The Perks of Being an Assistant

I may not have the official title of teacher or professor. I don’t have the authority to discipline my students. I’m not in charge of the curriculum, lesson planning, or grading, and I don’t work or get paid full time.  But my students still call me “teacher”. I get to jump in when I want to help, and lesson plan if a certain unit interests me. I get to introduce my favorite games from my elementary school days– like “Heads Up 7 Up”- which are almost always instant hits. And, most importantly, I get to go on field trips with the students!

Our first field trip this year was Pino a Pino, a ropes course up in a forest at the base of the mountains. We took a bus up there, and I had a great time chatting with the bus driver in Spanish. We talked about places we’d both traveled in Spain, and I was impressed to hear all the places he'd been and seen. As I heard the students start to sing and chant behind me, I was taken back to the many bus rides I’d been on as a kid. It was fun to hear the Spanish versions of elementary school songs...but also similar to my elementary school experience, many chants were meant to embarrass or put other students on the spot ("Debajo de la mesa, hay una carta, escrito por tu novio, como se llama?...")

Once we got to the ropes course, we broke into groups and the staff explained how to do the course correctly. Each student had two clasps on their harness and had to have at least one clasp on a rope at all times (especially when moving from one course to the next). One of my students (originally from Britain) voluntarily translated the instructions for me, which was sweet but unnecessary (my students don’t know how much Spanish I understand). Then they did a quick practice round, and were set loose to do the courses up in the trees by them selves. I was shocked. This would never happen in the US with a public school - it would be too much of a liability! It was an awesome course though- full of many varied rope challenges, and even zip lines! There was one course however that was more advanced and required them to have a teacher up doing the course with them. The funny thing is that every time I was doing the course with them, one of the staff members would come over and ask where the teacher was that they were supposed to have climbing with them. The students would quickly say that they did have a teacher with them and point me out standing amongst the group of 6^th graders in line! When it’s pointed out to me it’s ridiculous how many of my students are as tall (or taller) than me!

This fieldtrip, as others I’ve been on, was a great way to bond with my students. It also gave me new topics to use back at school for our conversation activities. Plus, it reminded me of one of the many perks to my job as an assistant- getting paid for things like climbing trees all day with my students!