Back to school

Today the students came. Chaos. Yesterday I learned that my two boys had to wear tags with their name, class and mode of transportation–as in, did they go on a bus, and if so, which one. So I spent an hour looking all over the house for those little clip on tags you get at conferences and the like, kind of thing you get accumulate and never keep track of. Finally found two. Then only half of the children in my class came tagged and identified.

Spent all day sorting them out, tagging them, replacing lost nametags… and one child was missing. I have six boys and by 3 o’clock I knew who was who, but I kept mixing up the 12 girls. And the absentee is a girl too. I wish it was the other way around, I’m better with boys. Or they are better with me. Last year the boys adored me, probably because with two of my own around the same age, I’m on their wavelength. Girls are more complex, more mature, probably more intelligent, and definitely more difficult. Not to generalize or anything. Especially on the intelligence issue, one of my boys was a genius. And in this new class, the girls appear easier and sweeter. We shall see. I’m doing my best to keep an open mind.

Yesterday we had school-wide (all three campuses) planning meetings. In July three teachers had prepared extensive schedules for at least half the year–the one who had done Infants (4 year olds) gave us plans up through June. Beautifully thorough, well-thoughtout plans. Only problem was we dont have the required materials. Surprise surprise. We might have week 2’s book by Monday. If things run true to standard, we’ll be making it up as we go along. At least the intention is there, inspired though it is by last year’s disastrous inspection. But it is still all backwards. I cannot imagine worse human resource management–well all right, I could imagine worse, I have a healthy imagination, and certainly there are parameters unknown to me that dictate these decisions.

The woman who so skillfully planned the year for Infants is teaching Preparatory (5yearolds) so she will not be able to participate in the follow-up. She has asked to be transferred to the third and smallest campus for three years, and yesterday we found out that a Spanish girl who started as a supply teacher last year will be a teacher in said small campus. I wanted Preparatory, and there is a new untried girl from the US teaching the fifth Prep–a risk because most of the young non-Spanish speakers leave at Christmas. The other woman who started in January in my old campus B [let’s sort this out, we’ll call where I am now Campus A, where I was last year B, and the small one C] with the five-year olds as I did is teaching Infants in B, and she’s a certified teacher of middle school in Massachusetts. Though she doesnt mind too much, since it was a last minute decision on her part to continue at B. As for the rest back at B, they’ve all jumped classes, some happily some not so much. I shouldnt complain, my one demand was to be switched to Campus A, and that was met.

I was surprised at my own ability to teach five year olds last spring, amazed that the administration assumes I can therefore teach four-year-olds. Better to keep people where you know they work well.

Not nearly as exciting that way though. And we are working where we are primarily because we are native speakers of English and the upper-middle class in Spain has been bamboozled into thinking that the more English a child is exposed to at a young age, the better chances of success he or she will have in later life.