Once again a 2 week gap between posts, apologies and another promise to attempt to be more prompt in the future.
So we moved on from Halloween to be told that our job for the rest of the year was to effectively teach drama, in English, to our kids. Sounds fun I hear you say and maybe it will be once we actually get started with the plays; but first came choosing fairy tales with appropriate morals and adapting them into scripts suitable for 4-8 year olds. Not an easy task to say the least but final revisions aside I think I'm done *fingers crossed*. The lucky stories to be chosen were The Ugly Duckling, Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Wizard of Oz, all of which I didn't mind before I started this process... All of which now, after spending 2 weeks showing the films multiple times over to my classes in the vain hope they might understand the plot, I now am thoroughly fed up of. Joy of joys, this drama project takes up the rest of the year, so we shall see how my enthusiasm and sanity copes as the plays progress.
Despite my Wizard of Oz fatigue, always had a soft spot for the scarecrow
To start with, the school has brought in an outside company to give a course in how to teach drama to kids. While some of it has been interesting and may well be useful in class, the fact it is in Catalan is a bit of a sticking point meaning we have to rely on a translator. Also, I can't help but wonder how my classes who won't even stay quiet to do something fun like arts and crafts or watching a film will fare doing something as active as drama. One of my third year (7-8 year old) classes today being a case in point, a class I have rechristened as "devil spawn" such is the level of their appalling behaviour. I managed to get through less than 10 minutes of The Wizard of Oz in a 45 minute lesson, due to repeatedly stopping the video until they were quiet enough to listen. It should be an interesting experiment if nothing else :P
Away from the ups and downs of the weird and wonderful world of teaching, I am thoroughly enjoying my time in Barcelona so far. The flat I found is great, in a really central area with lovely flatmates. The assistants on the same programme as me in Barcelona have formed a tight knit set which I guess was originally a support system and is now not just that but a genuine friendship group. Last week saw the first of hopefully many mid week meet ups (it was pointed out that most of us spend our week nights in our rooms chained to our laptops). We saw the new Twilight which was trashy but watchable, my particular highlight being sat in the middle of 4 Irish people and the hilarious Irish vampires, brilliant :D Then we headed to a really cool bar where the drinks are on a stock market that changes prices according to demand and incites a rush at the bar when the market sporadically crashes. A really good night :)
Post film drinks at the Dow Jones
Friday was a night out with friends from the dance school I've started going to, great to have picked it up again after quite a few years out if it, plus it means I'm not getting dance envy watching Strictly this year ;) It was a messy but great night, "body" shots of tequila were consumed (I'll leave that to your imagination) and much fun was had, the strength of my hangover the next day providing suitable evidence of this. At another salsa night out, the music stopped and the lights came on around the time the club was due to close... THEN Gangnam Style came on. Needless to say it didn't take much encouragement to get us back on the dancefloor even if it was 4 in the morning...
The weekend before last, my Mum came to stay which was the perfect tonic to all the stress and downsides of moving to a foreign country. We ate lots of yummy food, drank lots of nice wine, strolled around the sights in, luckily, beautiful weather and talked for England. It was also a great excuse to play the tourist, since between moving abroad and starting a daunting new job etc, I probably haven't seen as much of Barcelona as I'd like.
Mum at the amazing Magic Fountain show
I'm aware this post is a pretty hefty one though to be fair it is covering 2 weeks, however will wrap up soon. Comedic/cute classroom moments: 3 kids in 1 day spontaneously drawing pictures for me which now take pride of place on my wall. Also, as a wrap up to Halloween I found a brilliant version of the Skeleton Song (you know, the foot bone's connected to the and all that). Imagine a class of 5 year olds doing this, a week's worth of hilarity. Incidentally for any other primary TEFL-ers, I'd recommend Super Simple Songs, really good resource:
Finally, an idea I've stolen from Amanda Folwell (check out her great blog, "La folle qui va bien" for another insight into teaching and living abroad) but she's since told me she stole the idea from another friend so I don't feel so bad :P A brief new vocabulary list to finish off each post, just to reassure myself I'm learning something at least and in case anyone else is interested. Until next time, read, comment and question away por favor! :) x
la huelga- strike (Spain has something in common with its froggy neighbour, they love a good strike)
chulo- cute (colloquial)
gélido- freezing cold (incorrect usage of this by the Spanish so far, clearly no experience of English winter)
la pajita- straw (for drinking)
el chupito- a shot (no clarification of the type of shot I'm referring to needed of course)
