INT SCHOOL - DAY
Hours 31-30

Nice week this one. On Monday we got a visit from the person in charge of this year's TV3 Marató campaign to let us know a little bit more on the topic they have chosen to work on. It has to do with mental illnesses, and she made an introduction to the most frequent ones and then projected a video with real people talking about their illnesses and how they felt about them. I have to say that I got impressed. Mental illnesses are really really complex and may seem difficult to assimilate unless you have someone suffering from them near you. I constantly looked at the kids' faces to guess their reactions, and I have to say that on the whole they didn't seem to get too involved or affected. The speech turned my stomach and brought in a mixture of bitter feelings including guilt, sadness, empathy but above all, I felt ignorant and impotent.

I didn't come to class on Tuesday, because they had the exam and there was no need of me in there jiji.

I came back on Friday full of energy because Miriam asked me to introduce the new lesson to them and I had all my positivity ready to explode over them. I got some pictures of me when I was a child where I am playing tennis. I digitalized the picts and included them at the beginning of my power point presentation. I told them that they only know my name and nothing else, and that I was going to talk a little bit about me. I projected the first picture in which I appear with my sister and two more friends, a girl and a boy. The three girls are playing tennis and the boy is doing taekwondo. I introduced my companions to them and asked them how old they thought I was in the picture. Someone said 6, and I told them I started playing tennis when I was 6 and asked them if they played any sport. Then, I showed them the picture where I was getting a cup, my first trophy at the age of 6, took it off my case and showed it to them. This led me to ask if they had ever won a cup. I have to say that they answered my questions and seemed interested on my speech, which I think was dynamic and funny (I was sooo cute in my youth! jiji). Miriam helped a lot trying to encourage students to speak by being one of them and being the first to answer when they would not speak, promoting their participation and iniciating the interactions. She was really helpful and gave me confidence. After all this show turning around me, I started projecting the first ficture of Fernando Torres. I asked them who he was and which sport did he played. Being conscious that on the previous lesson they had worked on descriptions, I asked them how they called the little spots he had on his cheeks (doing mimics). I encouraged them to look at their notes, which they did! GREAT! One of them finally said it, and I made the one at the other side of the class repeat it until he said it right. I went on projecting the pictures for all the sports, asking for the person in the picture and the sport (s)he played. They guessed most of them, and I pre-taught some sports which they didn't know how were called in English (after their trials on "escalating" "bucing" or "bicing" among others). Then, for them to keep these new words, I proposed a game in which I would announce a category and they would write as many sports as they remembered in a minute. I proposed Miriam as the referee by providing her of 2 cards, a red and a yellow one and a whistle for her to warn students from cheating. She enjoyed that! It was funny to see they reacted very well and the game was a full success. I told them "WATER SPORTS" and made a countdown from 3 to 1 to get the game started. Miriam wrote their answers on the blackboard and we finally got 3 winners. I showed 3 medals I had made myself with golden, silver and bronze cards and asked for the help of a hostess to hand them to their owners. We applauded after each prize-giving and it was all over at 12:25. Miriam had 5 minutes to announce their homework for next day and the class was over by the ringing of the bell. I was happy and amazed it all went that well. I am really proud of the kids, and I can say I encouraged them to participate, even the ones who are not used to it asked me if they could write the words in their notebook. It was a very nice experience which I had forgotten (it's two years since I last taught a class) and I felt really happy inside.

The worst: I had brought my camera to class, but was too involved in the teaching that I forgot to take pictures of it and now I regret, because I had the idea of posting them here and have them as a souvenir of this experience. What a pity :_( Let's hope they don't get rid of the medals and I can get some portraits of the winners.

The best: one of the girls told me after class she had really enjoyed it, which I really appreciate and feel proud of.

Thanks Miriam and all the kids for being there and help me cope with this first performace at their class.

A thanks-giving video today: 1, 2, 3 Sol by Standstill. Gracias por venir.