What do I do at work?

This week has been my first full "workweek" since arriving in Almeria. I've assisted in lessons and given lessons. I've made mistakes, had minor successes and learned quite a bit about myself, and my students.

My kryptonite while giving lessons has been - my mom's gonna love this - that I talk too fast and do not pronounce words I don't deem worthy of properly saying. This terrible teaching style (which only lasted for one day) caused the kids to struggle to understand my accent, not understand my lesson, and look at me like I had 3 freakin' heads. Now when I give a lesson I feel like the old uncle in Christmas Vacation, "GRAAAACE... THEE BLEEESSSSING" (that's how I type proper volume and pronunciation needed for teaching).

As for a minor successes, I'm starting to build rapport with the kids. I still have no idea anyone's name, I think I see somewhere around 60-70 kids a week. Some classes, I simply help kids read/practice speaking, and assist the teacher with classwork. Other days, I give full lessons in simple English. Those days, the kids have to listen to and read the material, then volunteer to read it aloud to practise their accent, then do a basic activity. They're generally too shy for their own good when it comes to speaking. When I review their answers to questions on paper, it's usually very good, but not all of them care enough/like to read out loud.

A sweet part of my job is something called "conversation hours". It's where you more or less throw lesson plans out of the window and meet with people or a class and just practice speaking . I have two of them with teachers, and one with a class. Today, for instance, Me and a teacher Jose Luis went to a bar super close to school and had beers and ate tapas and just talked about whatever we wanted. Jose Luis is a social studies teacher who speaks English very well, but wants to improve because being a bilingual teacher in Spain greatly helps your job prospects. I got paid to do it, he paid for the drinks, all in all a pretty sweet deal!

I've also picked up a couple tutoring jobs on the side for extra cash. The government down here isn't going to pay us until mid-November. There's not much urgency down here, Andalusia is like hell for impatient people such as myself. There's a great laid-back attitude of "we'll do it tomorrow, no big deal" down here. However, when one has to open a bank account, get a residence card and extend their student visa, it's a pain to have to wait! I want it done today, but it just doesn't happen like that around here.