It can be hard to know what to expect starting any job — especially when it’s in another country. January 11th marked my first day working as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. My host school was CIFP A Carballeira, a vocational school in Ourense, Spain. Despite initially not knowing what to expect, I was thoroughly happy with my school placement by the end of my first day.
Day 1
Coming into the school for the first time was both scary and exciting. Before that point, I had only met the two teachers who gave me a tour of the school the day before. I had also sent emails back and forth with some of the principals and coordinators, who all seemed really nice. So, I was feeling pretty good about the teachers and staff of the school.
Because I didn’t have a formal introduction, several of the teachers thought that I was a student at first, which was pretty funny. But after my brief explanation that I was the new auxiliar, I quickly became the center of attention.
The teachers took me to the school’s outside seating area and treated me to a café con leche while introducing themselves. It was so interesting to see the teachers that I would be working with and make friends with the teachers who were excited to practice their English.
Week 1
During my first week at the school, I was still in the process of apartment hunting. After I mentioned my struggles finding housing (which I talk about in my older post here), my teachers went full force. They called their landlords, friends, and apartment listings in the area on my behalf so that I would find a place to live. The way they reacted, you would have thought I was homeless! It was so heartwarming to receive so much support from people who — at the time — were practically strangers to me.
Week 2
By the second week of school, I’d found an apartment (finally!) and tried to get accustomed to my class schedule. During the first week, I only had to introduce myself to my students, which was great because I had no idea what my classes were. My schedule was written in abbreviated Galician, so it was really anybody’s guess what it said.
I also had to figure out the distance learning methods of each class, because they all took different approaches. The way that the school works is that each class can choose one of three options. Option one divides the students into two groups. Group A attends class in-person for one week, while group B attends virtually. The following week, the groups switch, so group A is at home and B is at school. Option two is similar to option one, except there is no online component. When the students are not at school, they have asynchronous work to do instead. Finally, option three has the students come to class every week. At first, I thought all the classes were like option one or two. So, I was really surprised when I started to introduce myself to the same class twice.
Figuring Things Out
After a few weeks, I really started to get the hang of everything. Although I had experience teaching, I was used to teaching languages, not content courses like Informatics or Molecular Biology. Fortunately, it took relatively little trial and error to find out what kinds of things my classes liked. My students are especially fond of Jeopardy games and Kahoots to go over the material.
Something that I would especially recommend to future grantees is to ask for extra guidance on subjects you aren’t as familiar with. For me, Informatics, Business, and Labor Rights were completely out of my skill set. I mean, I literally didn’t know anything about those subjects — I studied Biology, not those!
By default, the teachers gave me pretty much free reign over the classroom, thinking that it would be more fun for me. But after I spoke to my teachers about how stressful it was to teach myself the material every week to create a presentation, they were more than happy to help! Having more support with the curriculum honestly saved me so much time every week, which I was very grateful for.
Although I’d only been at the school for a few weeks, the support and kindness of my co-teachers really made me feel so welcome. They say that there’s no such thing as a mistake in the Fulbright selection and assignment process, and my host school was definitely no exception.
If you liked this post, you can check out my other Fulbright posts here!
Disclaimer: This is not an official Department of State publication. The views and information presented are my own and do not represent the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, ECA, the Post, or the Fulbright Commission, or the host country’s government or institutions.
