I know it's been a few weeks since I've updated my blog. And that's primarily because my computer is full and I need to delete stuff before I can upload more pictures. If you know me, that's a time consuming endeavor having to choose what to delete and hoping that my external hard drive doesn't give out on me.
All technical difficulties aside, I decided to write about the similarities and differences between the public education system in the United States and in Spain. Granted, the information I have gathered about both is from limited experience and from what other teachers have told me.
The following are the similarities:
1. Budget cuts. Yes, teachers in Spain complain about the budget cuts and the revamping of the education system. However, the school I work at in Alcobendas is in a wealthy suburb of Madrid. Every classroom has a computer, printer, smartboard, as well as enough desks, chairs, and textbooks. The school requires students to take music and art class and offers afterschool activities including dance and sports.
2. More paperwork. Two weeks ago all the teachers were stressed out because someone was coming to observe the school and required the teachers to turn in their syllabus for the year. I explained that in the United States, teachers complain about the ever increasing paper work and feel more like secretaries than teachers.
3. Less time to be creative. And in turn, teachers have less time to be creative with their lessons. The more time spent trying to follow standards and scientifically prove student progress, the less effective a teacher becomes. Teaching is inherently creative and that art form is being squashed here too.
4. Disparity. As in the States, the quality of education here in Spain depends upon living in the right neighborhood.
The following are the differences:
1. Religion class. In Spain, every public elementary to high school requires students to take a religion class. The class focuses on the history and beliefs of Catholicism. Obviously this is a huge difference between public schools in the States, where teachers are not allowed to initiate conversations about religion.
2. Students or teachers change classrooms. In a bilingual elementary school, the students or teachers change classrooms. At my school, the students change classrooms. The purpose is for students to associate one classroom with speaking English and the other classroom with speaking Spanish. In the States, students typically begin switching classrooms when they are in middle school or junior high, except for some charter school which have students change classrooms when they are in elementary school.
3. No National Standards. Teachers are only required to follow the curriculum in the textbook! But bilingual schools are required to prepare students for the Trinity exam, a test comprised of a prepared writing sample about a chosen topic and conversation. The school pays for each student to take the exam and the school is rated based on how well their students do on this exam.
4. Breakfast & Lunch Break. Teachers at my school have a thirty minute break to have coffee, fruit, donuts, or toast while the kids eat their snack and play outside. And then we have an hour break to eat lunch together. In the States (at least from my experience) teachers only have time to sit in their classroom and eat lunch while grading papers, attending a meeting, or preparing for the next class.
5. Special Education. Students with special needs do not have a separate class but are included in the general classroom. In Spain, students with special needs simply receive differentiated instruction from a general education teacher. The teacher is not required to have a license in special education.
6. Tenure. There is only one tenured teacher at the school I work at. The process of becoming a tenured teacher is more difficult here than it is in the States (even with the changes made by Bloomberg in NY). You are required to take tests as well as be observed by the principal, be interviewed, and have a portfolio.
7. Halloween. We get to celebrate Halloween at school! The teachers and sixth graders are making a haunted house for the students which includes ghosts, a seamstress sewing a dead person, a typist writing You're going to die on the typewriter (that's me), zombies in chains, fake blood, fingers, and eyeballs. Eva, the teacher organizing all of this, said to be sure to scare the students from behind so they don't knock each other over. She suggested I growl or hiss at the students as they pass by me. Needless to say, I'm preparing myself for total chaos.
The general sentiment I've gotten is that with each new district president, major changes are implemented to the education system. And when there is little improvement, there are more changes. I've talked to several Spaniards (my roommates Marcos & Armando, plus Julian, a student I'm tutoring) about how dissatisfied I am with the language instruction I received in elementary and high school. That I don't remember anything because I never practiced or had to use it. Even though they speak English much better than I speak Spanish, they say they feel the same way and that in Spain people only speak Spanish. They tell me the only reason they know more English than I know Spanish is because they listen to music and watch tv shows and movies in English.
That's all I've got for now. Hopefully my next post will be full of pictures from what I've been doing in Madrid the past few weeks!
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