Teaching maths??

In my Maths lesson last week, my year 7's were learning about Prime Numbers. With it being bi-lingual classes that I am in, obviously English and Spanish are spoken. The Maths teacher is called Antonio, and his English is ok, but he does stutter quite a bit - he is a new teacher at the school and I think it is mostly down to nerves. He knows what he is talking about but can't quite communicate this effectively in English to the students - so this is where I step in.

Since I learned about Prime Numbers back in primary school, I knew what they were, and so I sort of took over the class to explain clearly, in English, what they were. I then got students to write down and memorise the phrase 'A  prime number is a number that can only be divided by 1 and itself'. Quite simple, but effective. We then did some exercices on the blackboard, and I got some of the kids to come to the front of the class and write down the workings out and the answer to the questions on the board, and explain why the number was or wasn't a Prime Number, with the phrase I gave them. Eventually, the kids could remember the phrase without looking at the blackboard, so in many ways this was a success. I think I drilled it into them enough anyway, and I hope that they can remember this for their exam at the end of the year.

Antonio commented afterwards that he thought it was a good lesson too, so it might be that I take over more of the lessons we have together, and explain in English what the equations mean, if I can understand them myself.

Bribing students with sweets!

I've not blogged in absolutely AGES. One reason is that I've been proper busy...the other is that I totally forgot, but either way, I'm going to start blogging again more often now.

A lots happened since I last blogged, so there's a few things I need to tell you about, which will happen over the course of probably about 3-4 blogs (yawn).

Last week I had another English lesson with my year 7's. The topic was Halloween, so I did some research and prepared something to talk about with the students. Normally my year 7s are quite shy at speaking English, but I know that most of them are pretty decent. There's two main speakers of the class - Dario and Daniel, and so I used these two people to get the conversation started, asking them what they knew about Halloween and if they go trick or treating. Quite suprisingly, they knew quite a lot, which was encouraging.

We then went through some vocabulary of Halloween...for example Vampires, Werewolves, Sweets, Pumpkin, Ghosts...the list goes on. With the vocabulary now completed, we had a game of Halloween Bingo. The kids basically had a card each, with 9 different pictures on it of the vocabulary we had just covered. I then read out the vocab words one-by-one, and the students had to cover up the correct picture with a piece of paper. Once all 9 pieces were covered, they had to shout 'Bingo'. Beforehand, I had said that there would be a prize for all the winners, so kids being kids, they got fairly excited at what the prize would be.

We played the game a couple of times over, and there were quite a few winners. When I announced the prize were some Haribo sweets, everyone seemed a little bit disappointed. But come on, it was hardly going to be a bike or Xbox was it? Sweets was as far as my budget could stretch for the day (50 cents) and I think it's the thought that counts anyways!

The lesson was then over, and it was the end of the school day. As the kids left the room, each of them were allowed to pick a sweet each our of the packet. The cheeky ones of the class tried to grab two or three and leg it, but they weren't going anywhere fast...

After the last kid left the room, I noticed a load of kids outside, looking through the windows to the classroom. Because the room I was in was on the ground floor next to the entrance, a fairly large group of kids outside had noticed I was giving sweets out and decided to rush to the window and ask me if they could have some. It was my Year 8 class, so obviously I let them, but I did think it was quite funny at the time, as did Charo, the teacher I was assisting. I threw the packet of sweets ouside in the air so as not to get mauled by them, and let them share the sweets between them.

All in all, a good lesson. I'm starting to get used to all the kids at school now, and everyone seems friendly, so the lessons are becomming more fun each time. Perhaps it's because I'm small myself that I can relate to them?! Whatever I'm doing though, it's working.

PE lessons can be fun

Playing football at the end of PE lessons is something my year 9 group always look forward to. After stretching, running around the field for 10 minutes and doing some sit-ups, they have about 10 minutes at the end of the lesson to do what they want - normally they play football, and this time I joined in.

