English Lesson in Spain

            I observed a lesson in an English class of eleven to twelve-year-olds and it was very interesting to see the differences in teaching style than what I am accustomed to. The teacher began the lesson explaining what they were going to go over during the class. Then, the kids completed two grammar activities in their workbooks individually. Collaboration was not encouraged because the classroom is set up with desks in single file lines with space in between each of them and because she asked them to work individually. This method makes sure that all students are attempting the exercises and not just copying from other students, but it also prevents struggling students from receiving help from others.

            Once the students had finished the exercises, the teacher called on students down the line to give their answers. After each response, the teacher either explained the reasoning behind the answer, asked a follow-up question about vocabulary related or discussed other grammatical aspects related to the question. This method of calling on students in a line is good to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate, including the struggling students, so that the teacher can monitor understanding better. However, it can also put students on the spot and make them feel uncomfortable.

            From what I saw, the teaching methods were much more teacher and book-oriented with little collaboration. The teacher taught directly out of the book and while she did elaborate a little it was still very book-centered. This combined with the lack of collaboration may contribute to one of the largest challenges I saw in the classroom: difficulty keeping the attention of the students. There were a few students who were often whispering amongst themselves or not doing the activities when they should have been.

            While my CT’s teaching methods are somewhat different from what I have seen I have learned a lot and have had the opportunity to consider the benefits of teaching methods that I have never really considered before.

Promoting Equality and Social Justice

The biggest challenge that I faced this semester was language. I came to a country where everyone speaks German and I spoke none. In my day to day life, there were times where I really wished I could understand more but I could get by speaking English. In the classroom, I was the odd one out. I was the only person in the school that had no experience with German. When other teachers would walk by or attempt to ask me something in German, my students would all rush to tell them that I don't speak German, only English. It was a strange feeling. Everything I was used to as a teacher was different. Coming into a new environment, I like to observe the teacher in the classroom to see how he or she interacts with students and what sort of classroom management routines they have in place. I then use those observations to inform my own teaching and make my transition into the classroom a smooth one. But, I could not understand anything that my CT said to my students and even had a hard time getting cues from the tonality of her voice because it is different when speaking German. This definitely put me in a less comfortable place to begin with.

As a teacher, you come face to face with challenges everyday and being able to think on your feet and be flexible is a big part of succeeding as a teacher. So I came into this experience ready to be open minded to differences and ready to be challenged. Working with a population that spoke very little of my first language and whose first language I was just beginning to learn, was truly difficult. Trying to build a connection with students who cannot understand you at first seemed hopeless. Even something that seems so frivolous like small talk is significant in establishing trust and getting to know someone else. Without the ability to use speech as a main form of communication, I learned to resort to other methods. I would participate in games that students were playing to show them that I am fun and enjoy spending time with them. I took interest in the work they were doing and they would get excited to show me their projects on the wall. I found small ways for them to get to know me and build a connection with me. This was my biggest goal of the semester. Because relationships and community play a vital role in teaching. I am proud to say that I overcame this language barrier and created relationships with my students that made our learning together more effective and fun.

Having this eye opening experience helped me to understand what it is like to be a minority in a classroom and even more specifically an ELL student. I think this will help me to promote equity and social justice in the classroom. To experience being in a classroom and being expected to learn in a language you don’t understand, really shaped my perspective. Through this experience I will better be able to empathize with and teach ELL students.

I hope I have left these students with excitement and positive memories associated with learning and specifically learning English. I was lucky enough to have them teach me about myself and education each week so I hope I too taught them something they can cherish.

A Bientôt CIPEC

CIPEC Week Ten: A Bientôt CIPEC

            Since it is my last day at CIPEC, we spent the afternoon walking through the forest and the fields on our way to the Sorcerer’s house.  The sorcerer of CIPEC only comes out on Halloween and runs through the hallways scaring the students and throwing out candy.  Even though the sorcerer is only the principal’s son, the students take the matter very seriously and often become scared even at the mention of a sorcerer.  The sorcerer’s house is a deserted mansion past the forest that surrounds CIPEC.  On our way to the house, we passed wheat fields, patches of wild flowers, les champinions, an old Citroen horse trailer and huge oak trees with acorns beneath them.  On each leg of our journey, Marie-Christine stopped and explained different aspects of nature to the students.  I didn’t even realize how much we were learning until we were back in the classroom.  We learned about different flowers, how acorns grow, and about the park ranger’s responsibilities.  This topic came up when we came across when we found corn on the ground beside a tub of water.  I didn’t realize that in France people are paid to feed and give water to animals. 

