Our Language Assistant
As my time at IES Fuerte de la Cortadura comes to an end, I wanted to reflect on this year and thank everyone who made it so wonderful. This was my second year as a language assistant in Andalucía and I loved every minute of it. Of course, there were difficult moments and bad days, but the good times were much, much more often than the hard times.
Being a language assistant is a unique experience- I´m not quite a teacher, but I do lead lessons and activities. In some classrooms, I am there to help with pronunciation and understanding the meaning of sentences in English and in others, I guide classes through lessons or activities to reinforce material they have already learned in Spanish. I am involved in many different subjects- geography, history, art, math, biology, physical education, science and culture, and national heritage. In these classes we did anything from learning vocabulary with readings and videos to fun games like Kahoot and Jeopardy to review material before exams.
In a classroom at Cortadura, I could always expect something funny or sweet or weird (in a good way!) to happen. Throughout the year, I have kept a list on my phone of things like this that made me laugh or smile that I did not want to forget. I call this list my ‘Teaching Stories’, but it could also be named my ‘Teaching Highlights’. I thought I’d share a few here to hopefully try to show what a great experience I’ve had in this secondary school.
1. Around Christmas time, I put on some Christmas music to practice pronunciation and listening and when Mariah Carey’s song ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ came on, the ENTIRE class of 1° de la ESO began singing the song at the top of their lungs. I left that day with a huge smile on my face.
2. One day in art class, the students had to draw things that reminded them of certain emotions. One student raised her hand to call me over and said “Serena, how do you draw a dead dog?” Guess the emotion... sad! It completely caught me off guard and was so so funny.
3. Almost every time that I walk into a classroom, especially with 1° de la ESO, I have students calling ‘Hi Serena!’, waving at me, and generally seeming excited to see me, which warms my heart.
4. Ok this one is weird, but it sticks in my mind because it made me laugh uncontrollably at how odd it was. In a geography class (I won’t say which class, but I’m sure the class knows I’m talking about them), one student pulled out some biscuits, snapped them in half, and started to glue them together like Oreos. Luckily this student did not eat the glue Oreos, but it was definitely a funny moment to remember
5. For a final highlight, I am remembering a 3° de la ESO geography class when we held a climate change debate. I was so proud of this class because everyone participated (in English!) and had a good time getting into the character they played (businessmen, scientists, politicians, and environmentalists). It was entertaining to sit back and watch chaos happen (a good chaos) during the debate.
Hi there! My name is Serena Hendrickson,
and I am the Conversation Assistant this year at I.E.S. Fuerte de
Cortadura. I am from Denver, Colorado, USA, and went to university in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA. Denver is a city in the west of the country and is known
for the beautiful mountains (I grew up only 15-20 minutes away from the
mountains!). Milwaukee is in the Midwest of the country, right next to Lake
Michigan. Both cities are hot in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter!
I attended university at Marquette University and studied Spanish Language, Literature and Culture, and Sociology with a minor in Family Studies. I graduated in May 2020, in the midst the pandemic! I studied abroad in Madrid during university and knew that I wanted to return to Spain, especially if I could live in Andalucía. After graduating, I moved to Jaén to work as a language assistant for the 2020-2021 school year. I loved the Andalucía lifestyle and people, so I knew I wanted to stay for another year. I have always loved the ocean and had heard wonderful things about Cádiz, so I decided to try living here!
In my free time, I enjoy writing, reading, doing yoga, and exploring the city. I have also started taking surf lessons, which I’ve never done before! I also work at a language academy teaching English. Understanding and speaking more than one language is a wonderful skill, especially if one of the languages is English, because it creates many opportunities for the students and their futures.
The staff and students at Fuerte de Cortadura have all been so warm and welcoming! I always look forward to coming to the school and love working with everyone here, let’s have a great year!
Jacksonville is a large and relatively new city made up of various suburbs (residential neighborhoods). The weather and beaches are common points between Jacksonville and Cadiz, but they are completely different in history and culture, which is why I am so excited to explore Cadiz!
Visit The life of Callum: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCagyCiS5iWi8VjLRwRWvzDA
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