There are 7 guys in the class, so I made it 4 a side. I was one captain and Sebastian - a big Real Madrid fan - was the other captain. We chose our teams and ended up having a little game. They scored first. A terrible error by our keeper who tried to skill the attacker and ended up getting punished for it. After a bad start, it was time to up the pressure. We got some good possesion going and when the ball was sprayed out wide to our winger, I made a quality run in the box and a simple tap in was all that was needed. GOLLLLLL WILSONNN! 1-1! Terrific play. With our team then on top, we had to capitalize. With 2 minutes to go, we counter-attacked from one of their throw-ins in our area; quick passing, 1-2-1-2. I sprayed the ball out wide, made a run, received the ball back, then sent a thru-ball to the attacker. GOLLLLL. 2-1! And there was the full-time school bell!

A friendly 'Lo siento, has perdido' to Sebastian raised the spirits of the losing team and made everyone laugh, but I'm sure this small rivalry won't be over anytime soon, and there may be a re-match on the cards in a fortnight...

Encouraging signs from the students

My 3rd week in school, and actually a very good one!

It was Monday morning, and Music was one of my first lessons of the day. As I was arriving, the kids were going to their tables and sitting down as per. What happened next, however, was rather suprising but also incredibly satisfying. One of the kids, Alejandro, had actually saved me a seat and basically 'told' me to sit there, next to him. Which I did, of course. I don't know why he asked me too - I havn't really spoken to the kid. But I remember that on the Friday before, I saw him outside of school walking up the road when I was with some other Auxiliars. I said 'Hola, que pasa?' to him, and he smiled and said 'nada' back. Maybe it made his day, maybe it didn't, but I can't help but feel this had something to do with it - maybe he realised I am a normal human being, not a stereotypical 'teacher' whom everyone naturually thinks that they don't have lives and they are not normal people. But we are!

Anyway, during the lesson we talked about Spanish music. I personally havn't heard much, if any, Spanish music before, so I handed round my notepad and asked them to jot down any recommendations they had for me to listen to. There's quite a lot as well, so I've got some listening to do this weekend!

The kids were saying to me that they prefer English music to Spanish music - there was more rhythm, the lyrics were better, and basically Spanish pop was crap in comparison to English music. I then proceeded to play an English song on the laptop-speakers that they use. My example was the song 'Like a G6', as this was currently big in America, and was a genre of music I was sure they wouldn't have heard before. They absolutely loved it! Infact, they all asked me for the name of the band and the song so they could write it down and listen to it when they got home.

I had the same class on Wednesday, for Music once again. This time, two of the kids saved me a seat. One of the kids I don't even know his name, I think it's Jose Maria, and the other one is called Dario. Normally these two boys are fairly quiet, but during this lesson they seemed to be trying hard - answering every question in the best English they could. Maybe it was because I was sitting next to them, maybe it wasn't, but I think more so the former.

This is encouraging for me - to know the kids are accepting me and beginning to like me makes me feel more secure about myself, that I am doing the right things, and that I am not a weirdo. To actually have the kids wanting me to sit next to them really does increase my confidence when I go to their lessons. Infact for the next lesson, I've been asked to prepare some work about British music, or music related to Manchester. I think I'll prepare work for both of these topics, and spread it over 2 or 3 lessons, as different aspects can be mentioned. Maybe I'll take this class by myself next time, and it would be the first time that I would have done this, but I feel that with the kids on my side, it will be possible.

Anyway, I hope things stay this way, and I hope soon that the rest of my classes become more co-operative and friendly like this one. Only time will tell, but things are looking up!

I'll post up another blog tomorrow about the rest of my week at school. More good things have happened this week and I want you all to know about them, because I'm sure you want to hear about them...

Possibly the gayest night ever...but at least it was in MADRID!

MADRID!

The first major city I have now visited on my weekend travels around Spain, and what a place to begin. It's absolutely massive!

I got there by train Saturday evening around 8pm, then had to get the metro to the place where Fran and Alex live - a district called Arguelles. The metro confused me so much I had to ask people where to go. Luckily, both the people I asked were from America, and so they spoke English. I do feel confident at speaking Spanish over here now, but if I'd have got confused and ended up on the other side of Madrid, it would not be a very good start...The metro only takes a few minutes so I had to say goodbye to my new friends pretty soon.

When I arrived at Arguelles I was met by Joe, who lives close by, and so we went to Fran and Alex's flat, where Louiseanne was also there.

