First week in Santa Ana

 

Before I begin talking about my first week of teaching, I wanna say I feel like I'm back to studying in high school! <3   I bought a uniform of the school and I wore it teaching today. Afterwards, I did my own studies - Spanish and Japanese in the school library. Wearing the high school uniform studying reminded me of the time I was studying English, IGCSEs, and A-levels in Macau. 

The first week of school was great. Although my mentor Salut was ill the first 3 days, another English teacher Alberto was very kind to me and gave me a lot of information about the school and gave me a lot of advice. I really liked the atmosphere of this school. Every staff has been so helpful and friendly. Every teacher in the English team has been very kind to me and Mitch. I couldn't ask for a better school to have my English teaching placement.

I am grateful that I have the chance to teach 14-17 years old students in general. And the fact that I have a number of oral / speaking classes to teach is one of the best things to me. Growing up learning English in a super grammar-focused and prescriptive Asian way, I really want to make a difference and help my students to have the confidence to speak more English. To me, it's not about being 100% grammatically correct or sounding native-like, it's more about expressing yourself and having the willingness to build up connections with other people, and seeing the world from another perspective in another language. 

Next week, I am having more lesson planning and my first observed lesson. I also asked my mentor if I can have some primary lessons because I want to see the difference of primary teaching between in England and in Spain. I hope everything goes well and I can build good rapport with my students.