It has been almost three whole weeks since I returned to the United States after a remarkable and life changing summer in Seville! It seems like just yesterday I was waking up and heading to morning patio to spend time playing and having fun with the most wonderful students. I miss my daily walk to school through the windy streets of Seville. I miss walking across the river as the sun was rising. I miss taking my breaks on the steps of the cathedral. I miss spending time with some of the sweetest children every day and going home to spend time and eat with my wonderful host family and then going to spend lazy afternoons exploring Seville with my Spanish speaking partners. I only wish the summer had never ended and I was still teaching in Spain! But, as I am home and am reflecting on my experiences, I decided to share my top 10 favorite parts of this experience. Here they are!
10. Seville
Seville is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen! It is so strikingly beautiful with the colorful buildings and small streets. It feels like something out of a fairy tale. There are the most magnificent places like the Plaza de España, which is just absolutely spectacular, the Cathedral, and the Alcázar. But there are also every day buildings that are stunning, each with lots of color or flowers to make it colorful. I loved seeing all of the tiles of color in all of the buildings around the city: in my house, in the school, in the shops! They were everywhere and they were fabulous. It just shows that the entire city is a work of art. After class, I took lazy strolls down the Barrio Santa Cruz, an old historic part of the city with walkways so small you could stand in the middle of the street and touch the walls on either side of you! When I went to the gym, I walked through the Barrio Triana, directly next to where I lived in Los Remedios, where I fell in love with the quiet streets and bright buildings.
One of the coolest things about Seville is the history. To me it is absolutely insane that as you walk down the street, you see buildings and places that were monumental during influential times of the history of Seville. Every day, I walked by the Torre del Oro, which was built after the Cristopher Columbus traveled to America as a tower to keep the gold. Every day, I walked by the Cathedral which was where Christopher Columbus is supposedly history. It is remarkable to believe that this place was home to so many influential pieces, and I am so glad I got to live there, even if just for a short while!
9. The Little Mermaid
Under the Sea! Under the Sea! This song was a huge part of the summer, as my students put on the musical, The Little Mermaid, during the fourth week of the camp. Throughout the summer, we practiced the songs, the dance moves, and the lines, so by the end of the summer they put on the most fabulous version of The Little Mermaid that I have ever seen! I adored seeing my students working so hard to practice the English to prepare for the play. It was so cool to see incorporating art into the camp really helped the students grow exponentially.
8. Traveling
I love to travel. So far I have been to 18 countries, and I certainly have a travel bug. There is so much I want to see in the world, and I absolutely love any opportunity to travel and explore. I love being introduced to new cultures and meeting new people. While in Spain, for both trips, I had the opportunity to travel somewhere new every weekend! Seville is in a great location for travel around Andalusia, as well as to places like Madrid and even Portugal. Everything is super accessible by bus and the buses are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. During the nine weeks I traveled to numerous places in Spain, and even a couple of international places!
Cities in Spain: Madrid, Córdoba, La Rábida, Cádiz, Granada, Chipiona, Ronda, and Málaga.
I also traveled to Lisbon, Portugal and Gibraltar. Both of which were accessible by bus and beautiful places. If I weren't studying in Spain I probably would not have had the opportunity to visit these spectacular cities and I am so glad I did because they made the trip spectacular.
7. The Field Trips
Every week, we tried to take the students on some kind of field trip or do something super special on Fridays. The first week we took the students to the library. The second week we took the students to the park. The third week we took the students to La Doñana, a nature reserve that is spectacular for bird watching, where we saw all kinds of beautiful birds, including flamingos! On the last day of the program, we took the students to the Parque de María Luisa, which is such a stunning park right next to the Plaza de España with beautiful flowers, ponds, and trees. It is such a peaceful place in the heart of Seville. The last time we brought the students there, we played all kinds of games like "Pasa la Palabra" which is a Spanish game where the students have to answer questions that correlate to the letter of the alphabet. The best part was the water games. We played the sponge relay game, where you pass the sponge over your head to see who can fill up their bucket too. Then, we had a water balloon and squirt gun fight. The students loved throwing water balloons at us, and getting soaked was so much fun in the heat of Seville. It was such a blast, and I loved getting to experience that with my students.
6. Spanish Speaking Partner
I had the best Spanish Speaking Partner ever! My Spanish Speaking Partner, or intercambio, was named Alberto. He was so sweet and kind and was so eager to share his city with me. Alberto and I had a lot in common, which was awesome because it meant we always had a lot to talk about. He introduced me to all of his friends, and always invited me to hang out with them. He showed me the best places for tapas and the best places for tea in Seville. During the last week of my program, I visited the Feria (fair) of Triana with him and his friends. We tried all of the local foods and watched the festivities. It was so fun to go with someone from Seville because he grew up going to this festival, so he knew all of the important and meaningful aspects of the event. We also ran into a couple of people that he knew, so it was so much fun to meet more people. It really felt like I was a part of Seville's culture. When I met with Alberto and his friends, I was able to really practice my Spanish. Both Alberto and his significant other spoke English really well, but they encouraged me to practice my Spanish a lot. But, when I stumbled on some words they helped me come up with the right word or grammatical choice. Speaking Spanish with them as a group felt really natural because they were my friends and I was speaking about topics that I would talk about with my friends. Plus, when they were all in a group I had to speak Spanish because not all of them spoke English. The cool thing was that they didn't really slow down for me. So, I got to really practice Spanish in a natural environment where I felt safe and comfortable but where I was significantly growing.
