Manuel Siurot

I love my school and teaching!

The elementary school I work at is called Manuel Suriot. This is what has been explained to me: The regional government, The Junta de Andalucia, has decided to stimulate the bilingual interest in schools. This is a new idea. My job title is a Language and Culture Assistant. In other parts of Spain and Europe this concept is a few years old, but in Southern Spain the program is new and as English teachers and Language and Culture assistants we are helping develop the program. Last year was my schools first year having an American there to teach. Since the program is fresh I am helping with lesson planning and practicing English with teachers. The idea is not to add more hours of instruction during the school day but to start teaching the subjects in English. Some classes are taught partly in English and others are taught totally in English. There is a section in each school that is becoming bilingual.

I spend most of my time working with Guadalupe. So far from what I can tell she is a very fun person and has made me feel comfortable. She knows a lot more English then I expected she would and I am very glad because this makes things a lot easier. We get along very well and I love talking to her and learning about one another. I think we get along so well because she reminds me a lot of my mother. She is a good English teacher as well and I am excited to spend so much time with her this year. I think we will learn a lot from each other.

I also work with Sandro who is a first grade teacher. I work with him during science and art classes because those are the subjects that the school has decided will be taught in English. So far I say everything in English and then it is repeated in Spanish so the students are hearing everything in both languages.
Laura is also an English teacher that I work with in the third grade classes. I think we are going to get along well also. She is younger then a lot of the other teachers and I am excited to talk to her more. She seems very quite and conservative.
I also meet for one hour with some teachers separately. This hour is for English practice. We talk to one another in English about different topics. It’s a good opportunity for them to ask me questions and also practice their pronunciation.

All the students have so many questions for me. What is your name? Where are you from? How old are you? The student’s favorite question is asking if I have a boyfriend. In fact that is everyone’s favorite question. At first that question made me blush but now I am used to it. My answer is always “No I don’t have a boyfriend.” They are very quick to respond with “Do you want one?” I have had two women say they want to set me up with their sons and then they proceed to invite me over for dinner. Everyone is very blunt here, no beating around the bush. I like it but it also leads to some very awkward conversations.

The classes can be very difficult at points because I won’t know how to say something in Spanish and they won’t understand it in English. I do a lot of acting as I said and I draw a lot of pictures on the board. They have quickly learned that I am learning Spanish just as they are learning English. When I make mistakes they laugh WITH me but they also see that it is ok to make mistakes. This is good because they are eager to participate and not embarrassed when they are wrong. We have an understanding that we are learning from each other.

On the first day it was Hilarious. Guadalupe took me around to meet all the classes and teachers. I had to stand there and listen to each student say “Hello my name is ...” “Hello my name is ...” “Hello my name is ...” I heard that sentence probably 200 times that day. It was robotic. (I haven’t taken any pictures at school yet. Those will come.)