A little rant about my spanish class

A Little Rant About My Spanish Class

As a freshman, I’ve taken Spanish for the past two terms: Spanish 1 last semester and currently Spanish 2. In Spanish 1, I had an amazing teacher who made learning enjoyable, but she unfortunately had to go on maternity leave. Thankfully, the substitute was great too, and I still found joy in her class. She even mentioned she would be back for Spanish 2—turns out that wasn’t the case.

On the first day of Spanish 2, everything felt different. The following day, the substitute informed us that she was just filling in for a new teacher who was out sick. When the new teacher arrived, it quickly became apparent that this class would be a whole different experience. He mostly assigned us dull tasks to complete during class and was much stricter than my previous teachers. For instance, we now had only 5 minutes to use the bathroom instead of 10, among other changes.

As the days went on, he seemed to lighten up a bit. He even started incorporating Kahoot games into our lessons, which was a nice change and something none of my other classes did. I actually began to enjoy his class—until he got frustrated with the lack of adherence to his rules.

One day, I walked into class to find him suddenly threatening to keep us after for 5 minutes if we weren’t seated when the bell rang. This wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but it coincided with lunch, meaning we could end up missing it, especially since his class is on the opposite side of campus from the cafeteria. He also started timing bathroom breaks, and if we took too long, he would make us stay in during lunch for extra time.

Things got worse when we were presenting a group project. My group went last, and as soon as we finished, everyone rushed to get their phones from the caddy. I made sure to grab mine on the way back to my seat. When the bell rang, he told everyone to sit down—which I was already doing—but then kept the entire class in for a minute, punishing everyone despite most of us having done nothing wrong. I had plans to grab lunch after class but ended up indecisive, fearing I wouldn’t make it in time. I finally chose school lunch, but by then the line was long, and most of the food was gone.

The next day, I walked into class to find a notice on the board stating that if you weren’t in your seat or didn’t put your phone in the caddy when the bell rang, you’d have to stay in during lunch for 5 minutes and fill out a “think sheet” that he would send home to your parents. It felt surreal to see almost every phone caddy filled, except for the ones belonging to absent students and one person without a phone. Throughout the class, he kept threatening anyone who slipped up with the same punishment, including one of my friends.

Trying to keep my head down, I felt paranoid the entire time, even though I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I honestly wonder if he’s even allowed to keep us from getting food until he’s done. One of my friends said she would ask, but I’m not sure if she did. Spanish has gone from a fun class I looked forward to each day to feeling like a dystopia. At least I only have about a month left until my original teacher returns from maternity leave.