Ben 101

 me and the Practical English class on my birthday

    Recently, many of my classes finished taking their exams. In Spain, classroom attendance, homework, participation, and in-class assignments make up a minimal portion of a student's final grade; instead, they are judged almost completely on their exams. While it is arguable whether or not this emphasis leads to better educational outcomes, it definitely makes students very focused on studying.
     For a few classes, I prepare presentations on my little vacations that I give to the class. They're generally about 10 or 12 slides, with a few simple lines and a picture on each slide. I do my best to make sure they're understandable, without using a version of English so basic that it is essentially useless. For instance, I use words that sound similar in English and in Spanish, and focus on things I know the students have studied. I make sure to include details or slides the kids find entertaining (a fat man in a tight Spiderman costume for the Halloween presentation, for instance, or a note about how I took the wrong train back from Valencia on my trip to Italy a few weeks ago.) The students seem to enjoy it, and its a lot of fun for me -- they ooh and ahh at my pictures, they ask good questions, and start complaining when I show too many pictures of the delicious foods I had.
     I thought these presentations were just a way to get the students used to hearing and understanding me speak English. However, a few days before exams were to begin, I was asked to give the presentations again. I went through the ones I thought were the best, and this time the students took copious notes, telling me to repeat things and writing down the words on each slide, almost verbatim. It turned out that they would be tested on how well they knew my presentations -- in essence, their grade would be partially determined by how well they knew my life!
     "What did you say the best food you ate in Krakow was?" "How was the public transportation in the Canary Islands again?" "Could you explain again why you crashed that moto?"
  In another class, I joined the class while they were taking their exam, and talked for a few minutes about my trip to Italy. Without anything being written down on slides (for my benefit or theirs) I did my best to get the point across using good English that they'd understand, which isn't always as easy as it seems. They took notes and then had to write an essay about the trip. A few days later, after they'd gotten the exams back, a few students read their essays to me. It was a funny feeling having people read stories about my life to me -- like I was auditioning biographers or something. They did a great job of taking notes and then turning those notes into a cohesive essay, so they must have understood what I was telling them. Mission accomplished, then.
Now, if I could only get these students to study my resume and help me find a job at home for when I get back...