Barcelona's Education System
Well, here we are. The last Monday in Spain. While I am forever grateful for this experience and do not want to leave my host family and these wonderful people, the countdown to graduation, seeing my people, and my momma is ON.
We spent our last weekend in Paris, which was just as amazing as I thought it would be, but MUCH more EXHAUSTING. We walked nearly 15 miles in 2 days.
We saw all the landmarks we wanted, got into a few museums FREE (protip), and ended with the most magical place on earth, Disneyland!
The experience within the school here has been so wonderful and positive. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in RMSI. The teachers are treated very well here, and are highly appreciated by most. I wouldn't mind the schedule they have here!
We have school from 9am-4:45pm. While that sounds like a long day it is not. From a teaching perspective, it is a great day! Today, for example, I have 2-45 minute classes, a 30 minute breakfast break (COFFEE PLEASE) and then 1-45 minute class followed by a 3 hour break. My teacher explains that today, she gets a "black hour" in this hour you are not required to be in the school, nor are you required to answer calls, emails, texts for school purposes. Teachers get this hour once a week. The next 2 hours are lunch, which I am amazed by. The teachers are fed lunch and have more than an hour to relax and prepare for the rest of the school day.
On top of this 3 hour break I have today, we also get 1 hour of planning for the last hour of the school day. While that seems like a lot of free time, the following day might be the opposite with only lunch and planning hour, it varies. This allows teachers to really enjoy their jobs and not ever get bored with the schedule.
The 45 minute classes are interesting. Students are very rowdy, loud, and it often gets chaotic. The teachers still seem to get through the material they need to. If they don't, they just push it to the next "hour" they see the class.
The content is not a stressful topic here, whereas I have seen numerous teachers stressing over covering material for testing purposes. Here, the Cambridge exam is the focus. This is an English speaking, listening, and reading exam. We have had a heavy hand in the preparation for this exam, considering we speak fluid English and can score them fairly, mostly because we understand very little Spanish and no Catalan!
The school day goes by quickly with so much changing of classrooms, breaks, and relaxed structure.
I have had the opportunity to teach alongside one of the other student teachers about North America in the last week. This has been very eye opening for us, as Americans to teach about our culture and life to students who know very little about where we are from. Though, we wished we could have taught all week on just America, it has been great to learn more about Mexico and Canada as well.
The classroom management that the US strives so hard to control is non-existent here. The kids are loud, do as they please mostly, and there is no structure in the hallways. The students mostly stay in the same classroom throughout the day, unless going to a special area class such as music, the teachers transition class to class, which would be frustrating to cart materials from classroom to classroom or floor to floor.
It took some adjusting to find my way around here, because with the main floor being level 0, it was quite confusing to find my way around, on top of the floors looking EXACTLY the same. I have adjusted to all the differences, and just in time to be heading home, UGH.
Some of the everyday things we don't really think about in America are so appealing and interesting to these students. American Football really got the boy's attention. I have never seen them so quiet and intrigued. When asked about it, it took them a little bit of time to understand Football in America is a different sport, haha!
The girl's interest is much different. They THRIVED with the American Flag "silk paper" (tissue paper) craft. The enjoyed crafting, while listening to Patriotic songs and anything pertaining to America in a song. We hit some Toby Keith, T-Swift, and Katy Perry, they LOVED it, and surprisingly knew a lot of the words!
For more detail on my day-to-day life, what I am up to, PICTURES, and daily takeaways, visit my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/dpippin50
We spent our last weekend in Paris, which was just as amazing as I thought it would be, but MUCH more EXHAUSTING. We walked nearly 15 miles in 2 days.
We saw all the landmarks we wanted, got into a few museums FREE (protip), and ended with the most magical place on earth, Disneyland!
The experience within the school here has been so wonderful and positive. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in RMSI. The teachers are treated very well here, and are highly appreciated by most. I wouldn't mind the schedule they have here!
We have school from 9am-4:45pm. While that sounds like a long day it is not. From a teaching perspective, it is a great day! Today, for example, I have 2-45 minute classes, a 30 minute breakfast break (COFFEE PLEASE) and then 1-45 minute class followed by a 3 hour break. My teacher explains that today, she gets a "black hour" in this hour you are not required to be in the school, nor are you required to answer calls, emails, texts for school purposes. Teachers get this hour once a week. The next 2 hours are lunch, which I am amazed by. The teachers are fed lunch and have more than an hour to relax and prepare for the rest of the school day.
On top of this 3 hour break I have today, we also get 1 hour of planning for the last hour of the school day. While that seems like a lot of free time, the following day might be the opposite with only lunch and planning hour, it varies. This allows teachers to really enjoy their jobs and not ever get bored with the schedule.
The 45 minute classes are interesting. Students are very rowdy, loud, and it often gets chaotic. The teachers still seem to get through the material they need to. If they don't, they just push it to the next "hour" they see the class.
The content is not a stressful topic here, whereas I have seen numerous teachers stressing over covering material for testing purposes. Here, the Cambridge exam is the focus. This is an English speaking, listening, and reading exam. We have had a heavy hand in the preparation for this exam, considering we speak fluid English and can score them fairly, mostly because we understand very little Spanish and no Catalan!
The school day goes by quickly with so much changing of classrooms, breaks, and relaxed structure.
I have had the opportunity to teach alongside one of the other student teachers about North America in the last week. This has been very eye opening for us, as Americans to teach about our culture and life to students who know very little about where we are from. Though, we wished we could have taught all week on just America, it has been great to learn more about Mexico and Canada as well.
The classroom management that the US strives so hard to control is non-existent here. The kids are loud, do as they please mostly, and there is no structure in the hallways. The students mostly stay in the same classroom throughout the day, unless going to a special area class such as music, the teachers transition class to class, which would be frustrating to cart materials from classroom to classroom or floor to floor.
It took some adjusting to find my way around here, because with the main floor being level 0, it was quite confusing to find my way around, on top of the floors looking EXACTLY the same. I have adjusted to all the differences, and just in time to be heading home, UGH.
Some of the everyday things we don't really think about in America are so appealing and interesting to these students. American Football really got the boy's attention. I have never seen them so quiet and intrigued. When asked about it, it took them a little bit of time to understand Football in America is a different sport, haha!
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