Our first six weeks with Teacher Melanie!

Our first six weeks with Teacher Melanie!

Now that I’m adjusted to my new life here in Spain, let me tell you about these amazing first six weeks…

I am the Auxiliar or Culture and Language Assistant here at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar and my role is to encourage conversation and introduce relevant American culture into the classroom. Let me say…this is THE BEST job I’ve ever had! I am showered with love and appreciation and I get to use fun activities to get students involved in their curriculum. I think the one thing that I have been shocked by is how much I am truly able to teach the students. When I have their full attention I am able to introduce new subject matter and they walk away with knowledge and new confidence in their English. There is no better feeling!

Ooh fourth grade, how dear you are to me! I absolutely do not have favorites but I feel like my fourth graders have pulled out the best in me. Each class is impactful and unique and they met me with an unmatched energy level the minute I stepped into class. They truly gave me my confidence to teach…and for that I’m thankful because it impacts my ability to teach in all of classes. On my first day in our getting to know me conversation, they asked me to sing my favorite song and I haven’t sang in public since I was a 4^th grader myself. That was the moment that changed me! Here are the rest of our highlights:

In the first three weeks we got to know each other and I learned the classroom structure and lots of names! I also taught the Rock Cycle using a diagram and question/answer session and we had a day where they played a Guess Who style game using types of rocks. Thinking back I’m not even sure how we’ve covered so much in such a short amount of time! Our time together is always productive and progressive.

In week four I introduced the activity I was most excited for! I created a Fear Box similar to this one:

This is a tool I intend to use more throughout the year when I can. The idea is to insert an object that they must describe. The item may be unrelated but the words they should use will relate to the subject material. The rest of the class must then guess what’s inside. Unlike the video, the item inside is hidden from the audience. The first time we used it, it went flawlessly and was quite the entertainment. The students loved it and look forward to using it again. It gets them out of the comfort zone of using the same phrases and forces them to try to find words that they know or want to know!

In week five we did a review of landforms using a guessing game. Each student was assigned a landform that they’ve learned and given the opportunity to present it to the class. They used categories (landscape/body of water), direction (NSEWC), and relational clues (near, next to, etc.) to describe their assigned landform. The class was then allowed to guess the correct landform.

This activity was fun, interactive and competitive. I challenged the students to try to be the student who guessed the most landforms. This activity integrated their review, their public speaking, their directions and relational words, which they are learning in other subjects. They enjoyed it and I will use more activities like this to encourage their public speaking!

Last week I transformed into “MRS GREN” in order to teach the life processes of living things. Each letter of the name stands for a different life process and helps them to memorize each type. I lowered my glasses to the tip of my nose and spoke with an odd drag to make the day memorable. They giggled and participated willingly as I asked them to help me spell my name. Before the activity I asked the class if they could name all of the processes and they doubted themselves. By the end of the activity they knew each process and we reviewed an example for each process.

Needless to say, we have FUN in fourth grade!