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😈HALLOWEEN IN ALFARO👿

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One of my students surprised us all with this Jack-o-lantern carved by himself and his two daughters.

Jack-O-Lantern

Playing some games

Halloween in Alfaro, La Rioja, with my A1 class who were always willing to take part in any of the strategies I suggested.

Great time with these two hard-working students and great leaders.

🎅🎄🎆CHRISTMAS🎇🎉🎊

This is our Christmas party at school level. My colleague's students and mine really went out of their way to participate in the Christmas Culinary Competition.

Santa came to see me in the shape of a strawberry

Playing some board games

Listening attentively

EASTER EGGS🍳

Easter Egg painted by one of my students. We wanted to analyse the commonalities across cultures. Painting Easter Eggs is a tradition in some places of Eastern Europe, were one of the students came from, in some parts of the Uk and in a small town in Asturias, the region where I come from. So, we may not be so different after all.

💪PARTS OF THE BODY 💪

What is the best way to learn the parts of the body? Well, I believe by identifying them. Besides that, some students are kinesthetic learners, like myself, and learn by doing.

↑←↖GIVING DIRECTIONS↗↴↵

Another great collaborator. I didn't have to insist too much, and there he was, letting himself be blindfolded to take part in this activity.

Here, I am co-teaching with a teaching assistant from Scotland.

Thank you for the great time. Such a lively

🎉END OF SCHOOL YEAR PARTY 🎆

On the last day of school we all went to a local restaurant to have a snack and sing a song together. Great end of year!

CALL ME MAYBE

2014-2016

TEACHING IN THE USA

I am afraid I will not be able to display many photos of my time teaching at Hector Middle School in Odessa, Texas. Of course, we were not allowed to take pictures of our students but do I have some some of the classroom.

Thanks to the Visitint Teachers Programme of the Ministry of Education of Spain I was able to teach in the US for a couple of years. With hindsight I can now say that it has helped me greatly to improve my instruction and to have a different perspective of what teaching should be like.

Education in the US is student centered, i.e. teachers spend hours and hours preparing engaging strategies to help kids learn, adapting those strategies to the different profiles you come across in the classroom; however, that can sometimes be frustrating since so much effort does not seem to have much compensation.

Teachers are offered the possibility of attending professional development courses all year round. Some of them may be optional but others are mandatory, in which case, you may even be tested on them and have to retake them if you fail to answer the questions correctly.

I would say that teaching is very demanding in general but in some countries more than in others.

This is my first classroom in the US. At first I thought I had been very lucky for having been given a classroom with this type of desks where students would be able to work in groups. I soon changed my mind, not for a group of twenty-four teenagers. LOL

This is the front of my classroom at the beginning of the school year before the students started lessons.

In the US, it is common for teachers to spend a few days tidying up, cleaning and decorating their rooms before the start of the actual classes. Most of the time, it is the teacher him/herself who pays for those decorations and materials. In schools with a bigger budget, they will provide you with enough materials.

There are usually several charity events along the year in which teachers take part. The photograph below illustrates "Crazy Hair Day". On this day, both teachers and children show their creativeness with an original hairdo. This one was complimentary, a student offered to do for me for free. LOL!