know and honestly when I got here I barely knew, and to be even more honest I still don't know all the way what exactly I am doing! I started my Master's Classes last Tuesday and I will have class every Tuesday and Thursday evening. So far the classes seem interesting and helpful for how and what to teach in our classes. Basically I am in a program through La Universidad de Alcala which is a university right outside of Madrid. The university has agreements with many of the schools in the Madrid area and supplies the schools with "Auxiliers" or English speaking students like us to assist in the school's English classes. My school and many of the schools that my classmates teach at are in an organization of schools called FERE - Federacion Española De Religiosos De Enseñanza which is an association for the Catholic schools in Madrid. Recently (in the past two years) there has been a movement here in Madrid to develop the schools into Bilingual schools this is called the BEDA program or Bilingual English Development and Assessment. The schools are fairly new with this program so some are beginning to teach numerous English classes and others are already teaching subject matter classes in English. This means that for example science is taught in English instead of Spanish. As Auxiliaries we are supposed to be utilized with this program and assist the teachers in different classes only ever speaking English in front of the students.
So that is what the program is but as for me it seems so far that my school will be giving me a slightly different role. I went to my school last Wednesday and they gave me my schedule. I will be the English Conversation Class teacher with my very own class room teaching grades 7 through 12! I begin tomorrow and I will ultimately teach every student in the secondary school. I have 25 different classes and will have half of each class at a time so I will essentially see every student only once every other week. The goal of my class will be to encourage the students to speak and use English conversationally with confidence. I met the 4 English teachers on Wednesday and they were extremely nice. Although when they realized I was 22 and have not only never taught before but that I didn't even study education in college they pretty much looked at me with these huge eyes that said to me "these kids may eat this blonde hair green eyed little girl alive." Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed at first. However they reassured me over and over again that I would be fine and that they would be helping me every step of the way. They also stressed to me that I would need to be strict at first and make sure the students understand that my class is important and basically get their respect right off the bat. I'm excited to get into the swing of things and learn my role in the school; it should definitely be an interesting first week!
http://www.ecmadrid.org/Pedagogico/Programas%20y%20Proyectos/Programa%20BEDA.html
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