El Instituto Padre Manjon

So before I get going about my travels to 3 cities in 2 countries this weekend I want to first take a moment to share with you about my first day of school on Thursday.

I arrived on Thursday a little after the time I was supposed to be there because I was running late and I got a tiny bit lost.  Schools here are not easy to find like they are in the U.S. You drive by a school and you're like "oh okay, that's a school", it's obvious, there's an area for buses, a parking lot, a big sign! and many other things to signify that it's a school.  Nope, this school has a big wall surrounding it and a small entrance that says IES Padre Manjon on the inside of the wall.  haha So of course I walked past it and then had to ask the mail lady where it was and she told me to go back about 20 yards.  Oooops, oh well.  So I walked in and asked the lady at the "Informacion" desk. haha They don't have an office of any sort, it's just a lady at the information desk and I asked her where the "Sala de Profesores" was.  All I needed was to tell her that I was here to see Gale and she let me threw. haha if you tried something like that in the U.S. you'd get the third degree.  Even for my observations I needed to sign a paper, get a pass, and the first time the secretary had to call up to the teacher.  So it was just funny seeing how small the security was at that school compared to the ones at home.  Slightly unsettling, but I can't judge because that's just how they do things here.

So I found the Sala de Profes (teachers lounge) easily enough and walked in and just stood around looking for someplace to sit.  The teacher found me easily enough and it turns out she's American.  Which was kind of a nice thing to know so I don't have to struggle with a language barrier for this type of thing.  The teachers lounge was very interesting, it's full of nice leather couches, tables and chairs.  There's a "bar" if you will call it where the teachers all stand around and order some juice, or coffee or whatnot.  I got there during their break time at 10:15, so there were a few teachers hanging around there just chatting.  My advisor, if that's what you'll call her, introduced me to a few people and told me what I might be doing.  Basically I have to do at least 4 observation hours.  I'll be observing a Spanish class and an English class while I'm there.  Now remember, Spanish classes here are like our English classes here, so it's like a Spanish Lit class that I observed on Thursday.  It was very interesting.  First off, the kids don't travel around the school, the teachers do...So they just have little folders that they put all their papers in and travel around the school with their little tote bags.  So the teachers walk into the room and all the kids stand up to show respect and all, and then sit down when they are told.  It was very strange, and something I've only seen in movies about the old ways of school in the U.S.  In the class I observed a teacher popped in a few times, and every time a teacher popped in the class stood up again until they left...interesting.  Also, the classes are very big, and very loud.  Granted this was a younger class, but still, the class size seemed so large.  There were kids all the way in the back who got very little attention if any.  They were talking and the teacher didn't seem to care, she mostly just interacted with the kids closest to her desk.  There was a barrier between the teacher and the students with the desk, which is something we talked about in the Management class.  The whole atmosphere was just strange.

Now I'm just doing the best that I can here and keeping an open mind, because this is a different country and they do things differently here.  But I just have to say this one thing.  I was honestly appalled at their view on teaching students with special needs and developmental delays.  I'm deeply sorry to any who reads this is is offended by my opinion, but some teachers here, and in my view point, the whole system as far as students with special needs goes, needs to change.  After I did my observation of the Spanish classroom I returned to the sala for teachers who teacher English.  I talked with my Advisor about what she thinks I'll be doing and she talked to me about her class that I'll be observing.  She was telling me that here it is required for students to take 4 years of English.  Every student here needs to do 4 years, which honestly I think is a good idea.  In the states we have a requirement of only 2 years, but most colleges look for 3-4 years.  I think it's good that they require all students.  Her problem is that some students are "just horrible and should not be taking the class".  Now, I understand that all teachers reach their breaking point and sometimes just want to club their students for being thick headed.  However, this runs deeper than that.  They way I understand it is this; students with special needs or any sort of developmental delay where they would need accommodations don't attend this school.  They usually attend a separate school for students with special needs.  The way the teacher was describing to me how she has two students who are slower made me sad.  She actually used the word retarded to describe them.  Now I know I can't just generalize and think all of Spain is like this, and that all teachers are like this, but it made me sad.  She was just basically telling me that they should be at that school, it's only for students who are going to go beyond high school and that they should be somewhere else and not in that class.  So it was just a very very negative point of view and it seemed like she had to understanding for these students.  But that's just my opinion and the way I saw it.  I know I only have one experience so far, but that was a bit shocking for me to hear.  It took a lot for me not to say something, but I was a good little girl and merely observed and learned about how this culture deals with it.

