Erasmus+ Leaders In Language February - March 2023

I have been here for two weeks and managed to not write a single blog post… Can I use the fact that I have been doing so many new and exciting things as an excuse? No? Well I shall have to list some of them entonces. First carnaval in a Moncadian primary school: much insanity, polyester and a full on parade round the town at Friday midday. Plus I got to complete a lifelong dream of playing the drums in a band. Admittedly at the gig of my dreams, my bandmates weren’t ten year-olds and I didn’t have a red-painted nose, a wig or a green sparkly tie (long story), but the audience was just as appreciative. First school-contracted cold: turns out that Spanish children are just as germ-ridden as British ones, and I spent most of my first weekend making my way through Consum’s cheapest pañuelos and regretting letting Ángel with the runny nose give me a hug. First bar outing: as a pub-going, London-frequenting person from the south of England I find myself numb to the often astronomical price o...

Had a strange moment of déjà vu this afternoon as I was chilling out on Gandia's seafront. I was sitting on a bench watching the world go by, like you do, when this small white fluffy pom-pom of a dog walked past me … followed seconds later by another dog that looked just like it . So what's going on here, eh? Could it have been the same dog, I hear you ask. Could we be looking at a potential glitch-in-the-Matrix situation here? Will I have to start running away like mad, leaping grasshopper-like from rooftop to rooftop, from sinister government-type figures in black suits and sunglasses? Almost certainly. Except that pom-pom dog No. 2, unlike pom-pom dog No. 1, was wearing a teeny-weeny bow tie. So maybe they were two different dogs after all. In which case, I've definitely been watching too many films …

 Half way through and what a time it's been so far. Just today, literally 10 minutes ago, a small parade passed by my balcony, in preparation for Las Fallas I'm assuming. Valencia never ceases to dissapoint! ~25/02/2023 

For you coffee drinkers out there, its amusing and a tall tale of choice every day when I go to the nearby bar at 11 am. This is when I hear about the latest school gossip - this week 3 students were expelled for 2 weeks for having damaged school facilities. They made a video and shared it, which made it easy to prove who the troublemakers were... The "filmmaker" himself wasn't shown in the movie and it seems, he's gotten off so far. They haven't snitched yet tho' one English teacher says, it's just a matter of time... I thought I knew my coffee but there were 5 of us yesterday with 5 different drink orders. Some are apparently a local thing, and I say, roll over Italy. I had thought you led the coffee culture in Europe.  It's so not true - Valencia does. I enjoyed hearing their explanations and they were amused to tell me. 

Week 2 and what a week it has been. Having overcome the intial learning curb of getting used to how the metro works here, where and what food to buy and finally remembering which classrooms I'm in for our lessons, I can finally say things are clicking more into place. Some notable highlights are: 1. Flan - it is a must. something drew me to it and now I can fully say I'm addicted, but I limit myself to only one a day. A day without flan is a wasted day. 2. Fortune telling went better than predicted - I completed a lesson on future tense "will" and "going to" and to add some extra fun, I thought of using fortune tellers as a sort of freer practise. I think it went well and it was nice hearing the predicitons that the students were making. 3. Wandering in Valencia - What started as a day visiting 14th century towers and other historical landmarks, turned into a day in the future as we were surrounded by the futuristic architecture of the centre of arts and sci...

Well, it's curtains down on week one of this Valencia Venture and oh my what a week it's been! I'd love to tell you all about it, but what with my brain still all abuzz and not to mention acutely frazzled by the sheer awesomeness of it all, I'll have to settle for a few highlights:   1. The kids are fantastic! Honestly, it never occurred to me before that teaching young learners could be this much fun. I'll sure be sad when it's over, but then at least I'll have a summer of teaching with UKLC to look forward to 😉 2. The food here’s better than in the UK. Especially the fruit and veg, which tastes like it's supposed to and at a fraction of the price. Word of advice, guys: check out the melons and oranges here. They're something else. 3. Gandia (where my placement's at) is a beautiful place. And so's Valencia (the city), which me 'n' some of my teaching buddies visited yesterday. Highlight no. 1 was definitely the City of Arts and Scie...

