When you make the decision to study abroad, studying will definitely be just one of the many things you will do during your time. Other
activities may include traveling and meeting/becoming friends with the locals.
But one of the coolest things you could do while studying abroad is to
volunteer in your host city.
The (amazing, wonderful, incredible, etc.) program that I
studied abroad with, Academic Programs International (API), has a relationship
established with a local school in Granada, Spain called Colegio
Caja Granada. This is where I decided to do my volunteer work. First, API
set up a general meeting for interested students with the director of the
school. Afterwards, if we decided we were interested, they assigned us to a
classroom of either primary or secondary students. That was when I was placed
in a classroom of 27 primary school students, between the ages of 7 and 8. For
6 months, I volunteered around 3-4 hours per week.
Similar to the elementary schools in the States, the kids
studied a variety of subjects throughout the day including Math, English, and
Religion. I served as a teaching assistant to the main teacher, María Carmen
and the other permanent teaching assistant, Mario. I taught Conocimiento del Medio or the Social and
Natural Sciences. I taught many different types of things (including things I
didn’t even remember or know about in English!). Some of them were:
- --
The body including the respiratory system,
teeth, and the digestive system
- --
Nature
- --
Nutrition/how nutrients are absorbed by the body
It was so much fun to teach these kids about these subjects.
I put together different activities for each one from channeling my 4th
grade leaf project and bringing in real life leaves to study, to taking an hour
to tape string to the end of a straw to teach them about our
breathing/respiratory system.
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| Mi clase!: My class with their teacher, María Carmen |
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| My class and me :) |
Throughout the whole school year, the 3 classrooms of
primary students worked to prepare a theatre production of the Little Red
Riding Hood, entirely in English. It was such a fun way for the kids to learn
English. I helped them with the songs and dialogue of the play. There were the
main characters while the rest of the kids wore bees, flowers, butterflies, and
ladybugs to depict the forest. While the main characters had all the speaking
roles, the ‘chorus’ sang songs in between. Let me just tell you, it was the
cutest thing ever.
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| The forest for Little Red Riding Hood |
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| The Lumberjack, Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, me, the Grandma, and the Narrator |
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| Little Red Riding Hood when she found the Wolf instead of her Grandma |
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| Ta-da! All done their first performance |
The day of the production was my last day in Granada so there were already lots of emotions flowing. After seeing my kids up there doing all of Little Red Riding Hood in English, pride was added to that list. It was so great to see all their hard work paying off. It was also very cool to see at my school in Spain because Little Red Riding Hood is such a traditional and common thing to see during the elementary years here in the States.
So, if you choose to study abroad, don't forget about the great opportunities to volunteer! No matter if you decide to teach or do a different type of volunteering, it'll be a great learning experience and an awesome thing to put on your resumé.
