Education: America vs. Spain

Here’s to the completion of the second week here in Barcelona! Over the past weekend, my friend and I traveled to Paris, France for a quick get away. If anyone knows me, they know that Paris was 100% at the top of my “Must do” list of travel destinations. Without a doubt, it did not disappoint.

 

 

 

Throughout the weekend we visited: the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Musee D'orsay, Champs-Elysees, Palace of Versailles, Place de la Concorde, Galeries Lafayette, Palais de Chaillot, and Notre Dame. Our two days were jam packed and full of excitement! Not to mention we ate MANY crepes!

Following our busy weekend, we began our second week of classes at RMSI. This week has been very interesting and I have had the opportunity to become very involved within the classroom. During this week, I taught a lesson about the USA and, more specifically, the state of Kentucky. While this was very interesting to teach the students, it was far different than the typical classroom that you would find. In addition to this lesson, I continue to help English in the English and Science classroom along with helping secondary students one-on-one to prepare for the Cambridge exam in English.

It seems as though within America, we expect much more from our students than here in Spain. I say this in regards to respect from students, classroom expectations and implementation, curriculum pacing and retention. Within a typical classroom in Spain you will find students running around, throwing each other to the ground, screaming across the room, yelling “no” to the teacher, fighting over pencils, making no attempt to make a functional line yet one calm teacher still remains.

From someone who strives to put classroom management at the top of my list of “must haves” within in a classroom, it is extremely difficult for me to watch every lesson suffer due to a lack of respect from the students within the classroom. Although a part of spanish culture, there is not excuse for deliberately acting out in numerous situations.

Aside from classroom management, the students learn a variety of curriculum which includes Catalan, Spanish, English, Swimming, Art, Math, Science, Gym, and more! I find it very interesting the amount of extra curricular activities that are offered throughout the school. As previously mentioned, RMSI is a semi-private catholic school which includes grades Pre K-12th grade. These grades are then subdivided into male and female classrooms for the primary level and then mixed gender for secondary.

The teachers move about the school to teach a variety of kids, as opposed to having a set classroom of their own. In addition, when a teacher is absent, it is the other teachers responsibility to “substitute” their classroom during their planning. There is no substitution system implemented within the catholic education system.

The schedule varies depending on the day of the week. Within the schedule is one 30 minute “playground” period and a one and a half hour lunch break. School, unlike America, runs from 9am-4:45pm. Although the day is longer than the traditional school in America, it does not seem terribly long as there is a long lunch break within the middle of the day.

I look forward to continue learning about the education system and exploring the city of Barcelona and this weekend, Rome, Italy!

Until next time!