The Autumn of 2010

The Royal Armouries in Leeds

In life, it is often said that it is not good to go over old ground and, in a sense, this happened with my second experience of teaching Spanish students, through the English Experience.

Having had such a good time the year before, I didn’t hesitate when invited to teach another group of students from Vigo, this time in partnership with Handsworth Grange Community Sports College, in Sheffield. However, when I discovered that, instead of being taught in the school itself, the students were to have their lessons at the Centre in the Park, I knew that there would be problems, not least for the lack of space and computer and the travel arrangements involved. 

The Royal Armouries in Leeds

The key to the success of my first project with the Vigo students was that everyone worked as a cohesive unit, in one place, and when we had to travel we did it as a team. Furthermore, when I met my Spanish group off the train in Swinton, there was no doubt as to who was in charge.

Tere and Thais organised the students admirably, getting them from Spain to England and back safely, but they knew that, in the UK, they must listen to me.

With the Spanish leaders of this group, however, I had to take them to task on a couple of occasions, when out on the field trips. One particularly memorable incident occurred on a day out to Leeds, where our reserved seats were actually occupied. Having taken ten minutes, on a fast train, to reclaim our seats, one of the leaders had the audacity to tell me that I was wrong, when I had to remonstrate with the students, after they left their seats and sat down on the aisle of the train carriage, to play cards. From then on, the word "Oi!" was always on my mind.

Ten pin bowling

In the classroom, it also wasn’t helped by the fact that, this time, the two groups of students were alternated between myself and my co-teacher, who had a long career as a primary school teacher and whose chosen project did not seem very compatible with mine, as far as challenging the students was concerned.

Without the computer facilities to produce a finished document with MS Publisher, each student was asked to write a short daily Blog, describing their experiences. With each student in turn, I would correct their MS Word document using the editing function that is available in this programme and, in the time available, I would carefully explain why they had made their grammatical mistakes.

York Minster