First exam…

Today they have made an exam. Three of the students couldn’t write a word, but the rest of them performed much better than in a normal class. At least, this is my impression. We will see after the corrections…

The students… multiculti

One of my first goals was to remember their names… and believe me, I am not talented for this task! I drew a sketch of the position of the seats with the name of the students on it. This way I learnt all the names very quickly. Sultan, Zulfiqar, Meryem, Rodabelle, Fatima, Aatif, Karren, Mohamed, Ibran, Said, Albania, Mariem, Faisal.. are not the most common names in our country. However, I think this makes the job easier.

They chose the place they seat on at the beginning of the course. For that reason they are organised in small groups, boys with boys, Moroccans with Moroccans…, but some difficult students were later moved from their chosen seat to prevent them from disturbing.

As it happens in the neighbourhood, the most numerous nationalities in the class are Moroccans, Pakistanis, Philippines and South Americans. Catalans are underrepresented in the group.

Many times, their nationalities mark their English level. Some Philippines and Pakistanis know better English than most of Moroccans and South Americans because they have had a previous contact with the language.

A bit more about my traineeship…

I have to admit that during the first two classes I was a bit impressed (scared) about the students. The way they interrupted the class at any time and the way they look like made me feel like I was in the film ‘Dangerous Minds’ (only that Michelle Pfeiffer wasn’t there to save me). I remembered the way we used to treat replacement teachers when I was a student myself (some of them had to leave the class crying) and I had nightmares about some of my students challenging me in front of the class and not being able to keep my authority.

In fact, two of the kids challenged me twice during my second day and I wasn’t even conducting the class!

Also, as I was leaving the class after my second day of traineeship I saw a fight on the corridor. Núria and I tried to stop the two kids, but it was not easy. We had to grab them and separate them.

Fortunately I soon realised that things were not the way I had feared. These kids are normal and Núria has established a very good conduct pattern in the class. She knows how to manage them and they behave properly, they know what is not allowed in a class and they respond to instructions and to telling-off positively.

I think I was just oversensitive and also I wasn’t used to some of their manners. Probably they were also a bit excited about the new young teachers in the class.