Erasmus+ Leaders In Language April-May 2022

What an amazing experience this has been. I’ve met some wonderful people and really learnt to see myself as an individual again which for me has been invaluable after many years of being boring old Mum. During my CELTA I felt more than a little jealous of the travels my fellow trainees were about to embark on and even in Kent, hearing about all of the adventures everyone had planned for the summer turned me slightly green with envy. But this trip is just the beginning of my adventure into the EFL world. I have learnt to think of myself as a teacher and to be more adaptable within lessons accepting that some activities will work better than others and sometimes you just can’t tell until you are in the thick of it. I think the most important thing I will take away from this experience is that it doesn’t matter where in the world I start my teaching career. There’s a noisy little house in Norfolk, where my children play in the garden, my dog barks at the postman, my mother turns up un...

  (The surprise is there’s no final haiku, my brain has gone to dry spaghetti.) Just a note to say thank you to everyone who’s made this experience what it is. You are all fabulous human beings. From this project I’ve learnt so much about what I want, and what I can do. It’s been strange going back to my favourite spots today and saying goodbye. Yes, I could come back to Le ó n (and I intend to), but it’s not the location, or the people I feel I’m saying goodbye to. It’s the pocket of time and the person I’ve been while I was here. A strange sensation. But I’m feeling stronger for it all, so I couldn’t ask for more.

paths lined with cotton; falling, like snow not melting; marking my journey Probably my last walk in Leon, along the River Torio to where it meets the River Bernesga and then back through the city - about 2.5 hours and very warm. The two rivers are very different, one out in the sticks and the other chasing the city roads, but both beautiful. Just one of the many things (and people) I shall miss.

 This last week has been one full of emotions and feeling of achievement at the same time. Emotions because every time I finished teaching the last lesson in one class, I looked at the children and thought: ‘you are great children. You have given me so much happiness. I shall really miss you!’ And then the other feeling: it’s nearly time to go home! I cannot wait to see my kid, husband and my very sweet dog! And then, you pass the cathedral and think to be surrounded by so much beauty daily is so soothing to the soul. There was also a last time I met Mireia in our café: we tended to see each other there about once a week. A really lovely snippet in my experience here in León. Exchanging experiences with all the Erasmus+ participants were always highlights and to just meet one or 2 on the stairs or coming back from their school enhanced a feeling of togetherness and support. Thank you all!  Now to come to achievements, I absolutely loved teaching science; preparing for it, maki...

 An awesome week again, full of teaching and then relaxing en la playa, its a dream life. Im a little aprehensive about going into the final week with the observed lesson, but i should be all planned up and ready for it!  Classes at the end of the school day with challenging teenagers is never going to be an easy gig! Went paella cooking on the weekend with the group.  Loved it, and i tihnk we all enjoyed eating the results.  I had a very relaxing Sunday trying to get as much of the sun before being indoors again tomorrow!  Im learning more and more that teaching face to face is much more enjoyable than online teaching,  transferring back onto online classes after teaching in a school is really quite dull!  Im very grateful that opportunites like this exist, because its a great taste of what the reality is like.  Teaching doesnt end after the last bell, its hard! But i love it and would like to make it my fulltime job.

Had such a fab lesson with the 3rd grade today (7-8 years old)! We did a zoo project. I'd made some flash cards to introduce the animals in Spanish and English, and we played "I'm thinking of an animal, it's got a long tail...", you know the sort of thing. Their hands were going up long before I'd finished saying anything, they were so into it. But isn't it great that they didn't just blurt it out, they put their hands up, squirming with delight waiting to be picked to say the word.  Wouldn't it be great if that continued into later years? Even the ones who didn't have clue what I was talking about wanted to take part and say anything, just to contribute. Maybe it was for reassurance, or just to take part, to be connected - I dunno.  After we'd found all the animals and grouped them as mammals, reptiles, birds, and done other stuff, we made the 'now classic (thanks Matt)' origami frog as a reward for hard work. Some followed the sta...