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FOREIGN LANGUAGE ASSISTANT INFORMATION GUIDE. IES VALLE DE LEIVA, ALHAMA DE MURCIA MURCIA (SPAIN)
14.03.2013 12:36
BEFORE ARRIVING IN SPAIN:
Procedures prior to arrival:
- Try to sort out your paperwork before leaving your country of origin such as identity papers, the European Social Security Card, etc.
- It is recommended that you put yourself in contact with other language assistants from your country with the same destination before coming to Spain. If you’re afraid of suddenly being alone in a foreign country there are Facebook groups that have been set up to help you meet other people in the same position as yourself. There are also collective emails sent out to all the assistants in your country. (There are people who appreciate being in contact with fellow citizens abroad.)
Finding accommodation:
If you don’t wish to live in a small town like Alhama, the best option is to live in Murcia City for the duration of the course. Furthermore, there are plenty of trains and buses that run daily serving Alhama, which is well connected (also according to the teachers in charge of coordination, sometimes they manage to fit your timetable into three weekdays, thus facilitating your living outside of Alhama).
However, it is recommended that you find a flat that is near enough to the train station (The Carmen district) or to the bus station (San Andrés district).
The average price for a shared flat is around €200 a month. (See Accommodation below)
Some useful information:
The climate: Murcia has a Mediterranean climate, so it has hot, dry summers and mild, dry winters. It rains very rarely but when it does it tends to be very heavy and brief. Nevertheless, it is important to take into account that there are many flats without heating, so it’d be wise to bring some warm clothing with you, or even consider purchasing a small heater for winter, provided that you don’t have one already in your apartment.
A word about payment: Above all, and before leaving your country, you must take into account of the fact that there will be a delay in payment for the first few months. The delay is due to the red tape, but also due to some assistants taking too long to hand in the necessary paperwork. Therefore, it is very important that you shake a leg and sort it out as soon as possible. In any case, the payment for October, November and December might arrive at the end of December or in January. Therefore, you will need enough money to support yourself for these three months.
Also, it might be a good idea to give private classes or find some other form of work besides your main job to cover your living expenses during this time.
Flights:
The best option is probably to fly to Alicante or Murcia-San Javier, (or Valencia, depending on the airport you’re flying from). To find cheap flights, there are many websites such as: www.skyscanner.com
If you’re flying from France, as well as regular airlines such as Airfrance, there’s also thiswebsite: www.transavia.fr, which is run by Airfrance but has cheaper flights.
For those coming from Great Britain or Ireland, the best options are www.ryanair.com, www.easyjet.com, www.jet2.com and www.aerlingus.com. (If there aren’t any flights to Alicante from your city, try another city close-by such as San Javier, Valencia, Almería or Granada).
A word of caution regarding the transport from Alicante airport. The transport in this part of Spain isn’t the best so if you have a late or early flight you might be stuck without buses or trains. There are buses between Alicante airport and Murcia (see www.alsa.es). The closest train station to the airport is Torrellano and you can get a taxi to there (see www.renfe.com/viajeros/cercanias.murciaalicante). You can also take a bus to Elche and from there take the train at Elx-Carrús station (see www.aerobusalicante.es).
If you’re coming from San Javier airport, there are no buses that serve it. You’ll have to instead take a taxi to the nearby town of Santiago de Ribera and take bus number 70 to Murcia from there (www.latbus.com). There’s also the option of taking a taxi but this will work out rather expensive (€50-60)
Contacting your future job prior to arrival:
It is recommended that you contact your school as soon as possible. Sometimes there can be a delay in the information being received by the staff, so it is recommended that you take the initiative to write to them. They will always prefer that assistants write to them before meeting them.
You can send an email to the school’s email address: 30000626@murciaeduca.es and they will pass it on to the heads of department and whoever is in charge of the Mixed Bilingual Section.
MURCIA
Transport in Murcia
There are many buses and trains, which serve the Murcian capital.
