Life is Good

Mini Backlog--This was from Oct 14th

So, after some rough ups and downs things have settled. Finally. I still have problems with the kids, but I care a lot less. At the end of the day they're just kids. Really. Come on now. And I'm getting used to saying sit down a hundred times a day. So, that's good.

I started taking a Spanish class. It's twice a week and it's fun so far. I've got homework and everything! It's in a school that's waking distance from my house, very convenient, and after class I hop on the bus to go to work. So the timing is perfect.

What else... the weather's changing, feels like fall. I hate all my clothes but don't have the time (or money yet) to go shopping. Everything, and I mean everything except some corner stores, is closed on Sundays so I never do all the stuff I need to do... And especially since this Friday was a holiday so all the shops were closed then too.

I'm going to London November 1st! That's exciting. It's a holiday (Thurs), and I don't work Fridays... And since I teach nights I'm coming back Monday morning! I'll have 3 full days in London. I'm really really excited. I've got two friends there, Melissa my Prague travel buddy (and flatmate for a month) is studying at the London School of Economics, so I'll get to see her! Woohoo. And I've got another friend who I met in Prague who's been living there for the past year and a half.

It's time for a vacation!

That's all for now. I have to go do my homework :(

Getting Better

Well I finished my third week of teaching. Whew.

Monday and Tuesday were GREAT. Roger (see the last post to see how frustrating he is) was a little late and so he had to sit next to me. He was a GEM! Quiet, hard-working, sweet, it was amazing. He even stayed after class to help me collect the scissors and pencils and stuff. Amazing. Then on Wednesday he sat with his friend and was a pain in the ass again.
One step forward two steps back.

But I am making progress with him I think. Now when I talk to him he will do what I ask... No more robot voice.

Then on Tuesday I also figured out how to deal with my rowdy rowdy 6-7 year olds. I worked them so hard! And they loved it. It was counting and spelling and simple math. It was great.

So, I was so successful on Monday and Tuesday I got lulled into a false sense of confidence and Wednesday and Thursday were a little crazy. Oh well. I survived it! And I didn't cry myself to sleep!

Now it's the weekend and the weather is glorious! I think I'm going to go to the beach this afternoon! And tomorrow a lot of the museums are free because it's the first Sunday of the month, so I think I'll go to some museums!

Life is soooo SWEET!

Life is a Roller Coaster

Well. Teaching is tough. Teaching kids is tougher. On Monday night I had a huge freak out (again) and was really anxious about my kids classes.

Here's the lowdown.

Schedule:

In School Classes:

I teach three kids classes. One of really little kids (5-6 yo), one of almost all boys (9-10 yo), and one of medium sized kids (6-7 yo). Two of these classes are back to back on Mondays and Wednesdays (the tiny kids and the boys) and the other is on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I also teach two teen classes (so far really really lovely) and two adult classes.

Company Classes:

I teach 2.5 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays at a pharmaceutical company in the town next door to the town where my school is (which is about 25-35 minutes from Barcelona). But, the original schedule was 3 hours on Tuesday and 2 hours on Thursday (we changed the schedule because of my meltdown).

So, what's the big deal? Well, on Mondays and Wednesdays I teach in school from 5.15 to 10 pm. Then I catch the bus home and get home around 11.15 or 11.30. Then I have to eat something (even if it's small) because I'm usually STARVING and then I (try to) go to bed. But I'm usually son wound up it takes me awhile to sleep.

On Tuesdays I had to leave my house at 8.40 to catch my bus at 9, which meant I had to get up a t 7.30. Then I had classes from 10.30-1.30, back to school to plan for the evening classes, teach from 5.30 to 9.30, catch the bus back to Barcelona (there's only one that late so I have to wait at school) and get home at 11.15 or 11.30.

Last Monday I had such an awful class with the 10 year old boys that I couldn't sleep. And I knew I had a looooong day ahead of me with my company class and my evening classes, and like all insomnia-laden nights the more I thought about needing to sleep the more elusive it became.

So, when all is said and done I slept about 3 hours.

We've since changed my schedule so that the bus connection is better (and I can sleep an extra hour on Tuesdays) and on Wednesday I was much more successful with my 10 yo boys.


What happened on Monday with those boys? you might be wondering.

In a nutshell: I have one student who's particularly disruptive. He's very very bright but he is constantly trying to get into pissing contests with me. And, when I'm dealing with him the others get neglected (and think that it's ok to act this way).

The class is quite big and I can't pay attention to everyone all the time. And we don't have books yet because the company is taking their sweet time sending them. So, the class is extra chaotic with photo-copies and bits of paper everywhere and handing things out and collecting things. Problem child is constantly harassing another boy, well, they feed off each other. And he also makes fun of me, repeating everything I say in a robot voice. After some of this hooey I told him to come sit next to me. He said no. I said yes, sit next to me. He said no. I went next to him and said in his ear, ok, well, I'll just have to talk to your mom then. And he sat with me. That was last week.

