Celebrating Halloween at the Ecole Jeannine Manuel

On October 20, the entire school came together to celebrate Halloween. Normally, the French do not celebrate Halloween and go trick or treating but because the school embraces different cultures, Halloween was a big part of the school. It was interesting to see that almost everyone had dressed up for Halloween. I had only seen two children not dressed up. I thought it was interesting because in America, children who do not celebrate Halloween do not do so because of religious reasons, whereas French children do not because they do not like candy or just because they have no desire to. 

At the beginning of school, all the classrooms came together in the quad to sing songs that they learned in their respective classrooms. It was very adorable to see little kids singing and dancing in their extraordinary costumes. Songs were sung in english and french depending on which classroom they learned the song in. Afterwards, the kindergarteners went trick or treating in each classroom and would say a "spooky" phrase to get some treats. Because the entire day was focused on Halloween, the teachers were very relaxed and spent most of the time watching Halloween videos and coloring or reading a book. It was very relaxed because they had a two week break afterwards so many of the students were excited for break and since they were very young, they were a little rowdier. Thus, I thought it was smart of the teachers to let them have fun and to not give them tedious work to do. Although it was still mostly fun, the teachers still made it a learning experience by reading and teaching the children about Halloween and what people do and dress up for. They would read books in english and the teachers would ask leading questions about what would happen in the next scene. The children were very engaged in the stories and knew many of the answers. It was very impressive to see such young children learning multiple languages at once and learning about different cultures and holidays that the French may not normally celebrate. I was honestly pretty shocked to see how heavily the school celebrated Halloween but it was exciting to see everyone having a great time.

It was interesting because the teachers that I would shadow would inform me that they usually have more informative lessons and have actual lesson plans prepared. I was also expecting this because the Ecole Jeannine Manuel is a very well renown school in Paris and many parents want their children to attend. They assured me that after Halloween and the break, it would be much more of an educating experience. I thought it was wonderful and less anxious that my first week at the school was fun and exciting. Everyone was in a great mood and the teachers were excited to dress up and give out treats to students as well. However, I am also very excited to go back and see how the school normally is on a regular school day and to see different teaching methods and classroom behavior management skills that the teachers implement.

Classroom Management in Madrid

So, I have noticed a huge difference between the classroom management in Madrid versus the United States.  I'm not sure if it's because I move to different classrooms and different groups of students for each period of the day, but I have yet to see any sort of regimen for the students to follow.  I haven't seen any rules being enforced or systems of legitimate classroom management.  It has simply been more chaotic and disorganized.  As I mentioned in my previous post I am with high school students as well as elementary students, and this allows me to see the progression of learning styles throughout the school.

Throughout the whole school there is a sense of disconnect and lack of respect between student and teacher.  To start, all the students call the teachers by there first names and speak to them in the informal tense of "you" in Spanish.  Yes, I know this is just a cultural difference, but I do believe it feeds the idea that students have little respect or boundaries when it comes to their relationship with their teachers.  With that, the teachers seem to have no real control of the behavior of their students.  I will begin by focusing on the high school students.  The teaching style is very relaxed and sort of an open structure where students feel like they're having more of a conversation with the teacher rather than lecture style.  I do think this is a beneficial teaching style to engage students, but I don't care for the way the teacher allows students to talk over one another and participate in a disorganized fashion.  There has been absolutely no real classroom management in place other than the teacher raising his/her voice to quiet the class down or try to refocus attention.  This is extremely unsuccessful.  I do my best to walk around and keep students on task and to eliminate the side conversations, but it seems that the students don't care because their is no real consequence for their actions as well as no reward for positive behavior.

Similarly in the elementary classroom, these students are craving structure.  In an elementary classroom a solid routine and behavioral assessment system is so important.  From what I have observed, these students want to please their teacher, but are lacking the skills or resources to behave appropriately.  Students do know to raise their hands, but have no problems calling out or speaking over their classmates or getting out of their seats without permission.  I do agree that classrooms need a bit of freedom for students to become independent but without structure or a routine or a positive behavior intervention system, it is nearly impossible for students to learn proper etiquette in a serious academic environment.  This school is great and the students are fantastic as well, I don't mean to be so critical, but I can just imagine how much better things could be if there was a behavior management system put in place.  I've seen the positive effects before and I can only imagine how great it would be at Colegio La Salle.

A "Typical" day at Carlos Aguilar

A “typical” day at my placement is anything but typical and everyday is fairly unique so I will try to give a general overview of the day and schedule and then talk specifically about some of the examples of the experiences I may have on a day-to-day basis.

            I volunteer at Escuela Carlos Aguilar every Tuesday and Thursday from 8 to 11AM, which means waking up at 6AM to take the hour commute to the school. The students have already been in class since 7AM and upon my arrival I am welcomed with a chorus of “Buenos Dias Leah!” and a large group-hug. Once the students are settled back into their seats from 8-9AM Profe Eli usually finishes up her lesson and leaves the stage to me to teach the English lesson I have prepared for the day. These children have never heard or learned English before in their lives so I feel very privileged to play the role as their first English teacher and introduction to the language. So far I have covered colors, some emotions and some parts of the body. I do not have many resources here to work with planning these lessons, but since Profe Eli speaks very minimal English, I know she is grateful with whatever I am able to prepare for the students.