The main regional bus company is called Latbus (www.latbus.com). There are many routes that serve the various districts in the city and other towns in the region too. The price of a ticket depends on the zone. However, if you use the bus often, the best option is to buy a bonoplus card. This can be bought in the kiosk beside El Corté Inglés on Avenida de la Libertad. All the information such as maps, routes and prices are on its website.
To go to other places, you need to use other bus companies. Go to www.estaciondeautobusesdemurcia.com to find the necessary information. If you need to travel further, you can take a bus with Alsa, which is the national bus company (see www.alsa.com). Tickets can be bought on their website or in the Murcia bus station, which is located in the San Andrés district.
Si you don’t wish to take a bus, you can always take a train instead. If you go to www.renfe.com or the Murcia del Carmen train station, which is located in the Carmen district, there are various routes to Alicante, Valencia, Lorca, Águilas and Cartagena. There are also different types of trains. The local train is known as ‘Cercanías’. This is the cheapest and the ticket price depends on the zone you’re going to. The train, which serves Cartagena is called ‘Renfe Media Distancia’ and it costs a little bit more. Finally, if you wish to travel even further such as to Barcelona or Madrid, you’ll have to take a ‘Larga Distancia’ or ‘AVE’ train and obviously this will cost more.
Finally, there are many taxis and the price varies according to the distance travelled. If you go out at night, it’s advisable to you take a taxi if the club is in the outskirts of the city (www.radiotaximurcia.com). There are also many taxi ranks located throughout the city.
Red tape
Upon arrival, you will have to sort out some bureaucratic matters. The first thing that you will need is your NIE card (Foreign Identification Number). In order to get this, it is necessary that you go to the Extranjería (The Office for Foreign Residents), which is situated in the north of Murcia in the Cabezo district. You can get here by taking the 21, 22, 41 and 42 buses. Make sure you bring with you your passport, copies of it (there is a scanner in the centre) and your letter of employment that you will have received from the Ministry or the local government. You will then be given a form that you have to fill in and give to them. Then, you will have to wait a few days from the form to be processed. When you return, you’ll be asked to pay a fee of €10.30 in the Cajamurcia desk situated in the in the centre. After this, you have hand in the proof of payment and you’ll be given another form to fill in. Finally, you’ll be sent to the other end of the building where they’ll take a digital fingerprint and you’ll receive your NIE card.
Be careful with the office hours. They are strictly from 9am to 2pm Mon-Fri. It recommended that you ask for a day off to organise everything so you can go to the centre in the morning as there’s usually a long queue there. Welcome to Spanish bureaucracy!
Once you get your NIE card, you should open a bank account. It’s advisable to choose a national bank such as La Caixa or BBVA and get a young person’s account. If you open an account with a building society such as Cajamurcia, you’ll have to pay a fee to take out money in other autonomous communities. In order to open a bank account, you should have you passport and NIE on you.
Finally, to order to get paid monthly, you will receive all that you need to do by email. If you work for the Ministry, you’ll have to send the necessary details to the email address given to you at the Induction, which you must attend before commencing work in your school. For those who work on behalf of the regional government, you’ll have to fill in some forms in the programme office, which is situated on Gran Vía (the main street) just above El Corté Inglés, and in your school. Also, in the office you’ll have to provide your bank details and your NIE.
Useful contacts
The language assistant programme:
Accommodation
If you wish to live in Murcia and commute to Alhama, it’s advisable that you find accommodation near the train station or bus station. The Carmen district is a popular choice for many and it has many amenities such as a sports centre (gym and pool), a library, a park, many shops, a footpall pitch and tennis courts.
The coordinator of the assistantship often sends emails with information about various available apartments to rent.
El Instituto Hispánico de Murcia helps students to find accommodation. See their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ihmurciaaccommodation
Here are some websites to find accommodation:
Recommended websites
Murcia is a pretty city. There is a tourist office, which is located in Cardenal Belluga Square behind the city hall. It has a lot of information about places to visit in Murcia city and the region. Its web site is www.murciaturistica.es.
