I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as an
English language assistant at CEIP Salvador Allende. From day one I felt
welcomed and put at ease by the staff and I soon came to feel part of the
bilingual team.
I spent the year helping in lessons with
years 4, 5 and 6 in Natural and Social Science. My role in class was to give
the children a chance to practise English and get used to a native English
speaker. So, generally in lessons I read from the textbook and did vocabulary
and speaking activities with the children. Also, I often worked with a small
group of children at the back of the classroom, which personally I found was a
much better way of engaging with the children and allowing them all to
participate in activities.
I learnt a great deal from working with the
different teachers. Amongst other things, I learnt about the role of the
teacher, the factors that affect their work, how to deal with classroom
problems, and about different methods of evaluation. Also, I attended the
weekly meetings of the bilingual staff team, from which I learnt how the
teachers organised their work. I am very grateful to Gracia and all of the
staff I worked with for giving me the opportunity to be part of the bilingual
team and to learn from them.
I have some great memories from working at
the school, with some of my favourites being the Halloween celebrations, seeing
the year 6 Christmas play (a very impressive version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, all in English), sharing
my presentation about A British Christmas with the whole school, and working in
a year 5 lesson where they made their own model ecosystems.
It has been a fantastic experience working
at Salvador Allende, where I’ve learnt a lot, both personally and
professionally, and I will really miss working here.