After a quick stop to a Carrefour Express to get some Vodka, Redbull and a pizza, we were getting ready and drinking before we knew it. Little did I know, we were going to Cueca. Cueca is like gay capital of Madrid. Similar to Canal Street of Manchester, except a much larger area. I kind of realised this was a gay area in the queue to the first bar that we went to - Liquid (yes that's right you Oldhamers - Liquid is gay). It was full of camp-as-you-like men. The place was, unusually for Madrid, free entry, but the drinks were, as expected, quite pricey. We're talking about 9 Euros for a Vodka-RedBull.

After a few drinks in Liquid we moved on to somewhere else, I can't remember the name of the place but there was a drag act on. We were there about 5 minutes, so it's not really worth mentioning. Here's a picture for you that I took anyway.

After the drag place, we went to a nightclub in Madrid called 'Cool'. Gay as you like. It cost, I think, 10 or 20 euros to get in (can't actually remember), and with that you get a free drink of whatever you like. As always with Spain, you get a lot of alcohol in your drink, but I've learned that if you give the barman a cheeky look, he'll put in a bit more for you, especially if he's gay. Inside the club, literally 95% of the people were guys, and i'd say 95% of them were gay by first impressions. Not that I have anything against gay people, but it was pretty obvious.

Dancing on several stages were what the Spanish call 'Gogo's'. Tall, extremely muscular men wearing nothing but leather, and hardly any of it at that. There were also girls dancing on stages too, also in leather, and even a transvestite at one point - well at least I thought it was a transvestite - his face looked like a mans, but he had no tits.

The music they played at these clubs was decent though - much better music than whats played at nightclub in Manchester or Leeds in my opinion. Proper house music.

The night finished when the club closed at 7am, so we walked back to Fran and Alex's apartment, had about 3 hours sleep, and then I had to be up to catch my train back to Valdepenas. All in all, a top night.

More travel blogs to come soon! Although I think I'm going to Madrid again in a couple of weeks - this time to see the city itself...another night out is not out of the question though...

I'm actually learning to cook!

Yes, it's true! Well, it's a start anyway...

Pasta with salchichas and bacon! With this being the most complicated thing I've cooked in my life, after putting a pizza in the oven for the right time, you can obviously tell that I'm no 'pro'. But a start is a start, and the outcome was 'lush', as 'Tall' Paul would describe it.

This blog is not a cookbook recipe so I won't bore you with how I made it - it's probably pretty obvious anyways, but I do have to say that this is the nicest meal I've had in Valde P, and normally make it twice a week - at least once anyways!

Even though I made an absolute mess of the kitchen, I was proper proud with myself. There's actually loads in the pan but this is because I made it for 2 people. Can't wait to make this meal for my mum and dad at home...! (I'm sure they can though...)

After the meal, we had a desert made up of vanilla and strawberry ice-cream, complete with Oreos on the side. The picture kinda makes it look a bit naff, but it actually was pretty decent too!

More meal-blogs to come soon, when I learn to make them!

PUENTE!

"What's a puente?" I hear you eagerly asking. Well to sum it up quite simply, it's a holiday. 'Puente' in Spanish literally means 'bridge' but also has the meaning of a 'long weekend', consisting of a public holiday, the weekend and the day in between.

To explain this in more depth, picture this example. If there is a bank holiday on a Tuesday, the 'puente' means we don't have to work Mondays, as Monday acts as a 'bridge' or 'puente' between the weekend before and the Tuesday. Get it?

Well basically, in almost everywhere in Spain, if there is a holiday on the Tuesday, the Monday would be a 'puente'. Unfortunately, where I worked was not one of those places, and so I had to go in on Monday. Bad times!

But still, that Monday night, all the auxilliars in Valdepenas decided to go and get smasheddd. It was quite a decent night actually. We all got talking to spanish people in the bars, who were quite amazed at how good our Spanish was, and we generally had a good night.

This picture is our our group of all the Auxilliars in Valdepenas. There's a mix of people from England, Scotland and the USA.

The Spanish go out really late...if you go out around midnight, you'll be too early. The main action normally kicks off around 1am, and can last until around 7am. Maybe this is why a siesta is needed during the day?

The prices of drinks are quite expensive...5 Euros for a vodka with red bull...but the amount of vodka that they put in the glass can easily explain this price. Literally, half the glass (and it's a pretty big glass at that) was of vodka, then you get a can of red bull to use accordingly. I'll get a picture at somepoint to show you just how much they put in! Not that I'm complaining or anything...