Might I suggest that all Spanish teachers sign in here. So many of you mention teaching.

I teach grades 9 - 12, NYS Spanish I, II, III, and also AP Literature (Lorca, Matute, Garcia Marques, Borges and Unamuno).

I started teaching Spanish in 1981.

MY JOB IS THE BEST!

Here is a web page about my students and my
classroom:
http://www.geocities.com/srasofia/desales2000.html

I teach Spanish language and Latin American and Latino lit/culture at the Univ at Buffalo (SUNY) and direct the PhD program there. I love teaching as well! Here is my website, with lots of fun links to authors, poems, texts, etc. under the course titles. http://wings.buffalo.edu/~rfeal

Wow! rgf, I envy your experiences. I would love to make Spanish my lifelong pursuit as you have. I was in public education for five years but had to leave it for financial reasons. Stay strong Sofia! I LONG to teach again, but with a new family, the ability to support a family on one income is severely limited when a teacher, even with what districts pay in California...sad but true.

Sofia, I noticed that your classes were all in the "less than 20 students" realm. I wish. Perhaps the hardest thing I dealt with as a teacher was the class sizes of 35 or more (I once had 46 enrolled). I tried my best to be a total 'jackass' (pardon the 'French') for the first week, thereby weeding out the 'unbelievers', then became my normal self after students had dropped (a trick I learned from professors in college). Some students swore, in the face of my protests to the contrary, that there was no change in me after that first week...

I usually had 25-30 in the class, but they were for real, and I rarely, if ever, had the discipline problems reported by my colleagues. We had 4500 students in a school made for 2500. Yikes. Sofia, you must be living right to have the small, manageable classes that you apparently have.

Hola CaliBasco y rgf y MadridMan,

My classes are so small because the school is a private one. On the rare occasion that a class enrollment is over 20 students, it gets so difficult to do much. Plus, it is true that a majority of the kids at our school are really excellent.

CaliBasco, I have met and talked with NYC area teachers who describe the class size as you have.

Below is another link. On this school web page there is a photo of MadridMan (click to see the second round of photos). During one of his trips to Spain, the kids followed every detail by reading his online journal, which was a daily discussion at school.
http://www.geocities.com:80/TheTropics/Paradise/4632/DeSaleswide/dsh1.html

Recently, I met a local Spanish teacher. It turned out that we had MadridMan in common! I had remembered seeing her kids had signed into MadridMan's guestbook.

I leave for Madrid on February 16th!

Hola NancySid y FriendlyDoc!

Saludos de Nueva York, la tierra de nieve y frio!

Note to all teachers: see my message on the Studying thread regarding a $500 undergraduate and graduate essay competition. Pass the word along to your students. Thanks!

Anyone here interested in correcting my Spanish papers this semester? Only kind of sort of joking.....

Be happy to consult on specific questions....

Am I bizarre in my mind that I'd say I actually miss grading the essay-type work???

AAAHHHH what am I saying!!!

Well, I'm no spanish teacher, in fact, I'm a lawyer, but that is no longer my vocation. I'm earning a Masters of Arts in Teaching and (hopefully!) will be teaching high school history and social studies next fall. I've been litigating on behalf of various trucking and insurance companies for the last seven years, and, frankly, can't wait to get out of it. I start my 10-week student teaching assignment 3/19. I've enjoyed reading this dialog on the profession. There are some seriously impressive educators on this board! Getting the straight dope from those in the trenches is invaluable. I look forward to reading more. Any tips for rookie teachers greatly appriciated.

Some time ago, I guess I may have started a controversy on one of the Spain boards over teaching second person plural (Vosotros)). I confess that I have neither credential nor certification as a teacher of Spanish or any other language - just a love of the beautiful Castilian and a respect for those who use it correctly. I have taught more mundane subjects (Accounting Principles and Computer Literacy) at Community College level.

I taught Spanish to 7th and 8th graders in my Parish school. It introduces them to a whole new world of Customs, Literature and Music. One day I even brought a tortilla de patata to class - they loved it.

This post is just to let you know that there are some of us who, though marginally qualified, would like to consider ourselves associates in the Spanish Teacher Corner