My First Day as an Auxiliar de Conversación
October 3, 2022 marked my first day as an auxiliar de conversación (an assistant language teacher in Spain). That day, I began teaching English at a bilingual primary school in Fuengirola, a beach town in Andalusia.
Photo from my road trip through Extremadura I arrived at school a few minutes before my first class, at 9:00am, because all auxes (shorthand for auxiliares de conversación) have to sign in when they arrive at school. The whole first week, I presented an introduction powerpoint to introduce myself to all of my new classes. On October 3, I was assigned to teach one third grade and one second grade class, so I introduced myself to those two classes. (I turned my introduction presentation into a template! To download it, check out my article: Introduction Presentation Template for English Teachers.)
Maybe it’s the age I’m working with, but the students were SO excited to have me there teaching them. Then again, that’s kind of the whole point of the aux program: to get students excited about speaking their second language. At the end of class, the second graders gave me a huge group hug.
The teachers were very welcoming, too. We all have a thirty-minute break together—it’s from 12:00pm-12:30pm, but they call it desayuno (breakfast). It happened to be one of the teachers’ birthdays, too, and apparently they always bring in some food to celebrate whenever it’s one of their birthdays. They invited the other aux and me to join. We all enjoyed some food together. It felt like a nice way to kick off the year.
Interested in learning more about how to teach English in abroad in Spain? Check out my article: Best Resources for Learning How to Teach English in Spain.
