Popque Sí

Today I went to a Pop Music Festival at La Tabacalera, an old-tobacco-factory-turned-social-and-cultural-center. I absolutely LOVE the Tabacalera--it's underground/urban/hipster atmosphere amazes and inspires me. It's a self-managed social center, full of space for whatever you can imagine--there are dance classes, Yoga, an Underground Herb Garden, Soundpainting, History, Spanish/English/French/you-name-it classes; basically, if you provide the skill and the know-how, you can find space at La Tabacalera.

So the Pop Music festival was pretty neat, but their "pop" music was definitely rock...and rock that I didn't really care for. Coupled with clouds of smoke (Yes, Spain is smoke-free as of January 2nd...but apparently urban, free-thinking hipsters don't need abide by these silly laws), I was satisfied to just check it out for an hour or two and then be on my merry way. It was a cool experience and the stage was really neat!

La Tabacalera also has some of (in my opinion) Madrid's best graffiti. Check it out.

Messages of Peace

On Friday, my school is celebrating El Día de la Paz (Day of Peace) and each class needs to come up with a message of peace. In one of my third grade classes, we were taking suggestions. One kid said, "La paz sólo es amor." [Translation: "Peace is only love"]Another student, Abraham, said, "Qué quemen vivos los ladrones!" [Translation: "Burn the thieves alive!"]. I DIED LAUGHING. This kid is so funny!!!

The other third grade class' message was: "Sin guerra y con amor, las mariposas hacen un arco iris y pajaros felices de oir su camta: la paz empieza." [Translation: "Without war and with love, butterflues make a rainbow and happy birds sing their song; peace begins."]

Flamenco With AYA

Last night Patricia invited me to go to a Flamenco Show with the new group of AYA Study Abroad Students. They were going to Casa Patas, literally blocks from my house, so it was really convenient for me! I got to meet all 5 of the students (Well, I already knew Sonia); the group is really small this semester! I'm thankful that when I studied abroad there were thirteen of us--and six of us from Ripon! I think the group of students definitely impacts your semester, and I know that my experience would have been dramatically different had the group of students been so much smaller.

I had been to Casa Patas once before, when my mom and my sister came to visit me when I was studying here in 2009. It is a nice place and they put on a good show. We had stage-side tables and I knew right when we sat down that we would be sprayed with sweat...I warned the girls next to me to enjoy their drinks before the dancing got really heated up! And sure enough, they got to twirling and stomping and the sweat came a' flyin' (mostly from the guy)!

Flamenco is one of the Spanish traditions I really enjoy. It is just an incredible amount of passion--you can see it in both the singer's and the dancers' faces and it just draws you in. It's so beautiful. I really need to see live Flamenco more often. After the show was over, a group of Spaniards invited us to go to another bar with live music off of Huertas, but I can't remember the name of the place. We didn't go with them, instead, I showed the Riponites around my barrio (Lavapiés) and we ended up getting dinner at a little place on Calle Argumosa called La Pimienta. We were kind of disappointed with their selection (granted, it was almost midnight), but the only things they had available were tostadas. So we ordered Berenjena a la Miel, a Cheese Tostada Platter, and some lovely red wine. The food was great, but I wish they had more choices available!

Segunda Jornada de Formación

Today we had our second orientation at teh Centro Regional de Invocación y Formación 'Las Acacias.' It started at 3:30 p.m., so we got to get out of school an hour early in order to have enough time to get lunch and make it there on time! We ended up having lunch at a little cafeteria across the street from the Centro. The director of the Auxiliares de Conversación Program and the assistant director were having lunch at the same place, so we knew we made a good choice!!! : )

The orientation was really informative. We had two sessions; the first was about online resources and the second was about oral presentations. During the first presentation, a teacher passed along a list of great websites for teaching English as a second language:

- SMART exchange
- www.topmarks.co.uk
- www.eslpartyland.com
- One Stop English

He also suggested "The Annoying Orange" YouTube videos as a reward for good behavior. The internet is great and there are a lot of wonderful resources out there, but there are so many that it takes a lot of time to sift through the garbage websites to find the gems. So it was really helpful that they gave us a list of sites they have already found to be useful.

The second presentation was about oral presentations, an idea that is still very new in Spain. The presentation was wonderful and incredibly inspiring! I walked out of class thinking, Oral presentations are exactly what my kids need to do! It makes complete sense. Oral presentations involve all four of the destrezas comunitivas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. She showed us an example of an oral presentation that she did with third graders about "My Favorite Book" and it was great. First, the students begin by answering some simple questions such as, Title, Author, Has it got pictures or photos? Is it a short or long story? working up to more difficult things such as a description of the characters and plot. She showed us the outline for the project and the various steps and stressed the importance of providing the students with a framework for on-going work. She also revealed a little secret to insure that the audience is paying attention--have the listeners complete a table with information about the presentations, such as the presenter's name, characters in the book, the type of book (fiction/non-fiction), and then grade the performance. It makes complete sense and hopefully would help the students be good audience members, something that is hard for young Spaniards to do.

When Rosa finished the presentation about oral presentations, she shared some of the material that she had prepared for the first orientation sessions in September, but had run out of time to share! She gave us ideas about routines (taking attendance, the weather, and the calendar), ways to get their attention, and also lots of ways to use flashcards to learn vocabulary. You could tell just by sitting in on her presentation that she is an amazing teacher. I was so intrigued and inspired by all of her ideas! When she was finished, I stuck around and asked her if she had any recommendations to get students to do their homework. I explained that in our third grade class of 25 students, at times 12 weren't doing their homework. She suggested merits for good behavior. She said one day, bring in candy for the students who have done their homework. If students haven't done their homework, they don't get candy. The next day, if they ask for candy, you say sorry, not today; life is a surprise and you always have to be ready. She also suggested perhaps the class can work toward some reward when everyone does their homework--such as a sincere round of applause or maybe an Annoying Orange YouTube video. She also said she has a Merit Board in her classroom where children earn stickers for doing their homework and for good behavior.

After tonight, I am excited to return to school with lots of new ideas and activities! And I hope that someday I can be as good of a teacher as Rosa.