After that I just kind of hung around for an hour and waiting to help the next teacher with his class.  This teacher has about 5 students who are a bit behind than the rest of his class.  They didn't have a teacher available to teach just these students, so they are in a class with a bunch of other kids, except they are doing something simpler than the rest of the kids.  So he basically just came up stairs and told me what his goal for the day was, what he wanted me to do with them and gave me page numbers.  That's it.  So I just waited around and looked at the book at bit.  Now, here's the other thing.  As a native english speaker, I could not tell you was present simple tense is.  Or what a module is, or comparative and whatnots are.  So when he's using words like "I want them to know how to use the modules "can and can't" and to use the present simple and present simple subjunctive" i was just like "uh huh, okay, yup" and was trying to figure out the tenses based on the context he was giving me.  Another thing...they teach British English because that's the closest country to them.  Some things to me sound awfully barbaric, like when they say "She has got 2 jobs" or just plain silly, like "I musn't play in the mud".  So when the teacher asked me how I would teach the difference between must and have to I was just like "ummm I would never say I must do something, lol" and he just kind of stared at me and was like "okay, well teach it".  So that was a bit stunning, lol.  But I got over it and tried to remind myself  You're not here to change their system, only to help them and get a view point on how they do things.  That was something that was very hard all day long. I had to consistently remind myself to just go with the flow.  Oh, and they use mum instead of mom, ew.

So basically I met the teacher outside his door, walked into the class with him and he said to the class, this is bonnie she's from the U.S. she's going to be helping us.  Then he looked at me and said "this is my class and now it is yours".  He pointed me towards the 5 students that needed my help and said go have fun, lol.  Yup, that was the extent of my direction.  I don't really know why I was expecting more, but it totally threw me off.  So I walked over and ask them to introduce themselves again and just opened up the book to the pages he gave me.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to plan anything fun at all, and hardly knew what I was doing with them.  So we boringly went through the pages in the book, and the whole time they were just like "this is boring, this is too easy".  So I struggled between having them understand my English and then trying to talk to them in Spanish as well.  Sometimes they looked at me like I had 3 heads when I talked in Spanish and one kid even said "you can talk to us in English, we understand you".  They just made me sad and feel like my Spanish was just dead awful". haha.  So it was a struggle.  I apologized for the very boring and easy class, asked what they usually do during class and promised to have something better prepared for the next class.  

With that, the class ended, I said I would see them next week and they all left.  The day was over.  The teacher merely walked up to me, asked me how it was and walked away.  haha No, "how was it, where they okay, do you have any questions?" Nope, just a simple nod and walked out.  Needless to say I was a bit dazed after that experience and a bit sad that I didn't make the best first impression on the kids.  They just seemed ridiculously bored and I got the feeling that they felt they were too dumb.  So I think I'm going to watch to see how the teacher interacts with them next week and look at what I can do.  This week apparently I'll be working with the majority of the class and he'll work with the small group of kids.  So it should be interesting.

Overall, it was an eye opening experience.  I didn't think that school would be that different, school is school.  But there are difference that I just wasn't expecting at all, and mostly in teaching philosophy.  So I'm going to see if maybe I can't employ some of my own teaching philosophies here, but it will be interesting since I don't actually have my own classroom and I just have a small group of kids without a white board or anything.   This will be a challenge, but I'm ready for it.

Love you all!! Next post will be on my adventures in 3 cities within two countries! :D Gibraltar, Sevilla and Cordoba