5. My Host Family
I have talked a lot about my host family in this blog, but that is because they are literally the sweetest people. They are so caring and welcoming and have done so much for me. From my very first day in Seville they treated me like their own daughter, calling me "mija" and doing anything they can to make me feel at home. In the beginning, I really struggled to understand Spanish and communicate my thoughts. They were so patient and slowed things down so I could understand. They were really understanding when I made a grammar or vocabulary mistake and made sure not to frustrate me by correcting me so much. They promoted a lot of conversations to help me practice and until I could really start formulating my thoughts in Spanish they told me stories about their lives. Because of them, my Spanish improved very rapidly and by the end of the program, I was able to have normal conversations with them. It was evident that my host family really loved having host students because my host dad was always taking me and my roommate out to eat churros and on walks around the neighborhood. One night, my host dad took me on a tour of the Barrio Santa Cruz, where we stopped at some of his favorite tapas bars and walking down the streets that he walked down as a child. These moments with my host family were really special, and they are times that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Since I have been back to the U.S., I have kept in touch with them and I am so glad that I will be able to continue my relationship with them. I hope that one day I will go back to Spain and get to see them again.
4. Teaching Lessons
As an education major, I have had a lot of experience in the classroom, and I have tutored and taught lots of swim lessons. But before Playschool, I had really only planned and taught ten solo lessons in the classroom. I still really struggled with classroom management and planning too much in my lessons. During Playschool I was working with a fabulous teacher, named Elena, who really encouraged my participation in planning and in teaching. From the very beginning, I was included in the classroom as a co-teacher. We planned it so there were certain parts of the lesson that I would teach which was awesome because I felt so comfortable in the classroom. Elena allowed me to teach whatever I wanted, so if I had an idea or activity that I wanted to incorporate in the lesson she would always encourage me to teach it. As the weeks went on, I slowly started to teach more lessons in the classroom. In the end, I taught solo lessons on the United States, weather, the future tense and future jobs, as well as numerous science lessons and other activities during class. It was fabulous experience to teach as much as I wanted because I really improved my classroom management and planning abilities. By the end, I was able to recognize how many activities I needed to plan in my lessons and how to keep the students engaged throughout the lesson. Now that I am back in the United States and I am student teaching, I am so grateful for my experiences teaching at Playschool because I learned from a fabulous English teacher and I have gained a lot of experience teaching my own lessons. These have helped me feel so comfortable while teaching here in the U.S. Plus, I have been able to incorporate lots of Elena's ideas and activities into my lessons here in the U.S. which is awesome!
3. The Community
One of the most unique things about the Playschool was that I felt like I had a purpose in Seville. I have participated in other study abroad trips and they are so much fun and they have greatly impacted me. While working at the Playschool, I was really benefitting more than just myself, I was helping all of the children who came to learn English. I was making a difference in their lives as they were learning from my background and my experience and making great gains in English. I felt like I really had a purpose in the Seville community. Plus, each day I had the opportunity to work with and teach the future leaders of Spain. It is amazing to think that the English skills that I taught them this summer will probably be utilized to help them in their future careers as business men and women, diplomats, medical professionals, and more. It might inspire them to travel and explore and give them the confidence to do so. It is so encouraging to know that I helped the future of Seville learn English just as much as Seville helped me learn Spanish.
2. My Amazing Colleagues and Friends
Before the Playschool program started, I was very anxious about making friends. All of my friends that I made from the first session were heading back to the United States, and I was a little nervous about being alone in Spain. However, as soon as I met the other practicum in education students I knew I had nothing to worry about. The four other students from the United States became some of my best friends in only five weeks. They were so sweet and so loving and so eager to make a difference in the lives of their students. Together, we made a great team building off of each other's strengths to create a fun environment for our students. During events like the Fourth of July party and The Little Mermaid, their enthusiasm made the events spectacular. Together, we danced goofily to "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and swam around like fish during The Little Mermaid. The kids loved it and it made the experience so much fun for us. But these wonderful friends were also the best people to travel around Spain and Portugal with. Each of them were filled with such a desire for adventure that every trip was so much fun because they all wanted to see it all, just like me! My relationship with these four other students was super special because we all clicked so quickly, as our interests and personalities just melted together so well. I am so lucky to have met them and grateful that I can call them my lifelong friends. I am looking forward to seeing them again!
1. The Kids
"Everywhere we go
People want to know
Who we are.
So we tell them!
We are the YELLOW GROUP,
The mighty mighty yellow group.
And if they can't hear us,
We sing a little louder!
We are the YELLOW GROUP,
The mighty mighty yellow group!
GO YELLOW!"
This was our class cheer for the best group ever: the yellow group. My six and seven year old students were so full of energy and excitement every time they sang that song. And let me just tell you, these kids are AMAZING. I started teaching because I loved kids and I loved helping them flourish and succeed. These kids not only reminded me whey I started my education journey, but they inspired me to continue my education journey in Spain. These kids were not only sweet, but they were creative, dedicated, eager to learn, funny, and just all around amazing children. They had so much class spirit and were so enthusiastic about learning. They loved the adventures of the yellow group. They loved swimming up the stairs, pretending to be fish while walking to class. They loved participating and watching the science experiments. They loved creating delicious creations during cooking class. They loved Playschool and they loved learning. I was so proud of their dedication and passion for education, and I am so hopeful that I could teach them something because in the end they taught me so much.
It is crazy to believe that this experience with all of these amazing memories and experiences is actually over. I keep thinking that next summer I'll be back to teach and work with these kids again. However, even though I probably won't be back to this camp anytime soon, I have already been able to take everything I have learned and all of the memories I have made with me back to the states to help my students in the U.S. grow too. Everything I have learned will stay with me for the rest of my life and will be formative in my teaching. Because of my experiences with the Playschool, I hope to come back to Spain and teach English again in the future I am so grateful to everyone who helped make this experience possible and who helped me learn so much. Coming to Seville for the Playschool was easily the best decision I have ever made!