My Experiences in Spain: Spain coming to an End

Its crazy to think that I have officially finished teaching at my school in Vitoria, Spain after being there for 8 months and I only have one more week left in Spain before I head back home for the summer.

I would like to share with you some of my experiences of my last days of teaching in the past couple weeks and have really made this year completely worth it and so rewarding. First of all, two weeks ago I had my last classes with the second level of Bachieller which are my highest level students where most of them will all go off to college next year. I have two classes of this level who I have assisted in each of their classes once a week since the start of October with the head of the English department, Fernando. For my last class with these students Fernando had suggested for me to think of something very special and different from any other class to do with my students. So after thinking for a while about the culture and things native to the United States and the New England area I had decided to teach my students about Maple Syrup since it is something that the area of New England is famous for. Of course it is something that very few of my students had ever heard of nor tried. So I started off the class by explaining to them what Maple Syrup is, what it is used for and how it is made. I then played a quick video that demonstrated the whole process of how maple syrup is made taking place on a typical farm in both Vermont and New Hampshire . While the video was playing I ran down to the kitchen and heated up the pancakes I had made for 25 students the night before. My students had no idea what I was about to surprise them with. Fernando had told them that I was going to give them an exam on everything I had taught them this year. When I had asked them if they were hungry and would like to try some pancakes with maple syrup, they were so surprised and some of their faces were just priceless with what I had done for them. They were all very impressed with the pancakes however, some of them were not brave enough to try this foreign thing we call Maple Syrup. After one of the students volunteered to say thank you on behalf of the entire class for how much they have enjoyed having me in class this year and how it is the first time they have had someone like me. It was the perfect ending to class. It really made me appreciate everything I have experienced this year and was probably the best day I have had of teaching so far this year.

I did the exact same thing with my class the following day. When I had asked to get a picture with this class with the pancakes and syrup two of my students who I have really enjoyed working with started to tear up a little, which made me tear a little. However, is probably a good sign that they have enjoyed having me this year. Below I have posted a picture of me with both of my classes with the pancakes and maple syrup.

My last day of officially working at the school was this past Friday, May 28th. We had a culture day which consisted of all of the students from different countries putting together a stand and serving food typical from their country in the gymnasium. One of the other teacher's I work with, Jesus, suggested for me to put together a stand from the United States. So in two of my classes with him we had the students divide up into groups and all create posters consisting of different categories of the United States such as food, holidays, sports, tourism, the flag and music. The morning of this event I arrived to school early and a few of my students from a variety of classes helped me prepare the food I had decided to serve on this day. We made chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The chocolate chip cookies were a big hit and went fairly fast. However, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were something that many were not eager to try them since it seems like such a strange combination. There were some people who were impressed with this combination after trying it.

After all of the food had been tried there were performances by various groups of people consisting of dances and singing. It was great to see some of my students performing on the stage. After the event I was able to talk to many students and take some pictures of them. This was a great ending to my experience teaching in Vitoria. Even though I haven't said my official good byes to all the students at my school because I know I will be back this week it does feel like it has come to an end especially since two of the Auxilliares left today, which is such a weird feeling. Below I have posted pictures from the culture day and I am looking forward to enjoying my last week in Vitoria.