This past week in school I had some serious ups and downs, but all for the better because I am feeling slightly more sure of what I need to do for the next year. Not sure enough to write that here yet, but that message will come when it is good and ready...
The end of last week wasn't great, with the teachers telling me that they had to discuss keeping us or not in their weekly Friday morning department meeting, shortly after one of them gave me an incredulous face when I said I wanted to stay. Monday wasn't much better; I was told by a teacher friend and confidante that they had discussed it in the meeting and that they decided they wanted me to prepare more for classes. This is not something ever expressed to me and after preparing several cultural activities in the fall and having none of them used, I had stepped back a bit this winter to see what kind of guidance I would get from them. OH, wait, this is Spain, they aren't going to give me any guidance. As a department full of all women and one man, they are naturally going to discuss my performance behind my back and then somehow break it to me later. So, after crying in the department and not being sure what to do, the department head finally approached me and told me some tips for one of my classes. It's difficult for someone who doesn't have incredible dreams of being a teacher and who has no support from her teachers to know what to do. I have teaching experience in a university where my boss was the greatest, most supportive and helpful person ever, so I am not prepared for the Spanish drama and cattiness.
That being said, my week did get a lot betterjust kept getting better, both in the classroom and out. Outside the classroom just because it ended in some good lessons with my private classes and a night of dancing alone with Rachel in a fairly empty club to great music while Spaniards just looked on in amazement. In the classroom, though, I received the best compliment to my teaching I could ever hope for: as we were on our way out of the classroom, Arturo (who bought his teachers shotglasses in Greece and who is very talkative and willing to speak, despite a lower level of English) stopped me and said, "Kelsey. You should be a teacher, we think." I wasn't sure I caught it so I asked, "What? Who? You do?" And he said, "Yes, we have been talking and we think you are a good teacher. You should be a teacher!" and he said that some of the people he sits with had been discussing it and they all agree! It made my week, especially with the teacher drama and struggling to find ways for a 7 year old in private classes to speak more and to correct his sentence construction. I just hope they continue to think that and the teachers don't hate me for being better-liked than they are... I have been told that before, too, but I'm keeping that on the Down Low...
No comments:
Post a Comment