Some interesting places to visit in Murcia:
-The old town: This is situated to the north of the river. It has many shops, cafés, small, winding streets and bars.
-The Cathedral of Murcia: This is situated in the old town in Cardenal Belluga Square. It is enormous and old.
-The Archaeological Museum of Murcia
-Almudí Palace
-La Nueva Condominia and Thader Centre: This are two shopping centres that are located in the north of the city. You can take get there by tram or bus.
ALHAMA DE MURCIA
How to get there:
Alhama is served by a rail line from Murcia del Carmen. The trains come every hour (between 6.45am and 10.00pm) with the journey lasting about 25 minutes. The train station is in Barrio del Carmen, which is a neighbourhood in the south of Murcia city but near enough to the centre thus making it convenient to get to.
The train timetable can be found at www.renfe.com in the section “Cercanías” > “Murcia-Alicante”.
As well as this, you can locate the train station in Murcia (called “Murcia del Carmen”) at www.adif.com (it is located in Plaza de la industria, 30002 Murcia).
The best option is to buy a return ticket between Murcia and Alhama daily (costing €4.15) provided that you only work three day a week. If not, the cheapest option would be to buy a monthly pass (around €65).
There are also some teachers who commute between Murcia and Alhama, although do a carpool with prove more awkward as you’ll have less teaching hours than them (and often a different timetable too). Also, you’ll have to find a meeting spot in Murcia which may prove difficult if you happen to live in the suburbs.
Sites of interest:
How is it in IES Valle de Leiva?
IES stands for ‘Instituto de Educación Secundaria’, which are essentially government-run secondary schools. In these schools in Spain, students are between 12 and 18 years of age. You can give classes with pupils in this age bracket, but never alone (there must always be a teacher there to supervise).
The pupils are generally quite quiet as a whole, chatterboxes like all students, but they aren’t generally insolent or violent, at least not in the groups that we language assistants are given.
The teachers and staff are always available to respond to questions or doubts that they might have.
There are laptops available if you need them to give classes, but you should check the compatibility between programs before presenting any documents or activities you have.
It’s the same with speakers. They are in many classrooms but not in all, therefore you should find out if there are any before class. For the 2013/14 academic year it is expected that all the classrooms will contain digital whiteboards.
There is also a Wifi connection if you need to use it in class, but sometimes it doesn’t work, so it’s always a good idea to have a plan B.
Subjects
It depends on the language you’re teaching. You have to give all classes in your mother tongue. You also have to participate in DNL classes (Non-Linguistic Disciplines): they are non-language classes but you give them in your language.
For example, in French, you have to give classes of Biology and Music to the 12 and 13 year old. The other classes are French classes.
In English, you have to give classes of Maths, Art, and Technology, and the rest are English classes.
To know the DNL classes that you’ll have in the school, you should consult ‘Sección Bilingüe Mixta’ on IES Valle de Leiva’s website (https://www.murciaeduca.es/iesvalledeleiva/sitio/index.cgi)
In the language classes, you have to prepare the classes based around a particular oral aspect by trying to get them to participate as much as possible and by using material only in your language.
In the DNL classes, you must reach an agreement with the teachers of those subjects that you have to see what the best approach would be. You might also have class using the language teacher’s materials, or helping them to prepare and correct documents that they’ll give to the students.
Timetable
You have to work 12 hours per week, which might be spread over 3 or 4 days per week. The majority of your hours are in the morning (from 8:30am to 2:30pm), but there might be some days that you have to work later (from 4:30pm to 6:30pm).
Materials
You can use various materials:
The pupils tend to like digital material: you can use based on a video (a clip from a song, or a funny video in your language, a short film, an advert…) or a presentation (Powerpoint, Prezi, etc.) about a topic that you’re dealing with. Then develop it orally, or by making them complete a worksheet to make sure they were paying attention.
You can also play oral games in your language, such as Taboo, Chinese Whispers, Hangman, Simon says, etc.
If you have any books, information leaflets, or sheets in your language, they can bring them class and use them.
Also, there are many books and textbooks available in the department.
