Today has been one of the most exhausting days that I’ve had in a while. So exhausting, in fact, that once I returned to my piso, I couldn’t even remove my shoes or coat. Even though it was a long day, it was also actually a great day. So I guess that this is a good kind of exhaustion.
Although it was extremely hard to do, I forced myself to wake up 15 minutes early today. Usually, I get up right after 8:00am. Today, however, I really wanted to get up early so that I wouldn’t be forced to down my coffee in less than 3 minutes like I usually do. So, I got out of the bed at around 7:45 and started to get ready.
Normally, after I brush my teeth and put my contacts in, the first thing that I always do is make my coffee. I usually don’t drink the coffee until after I am dressed, however I find that having coffee on my brain as soon as I wake up in the morning really motivates me to get up and get ready quickly. It may sound sad but it’s the thing that I really look forward to seeing in the morning. Because I went to sleep late last night, I knew that it was probably going to be a two-cups-of-coffee kind of day.
Once I showered and got dressed, I had enough time to sit down, drink my coffee and eat a small breakfast. I then threw a banana in my purse for almuerzo and headed to school.
For the first school block I had the 3rd grade class. They took their English exam today so I didn’t have to do much. I did, however had to answer a lot of questions. I sensed that all of the children were purposely trying to come to me with their questions because they thought that I would be more likely to give them the answers. Next, I had the 5th grade. In this class we started a new unit and I had prepared a fun way to present it to them. The unit was about foods and we were able to do a lot of fun activities. They were actually very attentive today. I’m proud of them.
After almuerzo, I had both of the infantil classes. We usually go to the 4-year-old class for 30 minutes and the 5-year-old class for the other 30 minutes because they are too young to have English for a whole hour like the other kids. I normally love going to these classes because, even though most of the children are very mischievous, they are still so cute that it’s hard to really get mad at them; and also because they get so excited about English. The 4-year-olds have been learning their colors, numbers, and certain foods, like chocolate, so we continued with those lessons. The 5-year-olds have been reviewing some of the same things, but they have also been learning a story about a boy who pretends to be sick.
The hour that we spent in the infantil classes was somewhat productive. We just had to deal with a few behavioral problems; one in particular that really got my attention. I told one of our class clowns in the 5-year-old class to return to his seat. We were in the middle of a lesson and he just got up to talk to his classmate. Do you know what he said to me? “Espera, estoy hablando” (wait, I’m talking). He didn’t even look up at me. I wasn’t as surprised, because, these days, children have the smartest mouths, but I couldn’t believe that he thought that he could talk to me like that. He was immediately sent out of the classroom and couldn’t participate in anything else. That seems to be the other English teacher’s way of punishing the children.
When I came home for my lunch break I made a bocadillo and I cooked spaghetti and meatballs for later. Normally, when I am home in the daytime I like to cook my dinner for later because when dinner time comes around, not only am I too lazy to cook, but my roommates also have to cook; And three people cooking separate things in the kitchen isn’t the idea situation. I spent almost my entire siesta cooking and washing dishes from the morning.
When I returned back to school, I had Plástica, with the first grade. Plástica is basically an arts and crafts class. Because I am not able to be with the first graders for their normal English class, we instead have Plástica in English. I actually like this; it’s a nice break from a regular English class and I get a chance to help the kids with their crafty projects. Today in Plástica, the kids started making fake plants, in preparation for spring. They each got a cup that they were going to fill with dirt, and to make the flowers they used plastilina, or modeling clay, that they had to roll up into the form of a flower.
While I was inside helping the children make their flowers, the other teacher took 4 students at-a-time outside to get dirt for their cups. It must have been hard to find the dirt because she was literally outside for the entire class. Meanwhile, I was being bombarded with a bunch of 1st graders asking me for more materials and getting frustrated because they claimed that they didn’t know how to roll their clay. It wasn’t a bad class, but I was literally on my feet and doing a ton of things the whole time I was in the class. When the infantil English teacher saw me in the first grade class, she said, “Whoa, you just had the infantil classes and now them? I feel so sorry for you.” “Yes,” I said, “And I have 2nd grade next.”
I must say, the first graders are really growing on me. At the beginning of the year I dreaded going to the first grade class. To me, they were the worst of all of the classes I teach, and I only see them once a week. There is something about first graders that sets them apart from all of the other grade levels. Unlike the infantil classes, they aren’t so young to the point that you intimidate them and unlike 2nd-6th grade, they aren’t so old to the point where they care about grades and punishments. First graders are fearless creatures, and they will act without worrying about the penalty that they will receive. But I must say, in these last couple of weeks, they have done almost a 360° turn. I don’t know if I am just starting to appreciate each of their different personalities more, or if they are just growing up, but I am really happy with the progress that they’ve made. Whenever they see me they get so excited. They are starting to become one of my favorite classes.
The last class of the day was second grade. I see the second graders three times a week, twice for English, and once for Plástica. This was also a Plástica in English class. They were also working on making plants so, instead of taking a couple of children outside one-by-one; we took a class trip outside together to collect dirt. This was much better.
After school I didn’t have anything else planned (I love Tuesday evenings) so I took a much needed two hour nap. Having 4,5,6 and 7-year olds back to back can be so exhausting! This was the first nap that I’d taken in a long time. And it was awesome!
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