Cactus Language Blog

Online Diary: TEFL in Seville from our Scholarship winner! (2)

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad, Cactus TEFL, Learning a language, Spanish

Anna Prime, winner of the Suzanne Furstner Scholarship 07, reports back from week 2 of her TEFL & Spanish course in Seville (Week 2 of 6)

Teaching English is definitely a job I can see myself enjoying for as long as I wish. It’s the perfect balance of logic, creativity and practicality that remains challenging and stimulating because every day is different. I think it’s going to be a very suitable job for me before I decide what I want to do with the rest of my life, and will fund my less lucrative short-term ambitions such as travel, writing, volunteering and studying. I love working with the students because you’re really helping them and they are usually very grateful for the attention. Basically, I’m really glad I’m doing this and I don’t even mind how much work it is. It’s going to fund my wandering youth.

Now that the course is in full swing it’s getting pretty intense. Every morning we either teach or observe other teaching and then discuss and analyse how we did, which can be pretty brutal, but we are learning from our own, and each others’, mistakes. In the afternoon we are then taught how to teach with lessons about grammar, phonology, learner styles, types of lessons and lesson planning. But when school ends between 5 and 6, that’s when the real work begins. We have to plan our lessons for the following days with little help from our tutors and it is a lot harder than it looks. You must be aware of every single thing you are doing in the lesson, how much time it will take, what materials you will need, what skill the students will be developing, any anticipated problems and how you will solve them… the list goes on. We are judged not only on how we deliver our lessons but also on the minutely detailed plans we make right beforehand.

Today everybody stayed in school until they kicked us out because they had to close at about 9:30. Everybody seemed to be going slightly insane in that very amusing way people tend to when they are stressed. Insane in the best possible way. I am feeling this insanity particularly because I had a very disrupted night’s sleep and managed to perk myself up with the ridiculously strong coffees Spaniards fuel themselves with, which are basically a cup of hot brown amphetamines. I found, luckily, that I work quite well when I’m tired because I can focus on one thing and not get distracted by my wondering mind. I’ve been planning a lovely lesson, the first one that was entirely my idea. It is a series of comprehension activities based on a short children’s story about a boy who turns into a leaf and makes friends with the other autumn leaves blowing around his garden. I can imagine it would be a lot more fun to be a real teacher when you can think of your own ideas for lessons all the time rather than worrying about being judged by tutors.

The story hasn’t helped my fragile state of mind as I found myself writing sentences such as ‘the maple leaf just wants to have fun’ on a transparency for an over head projector, and wondering what on earth is going on.

I’m sure everything will be fine after a good night’s sleep. I’ve definitely gone round the pipe, but to be honest, I’m secretly enjoying it. Why else would I choose to write this now after I just finished 5 hours on the same computer of near uninterrupted lesson planning?

Read more of Anna’s TEFL diary:

Week 1 ¦ Week 2 ¦ Week 3 ¦ Week 4 ¦ Weeks 5 & 6

Tags:Seville, spain, Spanish, Suzanne Furstner Scholarship, tefl