Carrying Teaching Abroad back to the US

While preparing for my upcoming Full Practicum, I sought out advice from a student who previously worked with my cooperating teacher. The advice she gave me greatly connects to abroad and allowed for me to see the valuable connection between my experience and my upcoming practicum. She recommended, as I will be teaching full-time in a High School Spanish classroom, that I prepare a brief presentation on my abroad experience to share with the students and explain life abroad. The idea of creating materials prior to beginning allowed for me to realize that I have accumulated quite a bit during my time teaching abroad.

My abroad experience and especially my time teaching abroad will allow for me to Promote Equity and Social Justice by relaying my experience and acknowledging differences amongst different countries. While I have not yet had the opportunity to see life in other Spanish-speaking countries besides Spain, my student dynamic may include natives from other countries who will further offer an invaluable experience for me and the other students to learn from. In previous practicums, I have been able to learn alternative vocabulary and idioms according to variations of dialect. I have a perspective from Spain that I can offer the students and provide them with more vocabulary.

Further, I have created presentations within my practicum abroad that I can alter and share with my upcoming class. By sharing these materials in addition to sharing how the students reacted and their perspective, I will be able to promote more equity as the students can widen their perspective by understanding a different school system. Just as I shared my school system with those in Spain, I now have the opportunity to share their system with the US and my future students. Teaching abroad has allowed for me to make connections and memories that I can relay on to my students. I intend on maintaining contact with those in Spain in order to further my experience during my full practicum. My previous cooperating teaching from Spain offered to send me materials and any relevant YouTube videos he may be including within his Language and Literature class that I can then alter according to our curriculum. I believe by explaining the connections and my previous experience will allow for the students to become more accepting of outside cultures in addition to those present within the classroom, as it gives students of a different background to discuss their individualities and make the class more knowledgeable and accepting.