Today I volunteered at the school, just as I do every Thursday. I was dreading it today because I think I am getting sick, and I just wasn't in the mood. Poor Em had to hear me complain all morning, sorry chica haha :) Anyways, when I got there all the kids greeted me with hugs and smiles, as they always do. There is seriously nothing as gratifying as seeing all those 7 year olds who are so happy to see you each week! All the girls give me hugs and practice saying my name, and the boys all say "Hello", thinking they are really cool for speaking English! The last 2 weeks I have been taking small groups out of the classroom and doing a worksheet over invertebrates and vertebrates with them. It really is amazing how smart some of these kids are! It is also amazing how Spain teaches English regularly at such a young age. The school is a public elementary school, and there are English teachers and English lessons every day. The kids sometimes get annoyed that I speak to them in English, but it is crazy how much they have picked up over the last few years-I mean they are doing worksheets on invertebrates and vertebrates IN ENGLISH at the age of 7. I was nowhere close to that when I was 7, mostly because we simply aren't taught another language right off the bat. This was also one of the things that really became evident last week on the cruise-the US is very ignorant in the fact that most citizens don't speak another language. Almost everyone that is my age or younger in Europe has been taught a second language, and after being on the cruise with people from all over the world, it was almost embarrassing that I was just now becoming fluent in Spanish, whereas they all spoke anywhere from 2-8 languages.
It has been very interesting to work with kids here. Between tutoring Teresa and working at the school, I have gotten to be around them a bit and I have learned so much. It is actually easier for me to understand the children a lot of the time, because they don't have such a thick accent or as big of a vocabulary. It seems strange, but I think they speak clearer. It is sometimes frustrating that a 7 year old is better at Spanish than I am, but oh well haha. In addition, it has been interesting to experience the classroom dynamics. In the US, I generally work in classrooms where the teacher has control of the class (most of the time). We use a lot of clapping or singing exercises to minimize transition time and keep kids on track. In the classroom in Spain they don't do this. The teacher yells over the kids, and they generally don't stop talking-overall, it's a bit hectic! It may just be my classroom, because I have friends who volunteer in other classes and they said they were impressed with the behavior. But regardless, it has been a very interesting experience!
On a sour note, today one of the kids brought a plastic gun to school. Now, I'm not going to go all politics on everyone right now. I don't even want to bring up politics, no matter what side you fall on. Basically, it was just scary. It looked like a real gun. The teacher took it and yelled at him quite a bit, but I really hope to God that Spain doesn't start having the problems that the US has been having recently. Guns do not belong in the hands of 7 year olds, and while I know toy guns are different, I did get a little worried when I first saw it. Especially after Connecticut not so long ago. Elementary schools should be the epitome of a safe haven, and the thought of them being somewhere where people are afraid to be really kills me. God, please don't let history repeat itself anytime in the future.
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