It seems to have been a full-on week here, even though its not the same number of hours as a fulltime job. We've all had many new people to meet and greet, endless streams of kids to say "hola"to, some kind of tech in tow and such a lot of new sights and sounds to take in.  In my case, I got stuck on Monday evening at 11.30pm, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, coming back to Moncada. Beware going out for tapas and not finding a tram to get back...I don't know when they shut down but it is a little scary when 4 come in the direction of the City and there's nothing on the Board on your side.  There was a guy from Uzbekistan even more bewildered than I, showing me a Google translator screen in cyrillic to solve the problem with what he thought was a local ( who wasn't!). 2 taxis, for he and I, took care of it.  So in my case, the week ends with an Observation session in Oral language, hopefully a catch-up with my tutor and time thereafter to sightsee and...

Day 2 is almost over and it has both gone slowly and quickly at the same time. Today involved a few varied things, including lots of listening exams, learning new voabulary about jobs, and now even planning a portion of a lesson for tomorrow! Hopefully it will all go smoothly. ~14/02/2023

  End of the first couple of days. The school staff have been really welcoming to me and I am looking forward to the month. I introduced myself to the students and they were really interested to get to know me. We also played bingo, where I read out a sentence containing a vocabulary item, with the student who had their five vocabulary items read aloud winning. Then we played “taboo”, where the students had to explain a lexical item to a student without saying the word. The lunch provided by the school was also delicious, some great tasting rice and pork, where I also had a chance to improve my Spanish by speaking with the staff. On the second day, I played two truths and a lie, which the students also really enjoyed and allowed them to practice their speaking. Overall then, a good start and much to look forward to.

 I've just got back to our flat after my first day at Colegio Carmelites. All things considered, I think it went pretty well. I met my mentor before the kids arrived, then headed straight to my first two classes where I was interrogated by the kids about all manner of things about my personal life. Then, after a quick café solo in a local bar during my break, I headed to lunch with the other teachers. I'll be honest, the fideuá we had for lunch today was a far cry from the questionable food I had served to me when I was at primary school. After that, I had two hours of classes with my mentor and her 6th grade class, where we revised telling the time and talking about family members before heading home. Now it's time to plan some activities for tomorrow, but if every day here is like this then I think this will be a pretty productive trip!

 Waking up at 3 in the morning is something I haven't done in a long time but knowing that we were going to be in Valencia soon made it all the more exciting. The journey was smooth-ish and before we knew it we were being split off into our 2 groups: the Gandians and Moncadians. At Moncada, we are surrounded by orange trees, unique little buildings and one or two stray cats. Now, having had time to unpack and potentially get more than just 8 hours of sleep, we await our first day at our respective schools. To be continued... ~12/02/2023

Finished up our second day at Ashford and now only 2 more days until we are in Valencia! Yesterday we all arrived and got a bit familiar with our surroundings, and what better way to do that than to climb outside on one of the highest points in Grosvenor Hall. Today, we had the chance to teach eachother about a topic of our choice and finished up the day with some Spanish 101. Looking forward to tomorrow's activities! ~10/02/2023

Well, placement info came through yesterday and it looks like it's off to sunny Gandia for me, of Blossom Coast and golden sandy beaches fame 🍹🌞 Pity I won't be bringing my boogie board along huh … Placement will be at the Colegio Carmelitas where, if I understand correctly, I'll be teaching primary and secondary school pupils ranging from 9 to 14 yrs. So exciting stuff! Today we met the lovely Laura from Schola, and she advised me to get creative with my lessons rather than teaching by the book. Which all sounds just groovy! And that's about for now. Stay tuned for further updates!

 1st of February! Time is quite literally flying as we get closer and closer to being shipped off to Valencia. And what better way to mark our end of online training with Emille and Fran than another great workshop! I think in particular, today’s ice breaker was the best, featuring a rather flattering photo of myself, as we ranked ourselves from the most tech savvy to the least likely to survive on a desert island. Next up, Q and A session on Tuesday. Looking forward to it! ~01/02/2023