Teaching English in Sevilla

Well, as promised, here’s a blog post dedicated to my teaching experiences here in Sevilla! For the past four weeks, I’ve biked down to one of the best colegios in Sevilla to help teach 14-15-year-olds English, and I’m loving it!

The first day was probably one of my favorites. While I was definitely nervous (I mean I know nothing about teaching English.), it turned out to be so much fun. The profesora that I’m working with is very nice and extremely organized and had me come prepared to give a short presentation on who I am, where I’m from, etc. So I prepared and presented a PowerPoint to the kids, showing them my family, all of the places I’ve lived in the U.S., my university, my family and friends, and my hobbies. The kids loved it and asked me a lot of questions (some strange ones (like if all Americans think that Spain is Mexico??))

Since then, I’ve gone back each week and have helped them with more structured lessons that their profesora gives me. Through these I definitely have realized that I need to work on some of my teaching skills. For instance, I never thought that just explaining a worksheet could be so difficult at times or that I would have to make small decisions like whether to keep a fan off or on when kids are asking for both.

But overall, these difficulties have been small, and I think that the kids are learning for the most part. And sometimes, if I have extra time, I teach them in a more laid-back and fun way by just talking to them about cultural differences. This week, I had the time to talk to them about Halloween, which they enjoyed (It’s so small here. I’ve seen a few Halloween decorations around and saw only three different bags of Halloween candy at the grocery store today.).

I look forward to working with them for the next few weeks before I leave. I love helping them learn English, as I know it can be so challenging to learn a new language (They’re pretty good too!). And I just love talking to some of the kids. There definitely some really sweet ones who love talking to me and who ask to give me hugs sometimes. Overall, I wish I had so much more time to work with these kids!