The Fundamentals of "Making it Work"

Teaching abroad has continued to be an eye-opening experience (shocking...). Everyday I'm finding myself shoved out of the world of comfort and into the land of thinking-on-your-feet.  Bartending for the past two years taught me how to hustle and multitask, which has definitely come in handy during my first two months at school, but hasn't been a fix-it to even half of the scenarios I've encountered.

Some days, teaching English to Spanish speakers feels like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  I'm trying to explain in depth science topics with surface level English words, and trying to explain in depth English grammar and vocabulary with songs, stories, and my over-exaggerated arm movements (aka flailing). Through all of this craziness, though, I am becoming more and more flexible everyday... Which is a trait I can definitely benefit from.  Assuming that everything will go to plan at any moment in time will only lead to being let down, because well, life happens, especially in the 3rd and 5th grade English classrooms at my school in Mostoles.

So, here is my list of unexpected things to expect in an ESL classroom:

1. Students occasionally breaking into spontaneous bursts of incomprehensible rapid-fire-spanish.
2. Teachers consistently breaking into spontaneous bursts of incomprehensible rapid-fire-spanish.
3. The heaters giving out at the same time that cool fall weather is kicking in.
4. Being instructed to make a poster about 8 different types of invertebrates on a wall that has a fire extinguisher as a centerpiece.

   

   Voila! Made it work... Kinda.

5. Hearing the word "rubber" upwards of 100 times a class, and the phrase "rub it out" even more often (spoiler... rubber is the equivalent of eraser).
6. Being renamed "Mooh-Li" because "Molly" is too exotic of a name.  Or rather, being renamed "teacher."
7. Wishing for 8 more arms 3 minutes after feeling utterly useless. And another 4 minutes after that feeling completely lost again and 6 minutes later leading the class in an in depth discussion on the difference between lungs and gills.
8. Needing to translate Spanish students english vocabulary back into Spanish in order to decipher what they're saying.
9. Living in constant fear of being caught speaking Spanish with the parents/faculty by your sneaky and suspicious students.
10. Getting more excited than your students about breakthroughs in understanding grammar we take for granted... Like the damn third-person-singular present-simple addition of an "-s" on verbs. The students like to hug and kiss Miss Molly, but Miss Molly likes to stay germ-free, so she doesn't let them, and then they don't speak to her in English anymore.

Rant, rant, rant. It's all I do after a long day. Regardless of the amount of time I spend ranting, though, I feel infinitely more useful in front of classrooms full of wide eyes and jumbled brains than have anywhere else.  Sure I used to listen and bond with people while behind the bar, and coach students at the rink, and take care of countless children, teaching has always been my passion.  And though this is slightly (ha!) different than what I would expect back home, I am making it work. And there is nothing more I could ask for.