A message from Avishta

 Avishta me ha escrito recientemente y me ha enviado este mensaje que quiero compartir con todo el instituto. La pandemia interrumpió el curso pasado, al menos de manera presencial, y aunque Avishta siguió colaborando con nosotros online, no tuvo oportunidad de despedirse adecuadamente. Sirva este texto de despedida ... o quizás no. 

I would like to begin by thanking all of I.E.S. Caura’s teachers, administration and support staff, and students for having hosted me at their school over the last year. It was a privilege to be the 2019-2020 bilingual auxiliar at I.E.S. Caura, and to work with all my wonderful students (from the 1˚ ESO groups to the bachillerato ones), and with my lovely colleagues from the bilingual team. My time at I.E.S. Caura has been a great learning experience; I had the opportunity to learn from teachers with decades of work experience, and to learn about the Spanish education system and its teaching practices. 

Over the last year, Arancha, my coordinator and my biggest support at the school, and I worked together to plan several activities to engage the bilingual students at I.E.S. Caura in practicing their English language skills. We organised extracurricular activities such as the Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day ones to encourage students to participate in school activities. I wanted the students to get a better understanding and appreciation of foreign languages and cultures because I believe that learning languages is fun and rewarding! I sincerely hope that the daily classes, cultural activities, conversation club, and online classes (during the pandemic) have enriched my students’ knowledge and understanding of the English language, and North American culture. I also hope that many, if not all my students continue studying English, and that they earn their language certifications in the future so that they can travel, study, work or live abroad. 

I have a lot of fond memories of my experience at I.E.S. Caura, and some of my favourite ones are of my students. I was supposed to be their teacher but on various occasions, I felt like they were mine. I learned a great deal about the Spanish society, culture and languages from them which was most illuminating. It was truly wonderful to talk to them, and to hear about their interests, goals, and dreams. Throughout the year, I also grew fond of the energetic and theatrical Lola, a colleague and friend from the English department, with whom I’ve had some of the best conversations, and from whom I’ve learned a lot. Another person I wanted to mention is Mateo, the cafeteria manager, who not only is a great conversationalist, but also makes a delicious café con leche. 

Unfortunately, my time at I.E.S. Caura and in Spain was cut short due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, but I do feel like I achieved most of my goals as a bilingual auxiliar, and as a traveller. During my stay in Spain, I got to practice my Spanish speaking skills everyday which has greatly expanded my Spanish vocabulary. Going to Spain, I had limited knowledge and understanding of the Spanish culture but I left the country with a deep appreciation of Spanish languages, music, dance, people and food, especially Andalusian tapas, and exquisite wines. 

I wanted to say a very special thank you to Nerea, Sara, Marta, Rosa, Ana E. and Ana P., and Cristina for their kindness and support during my time at I.E.S. Caura, and a big thank you to Antonio, the school director, for having been a pleasant host. Finally, a heartfelt thank you, and my best wishes go to my lovely team of English teachers, and to all my students who made my experience at I.E.S. Caura memorable. 

I am most grateful to Arancha who was also new to her role as the coordinator to the bilingual auxiliar last year, and did a fantastic job managing all of her roles at the school. While I wish that I had more time at I.E.S. Caura, I’m confident that my successors, Emily and Andrea will do a great job this year. Best of luck to this year’s bilingual team!