In response to the visit that our colleague Silvia Fernández Villanueva paid to the Liceum XLIII in Krakow, Poland, one of her teachers, Jacek Czaplak, has been an English teacher at our school for two weeks.
Jacek visited us on an Erasmus+ Teaching Assignment mobility, and was able to teach English to several groups of students from IES Valle del Andarax. His presence has been very enriching for our organization in general and for our English Department in particular. We have shared, reflected, analyzed and learned about a lot of issues. And we have strengthened ties between both institutions! Very soon, several of our students will visit Jacek’s school in Krakow.
We want to thank our colleague and friend for his collaboration, his work and the kind and unconditional treatment that he has dedicated to us from the beginning. It has been a real pleasure to have him in Canjáyar. Below you can read about his impressions on his experience here:
Within the Erasmus+ project «We learn and teach one another – by gathering experience in Europe, we develop XLIII LO» I had the pleasure of visiting your school and running English classes to your students. It was possible thanks to Ms Luisa who accepted my proposal for our schools to cooperate. It all started about two years ago but it was well worth waiting for, as it was one of the most significant experiences in my professional career as well as personal development.
It was a very enriching experience for me because it was the first time I’d ever taught English to nationals other than Poles.
Different culture, customs, typical or accepted behaviour, different rules of conduct, and English as the only tool of communication between students and the teacher in the lessons made it a real challenge. I’m very grateful to the English teachers for their support in managing the groups, solving technical problems and methodology. The schedule allowed me to teach different age groups from twelve to eighteen-year-olds, which gave me the opportunity to test myself as well as develop as a teacher.
The social aspect of my teaching assignment experience was equally important : I found the teachers of IES VALLE DEL ANDARAX so open and friendly that I felt at home from the very first day. We exchanged opinions, learned from each other and made friends in countless informal meetings. We compared our educational systems, the legal regulations, the way our schools are organised, the problems we encounter at work and the ways we solve them. Last but not least, we had lots of fun!
When one goes on a teaching assignment to a foreign country, one should be prepared for the unpredictable and, in fact, it did happen. I was invited to the Provincial Delegation of Education and was welcomed by the Delegate himself. It was a privilege to meet such a high- ranking official face to face and to discuss various topics, education included, in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Thanks to my great hosts I visited the most important places of interest in Almeria and the region, Granada and Alhambra being the most distant. It took a lot of time and effort from the Spanish teachers to show me all the amazing places, to pick me up in the morning and drive me to school, and then back to Almeria in the afternoon. Thank you for the weekend trips and weekday afternoons that you spent with me chatting and eating local specialties. They were all so delicious. I enjoyed every minute of my stay in Almeria and work in Canjayar.
The two weeks passed surprisingly quickly and I had to go home but now I know I have real friends in Spain and our cooperation is growing bigger with your students coming soon to Krakow for an exchange and ours visiting you in the autumn.
I’m especially thankful to Ms Luisa and Ms Silvia who made it all possible and dedicated a lot of time to make my dream come true😍
Luisa María García Velasco
