8. El primer día de clase de: Ester Torices

The first time I taught was at the end of October in 2005 in two private (independent) technical colleges that belong to the same company, one was located in Villaverde and the other one in Alcorcón. They wanted me to teach subjects related to electronic and electrical equipments such as TVs, radios, videos, loudspeakers, and electrical wiring. I was supposed to have a lot of knowledge about this stuff because I am an electronic and automatic engineer however the truth was that I didn’t study anything about that during the degree. Despite this small problem, I took the job because I was well-qualified and ready to deal with it, but I would have to work very hard if I wanted to meet with success. Although I was pretty scared because of the difficulties of the subjects, I felt very happy - they were giving me the chance to try and know if I really enjoyed this kind of work -. From the day I made the decision and signed the contract until the day I had my first meeting with my pupils (the following day) I felt really anxious about how everything would turn out. And finally the day came. I went by train to Villaverde and the first shock was the building, it wasn’t the typical school with a big playground, no it wasn’t, it was in a block of flats and seemed an academy instead of a technical college. However I told myself “It doesn’t matter what it looks like.” The second shock happened when I came into the classroom; there were fifteen teenagers, only one girl, looking at me with long faces and full of gold everywhere: ear-rings, chains and big rings. They reminded me of American films that are set in high schools such as “Dangerous Minds”. I wondered where they came from. I came from Valladolid, a very conservative city, with traditional and conventional people, that´s why they shocked me.
In Alcorcón the impression was less surprising because I had already known about that, however there was a difference, there I had a group of third year of secondary school. I though “That’s good news“ , because I was studying to pass the exam to get into the state schools to teach technology, “I could practice”. Besides “ they were the youngest ones, so they were supposed to be more easily led”. I was wrong. They drove me crazy because they used to talk all at the same time, interrupting every minute, they didn’t listen … you know, the typical things that teachers usually complain about.
Then, what was the problem? The matter was that I wasn´t used to see this behaviour at the school because when I studied things were very different So I decided to change my mind and try to get on well with the new generations.
I learnt a lot of things my first year, but the most important one was that I had to be very patient with pupils and today I’m very proud of the job I carried out that year.

Ester Torices (Profesora de Tecnología)