Spanish Sponges

'Kids are like sponges, they pick up on everything.' I had heard this before and even witnessed it to some extent while babysitting over the course of years, but learning a new language had never been anything I'd seen little kids do before. So this past week I was pretty amazed at how quickly those young, active brains are able to remember and make sense of foreign words.

Last week I began teaching Spanish to preschoolers and 5-8 year olds at the Montessori school in town. I teach a half hour to each class Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I was contacted before school even started about this opportunity and thought that it'd be great to make use of my Spanish major and education minor. I love being around children and that was one thing that I definitely missed last year. So I jumped at this chance to be around kids for a few hours a week.

On Monday I was nervous because I had never been to the classrooms, never met the regular teachers or kids, and didn't have much of a plan besides our "Buenos Dios" song and "Adios" song. I was going in blind and had no idea what to expect. As I walked in the doors to the preschool classroom the whispers started going around- "The spanish teacher's here!"- and I could sense the kids getting a little squirrely. It was neat to see how excited they were.

I was given their full attention...for about 1 minute. Then poking their neighbor or telling how they love to surf became higher priorities. Immediately I realized that I had my work cut out for me. I would have to be pretty creative in my teaching activities in order to keep their attention.

After finishing with the preschool classroom I went up to the K1 classroom and was amazed by how much of a difference was apparent in attention span, knowledge of some Spanish vocab, and just how advanced they seemed for their age. I was very impressed. Over the course of the week we learned how to say the date, numbers, and colors. I couldn't believe how quickly they picked up on repeated phrases that I would say. By the end of the week the kids were singing songs with me and made me feel like I was actually a decent teacher!

The plan is for me to continue teaching throughout the semester and I can't wait to see how these children progress in their knowledge of the Spanish language. I'm also excited for the fun and light-hearted times that these children will give me, whether that's present in a preschooler coming to class with blue marker all over her face (art time was too boring?) or just hearing their giggles after we play a clapping game. I'm sure that I'll be learning from the kids just as much as they learn from me.