Monday of this week he was doing his disruptive thing, and I was trying to focus on the others. They were working on something that was too difficult (a last ditch attempt to keep them quiet, and it mostly worked) when my one girl came up to me and said "Roger threw his rubber and it hit me in the head." (BTW 'rubber' is not a condom, it's an eraser. The crazy brits...) Oh, crap. I went up to Roger and said "you are in big trouble," and left the classroom and got Sandra (from the class she was teaching) and told her what happened. She took him out and when he came back he was much better.

So, Monday night I felt awful. 'Bad teacher. Bad disciplinarian. Poor Anna got hit in the head with a rubber. Bad teacher. I hate kids.' These were the thoughts in my head.

So I called my mom. And she was great. She said "I know you can figure this out." And that's what I needed to hear. I felt hopeless. How could one 10 year old boy make me feel so small and useless?? So, I bucked up and went to work the next day. And I was beat. But it was ok.

Wednesday came around. Uh-oh. I was worried. 3 new students were coming, hopefully to change the dynamic of the class... So we prepared the class accordingly.

Start of class, no new students. Ok, think on your feet Molly-girl. The new plan seemed to be working. And then the new students showed, 10 minutes late. Too late to go back to the lovely well-planned class. Oh well.

Things were going well. Roger was being pretty good. And then he hit his cohort on the head with his notebook. I took it away and said "no". Nothing else. Then he was messing around with his pencils. I took them away. Then he was messing around with his rubber. I took it away. Then he was doing some work at the board and he was scribbling and he wanted the eraser and I wouldn't give it to him, I said 'no, you did that and you can't rub it out.'

Now, it's very important to mention that whenever he did something well, which was often because he IS very bright, I praised him. A lot.

Amazingly it seemed to work.

So, hope against hope, I might have cracked the Roger-nut. Now to crack all the other nuts. I've got about 8 or 9 that need it...

4 Weeks

So, it's been almost four weeks (exactly 4 weeks tomorrow) since I arrived in Barcelona. And I still love it. I'm still getting used to a lot of things. Siesta. No, it's not a rumor, things really do close between 2 and 4. Or 3 and 5. Lots of things. And that's just when I'm ready to go out and do some shopping! Late late dinner. Again, not a rumor. Last night I was making some dinner and it was a little late (for me, apparently) around 8.30 or 9 and I asked my flatmate and her friend if they wanted anything to eat and Marc said, it's a little early for dinner, don't you think? Ummm, no. Not really. Actually, it's late. But maybe it's just me. Manana manana. Another friend was also looking for teaching work. And everywhere he went they said we'll probably have something for you, we'll definitely have something for you, but we can't let you know until next week. So, of course, he found other work. And then he got a series of increasingly frantic phone calls from schools that needed a teacher to start the following Monday. You snooze you lose. But there's a lot I don't have to get used to. The weather. The charm of the buildings. The food. The wine (I keep buying 2 euro wine and it's quite good. Some bottles don't even have proper labels.). That's all for now.

2 out of 3

So, yesterday was ok and so was today. I think I'm getting the hang of this teaching thing!

50/50

Well, I've had 2 days of teaching kids and teenagers, and the results are mixed.

Yesterday I was pretty successful, no one cried (except me, today!) no one got hurt, they mostly did what I told them to do... But I was COMPLETELY exhausted after the classes. Literally dead on my feet.

Today I was terrified, more kids? Another group of teens? I couldn't bear the thought. And I had 3 morning company classes...

I forced myself out of the house this morning.

And, lo and behold today wasn't so bad. My kids class today was very badly behaved, rowdy rowdy little rascals, and I was exhausted from not sleeping enough last night and teaching three classes this morning, but things were much better.

Either I'm learning something, or I'm just getting more resistant...

More later. Wish me luck tomorrow!

Eeeeks, KIDS!

So, I had a mini meltdown on Wednesday about teaching kids. I've never done it. I don't want them to be bored or act up or destroy anything or cry or any of it.

I told my boss and she's holding my hand and we're planning my lessons together. Whew. Now I know I made the right choice. I doubt very much if many other schools would do what she's doing with me, I mean really, holding my HAND! So, my transition should be smooth. Or as smooth as possible. And, I do have adults, but also teens ... eeps. Well, we'll see how it goes.

Actually, I'm sure that everything will be fine. Once I get in the room with the little ones it'll be fun. And the teens, well, I remember what it was like, so hopefully that'll help me. And regardless, I'm going in on Monday and I've got 4 classes to teach. So, whether I'm nervous or not it'll happen. YOW