During this time or at any point in the day Profe Eli may leave the room and leave me with the 26 students alone. Today the students proceeded to launch their hats up towards the ceiling and play with the materials on the board. Since I am only their for 2 days a week in the morning, and the students see me more as a friend when I am not teaching an English lesson, I do not have the same authority for discipline as Profe Eli has with her students. This is something I am continuing to work on so that I am able to keep the students under control when Profe Eli leaves me with the students.

            At 9AM the students have their lunches (probably when most of us are wanting to eat breakfast) and around 9:45 or 10AM they head out for recess. The students stay out on the playground until about 10:45AM and we head back to the classroom where I help Profe Eli set up her next lesson plan or activity before I leave for the day.

            This may all seem fairly smooth sailing, but we are 28 bodies in a very small classroom and the students are constantly pushing, kicking, shoving, you name it towards one another. There is also not a whole lot of structure and discipline in the classroom. Students can walk up and around the classroom when instruction is not going on and many students leave the classroom and head out to the patio. Additionally, last week we had a new student join our class who has been diagnosed with severe autism. This child cannot verbally communicate and does not usually participate in class discussion. We have to make sure the surroundings are secure at all times because if he escapes from our sight (as occurred today) I have to go wandering the school looking for him, chase him down and carry him back to the classroom.

            The experiences I am having at Escuela Carlos Aguilar are incredibly valuable and I am always in for a surprise every day I attend. Having to teach the English language in Spanish to the students who are 4 and 5 years old and can’t yet read or write in their first language is a challenge, but it is the reason I chose to do my practicum at this school. Overall, the “ah-ha” moments, when the kids remember and start singing the songs I taught them, or remind me that they know the word for something in English makes the harder moments more bearable.  

Initial thoughts teaching in Paris

My practicum placement is at the Jeannine Manuel Ecole in Paris, France. It has been great so far and although I was nervous the first day, all the teachers and students were incredibly friendly and welcoming that all my worries went away. The school itself is amazing in that there are different locations of the school for different grades. I go to my placement Tuesday, Thursday, and all day Friday so I see them frequently for five weeks. For the first two weeks, I am with the youngest grades (kindergarten, first grade, and second grade). I was pleasantly surprised when they remembered my name after the first day. 

The school is interesting in that they placed me in not only different schools throughout my practicum, but also in many different classes. Therefore, I am with different students and teachers throughout my placement. There are some pros and cons for each in my opinion. A pro is that I get to observe different teachers and see how they manage classroom behavior and see different ways of teaching the same subject. A con may be that I do not really get to form relationships with the students because I don't see them as often as I would if I was consistently with them throughout my time there. Furthermore, I am not only in their English speaking classes but in their French and Chinese classes. The students are grouped by age and also split into classrooms throughout the day where they learn a subject in their their first language (either english or french) or English as a Foreign Language. All the teachers there speak french as well as english and teach classes where they are from. For example, teachers who teach Chinese classes have live in China and chinese is their first language. 

There are about 20 students in each class. Surprisingly, there are some students who can speak to me in english. Since the students are all young and just beginning to learn all these different languages, during their classes, they will speak in their first language to one another and sometimes me or the teacher. It was difficult when I was with the first graders during French class because they would speak to me in French. I have only started studying French while I started school back in September so I was also nervous about that before coming to the school. However, I was able to help them and talk to them briefly about what they needed to do and if they needed help. It definitely gave me more confidence in speaking French with them and to continue to study hard to learn more French.

Everyone at the school has been very accommodating and you can tell how passionate and hard working the teachers are for their students. Some teachers don't have desks so they are always actively going around the classroom helping their students. Because they know students cannot sit still for a long period of time, they have different groups around the classroom that the students can go to after their finish their activity. This reminded me of my first practicum placement at Countryside Elementary School.

Welcome to Madrid!

I am completing my international practicum at Colegio La Salle San Rafael in Madrid, Spain.  I have been placed in a few different English language classes, rather than with one age group for the whole day.  At Boston College I study elementary education, and here I am mostly with the secondary students which has been really interesting.  My day consists of 4 different class periods with four different age groups, 3 being secondary and 1 primary.  Thus far I do believe that I prefer the primary students, as my studies suggest, however I am eager to see how I feel at the end of the semester in regards to working with the older students.

So far my day has consisted of taking pairs of students in the hallway to have meaningful conversations in English.  The teachers have expressed to me how important they think it is for the students to practice their English by participating in a fluid conversation about everyday life, school, and hobbies.  In addition to that, I have also enjoyed assisting the teacher in class by helping students one on one while working on an individual task, or simply helping to redirect attention to where necessary.  I have noticed that the Spanish students' behavior towards the teacher is much different than in the United States.  Here students talk over the teacher and ignore her instructions far more than in the U.S.  In fact, it was so bad one class period where I felt like I needed to step in and tell the students that their behavior was unacceptable because of how rude they were to their teacher.  Although I wanted to step in, I refrained since I am still new to the school and need to understand the cultural differences that I may just need to get accustomed to.  Rather than step overstep, I just walked around and quietly asked students to stay quiet and focused.  This is something that has been an issue only mostly in the secondary classes and I am interested to see how it changes over the semester.

The elementary students are excellent at English.  So good, that I think they may be better than the secondary students!  I was speaking with their teacher and she informed me that these students were part of the first year of having bilingual education at their school.  It was incredible to see how smart and attentive they were, while also speaking impeccable English.  The secondary students instead have only had a few hours of English class a week since they began school as a young child.  It is really amazing to see the difference a bilingual education makes in language acquisition in young children.  I have only scratched the surface of my experience here and I look forward to the exciting time with my students to come!