My name is Emmett Moulton and I am an English Conversation Assistant in the classroom at two schools, Padre Mendez (Primary) and Mar de Alborán (infantile). I teach ages 3-5 in Mar de Alborán and grades primero y segundo in Padre Mendez.
Almería city
A most excellent and livable city. My girlfriend and I lived two blocks from the beach in Zapillo and HIGHLY recommend it if you have never lived near the beach before. While my walk to school was ~20 minutes (or a 10 minute bike ride), the distance was worth it. Plus, those times moving are healthy.
Pretty much everyone will agree that the tapas in Almería are the best and we will second/third that. They are an awesome way to go out spend a reasonable amount of money on some good food.
Some recommendations are:
– Jovellenos 16 (center) (Try the queso frito!)
– San Fransisco 26 (center)
– Café Paris (Beach)
– Restaurante La Plazuela
THE BEACH!!!
The most awesome beach for swimming and feeling super duper safe. A note, the water and air do get pretty darn chilly in Winter, so get as much swimming in as you can in October/November and then brave the cold every once in a while during the winter.
La Guajira is a MUST. They have weekly Flamenco shows that will blow your mind.
Work Experience
My Schedule is a little hectic being two schools but here is in its basic. Tuesday-Wednesday @ Mar de Alborán
Thursday-Friday @ Padre Mendez
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| 9 – 9:30 | No school | 5a | 4b | Segundo a | Segundo b |
| 9:30 – 10 | 5b | 4a | Segundo a | Segundo b | |
| 10 – 10:30 | 4a | 5b | RECREO | RECREO | |
| 10:30 – 11 | 4b | 5a | Primero c | RECREO | |
| 11 – 11:30 | 3b | 3a | Primero c | Primero b | |
| 11:30 – 12 | RECREO | RECREO | RECREO | Primero b | |
| 12 – 12:30 | RECREO | RECREO | RECREO | RECREO | |
| 12:30 – 1 | 3a | 3b | Primero a | Segundo c | |
| 1 – 1:30 | Primero a | Segundo c |
In all I have 12 different classes and I love them all. Hugs are plentiful and lots of “te quiero” as well!
Mar de Alborán
To sum up my experience in 5 words.
Dance, sing, be silly, repeat
My singing voice has improved WAY more than I ever anticipated. If you go to my ESL Resources page (feel free and use), you’ll see that a lot of the links are for songs and dances. I have learned and sang them all, many many times. The kids know if you are faking it, and I do not like wimping out, so I be sure and belt out my singing voice and dance my heart out! Be silly! It will encourage them to learn.
(Note) For the 3 year old classes, it is VERY difficult to teach them like you would teach the 4 year olds and five year olds. They just want to hug you and run around laughing. For them, plan on reading lots of books/ repeating colors/numbers, and any silly dance you can find.
Some examples of songs and dances the kids (and I) loved are:
- I like to travel (Really catchy song) (This one is a great filler on travel time when they have danced their heart out and you can just show them some simple vocab)
- Driving in my car (Super simple songs) (They really like the speed up slow down aspect.
- AWESOME planets song with a dance being taught (Seeing them sing the entire chorus on their own is incredible)
- The wheels on the bus (Really emphasize that honking)
- Seven Continents kid rap song (Turns out this is a little complicated, but they are impressed nonetheless)
PRO TIP! Animated music videos can easily be slowed down to 75% speed without affecting the quality of the song (e.g., Wheels on the Bus). This is SUPER DUPER helpful when teaching it initially because the songs are often quite fast for ESL learners. Then, gauge their progress and raise it up to normal speed (then, when you (and they) want to get silly, speed it up to 125% and beyond!)
Another PRO TIP! Most 4-5 year old class units line up and you can reuse content for each of them. Only later in the year have I started having to prepare different material for 4 and 5 year old classes.
Having a half hour with each class is pretty perfect for timing. I don’t have to plan massive lessons and it is easy to repeat lessons with great effectiveness. Something I learned early on is that depth is way more important that quantity. Meaning, teach the same 5 words rather than 20 words.
I also created a few presentations (and songs) that were interactive.
Parts of the House Slideshow Song (Sing, “in the kitchen, we cook” with motions)
Where are we in the house (interactive PowerPoint)
Is it in nighttime or daytime?
The teachers here are incredible!
I cannot say enough about how great the infantile teachers are at Mar de Alborán. They are always there to help you when the kids inevitably jump around and get loud, and they are always there as support when you are unsure what to do. I got a school year plan when each unit was happening and it really helped me plan.
They are also SUPER understanding. They are not expecting world-class perfect teaching where everything goes right 100% of the time. Some days, I could not maintain classes attention for any reasonable amount of time, even with the teachers help, and they were not angry. They more than anybody understand that 3-5 year olds are a difficult age to maintain attention with.
Ensure you are trying your best and genuinely encouraging the kids.
In Summary
My time at Mar de Alborán has taught me so much about child development and releasing my inner child. I am grateful for being paid to sing and dance with some very adorable kids, while also seeing so much progress in their English skills. The hugs are endless, and the amount of love I receive heals my soul. Truly a learning experience.
Padre Mendez
Padre Mendez is truly an incredible family of teachers.
At Padre Mendez, I primarily taught science alongside the bilingual teachers for both first and second grade. This meant that I was often repeating the same lesson 3 times for each respective grade. This makes it easier to plan and prep for because you do not need 6 different plans, just two.
The science program uses an English and Spanish version of the same Science book. This way, students are learning with the science teacher in Spanish and then immediately learning it in English. This is awesome because it really encourages repetition and cross-language learning. The students WILL learn better if they are taught something in two languages. Often, the bilingual teacher would explain the concept in Spanish to refresh the student’s minds on what they were learning about, and then we would transition into English.
The textbooks are a nice guide, but do not rely on them. For one, the kids will get bored of just doing simple text work, and two, they will not be able to read all of the text (Often the text included WAYYY too complicated words). So, my tip for this is to use it as a jumpstart to teach vocabulary like you want. Often for me, this involved drawing lots on the chalkboard and having kids repeat words/phrases while gesturing. For instance, when we were learning about villages, towns, and cities, I had students make a bigger and bigger area (while teaching adjectives like smaller/bigger) while repeating the words. So village was small and city was large. This also allows for some silliness and movement.
Liveworksheets.com is a great resource for interactive worksheets that you can work on with the class. I could always find something that would support the learners in learning about different topics. Especially effective for 1st and second graders.
The teachers here are also incredible!
If you do not spend some of your recreo hours hanging out in the sala de profes, you are missing out on a key part of Padre Mendez. The teachers. They are a hilarious loving bunch and I was always learning some new Spanish or Spain thing. They are all there to support you and really want you to be involved with them and the students.
We did a Christmas dinner together and it was one of those core-memories that will never leave me. Getting to eat some fantastic dinner while surrounded by amazing teachers and people was fantastic. Get to know the teachers here and you will have a great time.
Last Updated on March 15, 2023 by Emmett Moulton