Bilingual issues 2

Being a teacher of the target language in the bilingual school system here in Spain is quite an anomaly really. I don't adhere to the same schedule as the other teachers and I don't have any after school meetings or strenuous prep work. So far I basically just show up, speak English, pretend I don't understand Spanish when they talk back to me and go home.

I work with three teachers, one of which prefers to let me do most of the talking. She tells me which sections of the book she wants me to cover and then while I talk she works with one of the weaker students, grades papers or listens and interjects when she wants to add something. The second teacher has me sit in class like a student, listening to him while every so often he calls on me to act as an English parrot and then it's back to silence. I'm sure you'll be astonished to know that this is my least favorite class. The third teacher is both my favorite teacher and teaches my favorite group of students. She lets me come up with ideas for the units and allows me teach a majority of the time. It really seems to make a difference that the first and second teachers both resort to Spanish often when they think that the children don't understand, whereas the third teacher almost never speaks Spanish in class except to translate vocabulary words. One could suppose that this accounts for why the students of the third class have the highest level of English of the three classes.

Hence I am witness to three different teaching styles from three very different teachers. I have been brainstorming sneaky ways to inject myself into the parrot-teacher's class and right now I have come up with Show and Tell and upcoming Halloween activities. I was able to give a presentation about my life prior to Spain in the three classes. The biggest hits were pictures of my favorite food and a picture of bear eating garbage in Mammoth. They just couldn't believe it when I told them that bears wander around the town at night looking for garbage...