Colin and Kelsey recently each had their Las Reuniones or Parent-Teacher nights at their school, Juan de Lanuza (JDL) (for more information on JDL see blog post First Week of School for Colin and Kelsey ). In both cases, the parents gathered in the students' classroom, and sat in a circle while their two primary instructors, the Spanish and English teachers, gave an overview of the classroom happenings and what to anticipate for the coming year. Of course, the sessions were in Spanish; even the English teachers gave their presentations in Spanish.
For Colin's session, we took it in stride and thought we got the gist of what they were saying. When the parents started discussing the school lunch program and how their children were complaining that the food was awful, they started getting feisty. We understood it when one Spanish father said that the food was "letales" (lethal), and that the lunch crew was exceptionally grumpy (see blog post on Colin vs. the Lunch Ladies).
Parker and I found the whole scene quite humorous. It was sort of like being at a party when everyone else is having cocktails and you're bowing out for the night. By our standards, the parents were yelling, passionately throwing their arms around with just about every parent chiming in with a comment. If this had been in the U.S., we would have anticipated that these folks were really ticked off, and that none of them would be talking to each other after it was all said and done. In Spain, they probably all went out for a glass of wine and tapas afterward.
After the general session, we met 1:1 with Colin's English teacher, Kathy. Kathy is a Massachusetts native but has worked, lived, and raised a family in Spain for the last 25 years. Our discussion began with Kathy definitively annoyed. She had been told by Sofia, the Dean of Studies that we wanted Colin to have more work. In kind, she had responded by giving him a couple of extra projects, one of which was writing a daily journal on the differences between Spanish and American life. For his journal, Colin had fallen a few days behind. Kathy was irked that we had apparently asked for him to have extra work, yet he wasn't staying on top of it, and she thought that we should be assuring that he did.
Talk about 'lost in translation!' A couple of weeks earlier, Colin had mentioned to us that he was doing English at the same level as his Spanish classmates and it was pretty basic for him -- understandably. While speaking to Sofia in English, we had requested that he receive work that's more appropriate for a native English speaker and would continue to challenge or develop Colin's skills. Once we explained the misunderstanding to Kathy (and that we didn't realize the journal was a daily activity), she relaxed and warmed up to us. Phew! Close one.
In 6th grade at JDL, in addition to Spanish and English, the students usually start a 3rd language by choosing either French or German. Before Colin started his year, we talked with Sofia about Colin getting additional Spanish support while the others were taking their French or German. However, this year, JDL didn't have any peers for Colin to make a separate Spanish group. For the past month or more, Colin has been flipping back and forth between French and German. JDL proposed that Colin take French since he 'seems to enjoy himself so much' and he 'gets on with the other students so well.' Yet, one of the primary reasons we came to Spain was for the kids to become competent in Spanish! When we asked Colin if he preferred to stay in French (or take German), he said that since they teach the French class in Spanish, he didn't actually know when they were learning French, or when they were just explaining something in Spanish. After several email exchanges and a couple of conversations, Sofia was able to work it out such that Colin will now be getting additional Spanish support through computer-based sessions, worksheets, and teacher tutoring. Yeah!
For Kelsey's la reunión, Parker wasn't able to make it due to SYA commitments. Thankfully, hers was much less eventful especially after the push-back we received from JDL before Kelsey started school. I was fortunate to have Isabel, the mother of one of Kelsey's friends who teaches English in one of the local Spanish schools, translate the key points for me. Starting the second week of school, Kelsey's teachers started using the FM system we purchased in New Hampshire which has been helpful for her. The loud environment has continued to be a challenge for Kelsey as the acoustics in the environment are not designed to buffer sounds. At Kimball, Kelsey's accommodations had included sound boards that help absorb reverberation and reduce the classroom noise; JDL doesn't have anything similar. Additionally, the Spanish culture is just plain loud.
Kelsey's teachers focused on discussing JDL's teaching style which is based on the multiple intelligences model of Howard Gardner; they emphasis the child's way of learning rather than the content of what they are learning. This gave me the opportunity to chime in with reinforcing Kelsey's instructions with visual supports such as the white board (which they use/have at JDL), and written materials rather than just giving her directions verbally.
Beyond academics, at the beginning of October, the kids started their school activities which means that during the ~2 hour break from about 1-3pm, they partake in activities of their choice. Kelsey is taking art, gymnastics, dance, and yoga. Colin is participating in soccer and basketball. Colin has his first weekend games on October 23 and is looking forward to them! It's such a change to not run around after school like we do back at home. The schedule is nice in many respects although the kids' days are long, and they do get fatigued from being out of the house from 9-6 p.m.
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