            Besides going on a hike, we also learned about Noël.  Marie-Christina read a story to the children and then they colored in St. Nicholas worksheets since it’s St. Nicholas’ day this Saturday.  I’m not sure how well the students enjoyed the activity because they were told to only use yellow, brown, and purple to color in the drawing since these are the traditional colors.  Many students wanted to use green or red but they weren’t allowed.  However, afterwards, Marie-Christine explained the history behind planting seeds on December 6^th and I translated the story to English.  Then, each student was given their own bowl and we planted our own seeds!  The students loved playing with the cotton, using water, and wouldn’t stop talking about who’s plant would be the biggest.   

            This semester, I’ve been so fortunate to be able to work with Madame Pecnard and Marie-Christine at CIPEC.  Originally I thought this experience was going to be completely different than teaching in the US but I’ve slowly realized that it’s really not very different at all.  Even though the systems are different, I’m in a completely new place, and the students mostly all speak French, the experience of teaching at an International school was very similar to teaching students in the US.  I imagine it’s very similar to the experiences of my friends who are currently teaching in Hawaii, Oregan, and South Korea.  Regardless of the cultural differences, children all have the same needs, desires and fears.  I started noticing this when I taught at an inner-city school in Boston last fall and then a private school in Boston in the spring.  Even though the students came from completely different backgrounds, they struggled with the same math problems, they had the same friend issues, and they all hated school lunches.  Learning to look at all students through different lenses while keeping in mind they are all children is a lesson I think every teacher should learn. 

            Teaching abroad and learning about other education system has also made me become interested in possibly teaching abroad after graduation.  Many of the teachers at CIPEC taught in different countries when they were younger and they all had fantastic experiences.  The drama teacher I worked with met her husband while studying abroad and then returned to France after graduation to teach at CIPEC.  She ended up marrying the boyfriend she met here during her undergrad study abroad program and they now have three children who speak both French and English perfectly, and without accents.  Learning about other education systems in class has also been a great learning experience and will help me decide where I want to teach if I do pursue teaching abroad.  If not, the information I’ve learned this semester has been extremely interesting and I hope to learn more about other country’s’ education systems such as the internship programs in Germany and how students in Finland have the same teacher throughout most of their schooling.  Hopefully these are topics I can explore more in future courses back in the states.

Lesson Reflection

I taught a full lesson today, my first one in P5W at St. Andrew's. The students had been learning about trench warfare in WWI and reading a book called Private Peaceful. For my lesson, we looked through a powerpoint that had pictures of life in the trenches, and discussed ways that they could describe the photos. The students had previously done some learning on this topic, so they had a lot of facts to share and many had questions about the historical aspects of it as well! I initially hadn't planned on going through the full slideshow, because it was long and some of the pictures could be described in mostly the same way. However, the entire class was really engaged, and so I decided to keep going. After the presentation, I read aloud a short section from the book they have been reading in class. I asked the students to either follow along or to close their eyes and listen; the point of this exercise was to get them to visualize life in the trenches as well as think about all the ways they could describe the trenches with each of their senses. When the reading was over, they wrote letters to their families as if they were a soldier in WWI; they made a rough draft in their writing copies and then a final draft on homemade parchment-style paper. They loved using the paper because it looked old and many of them crumpled it and torn off bits to make it seem authentic!

Overall, the lesson went very well, which was great considering the somewhat mature topic that we were discussing. Several students seemed to have extensive knowledge of WWI; they referenced developments in warfare technology and talked about strategies. They knew that the letters that soldiers wrote home were censored, and so many asked questions about what information they could and could not put in their letters. I loved experiencing their curiosity about the subject, and I also enjoyed seeing how some of them must read about this history on their own!

In comparison to other lessons I've taught during my P1, I felt much more relaxed during this one. I don't know if that is because the students are younger or because I had background knowledge of the topic, but I felt very comfortable in front of the class without preparing as meticulously as I had during my P1 lessons. I also wasn't as concerned about time management, because we had about an hour and 15 minutes for the lesson, which was a perfect amount of time. I thought that there was a good balance between when I was talking and when the class was directly engaged in conversation with me, as well as independent/quiet work. However, there were a few things that I would do differently if I could do this again. In regards to time management, I wish I had stopped them about 5 minutes early so that a couple of the students could share a sentence or two from their writing. They were all so creative and descriptive that it would have been nice for them to show off a bit to their classmates. Secondly, I should have given them more explicit requirements for their letter. They all completed the assignment correctly, but some students had a few questions about what exactly to write. Next time, I would have a couple guidelines to make it more clear, and which would also enhance the descriptions they were coming up with. For example, they could have to write one sentence each about what they saw, smelled, heard, and felt, in addition to anything else they might want to include.

I really liked teaching this lesson because it incorporated a lot of what we had been focusing on in previous classes, and because it integrated history and language arts lessons. My CT does a really good job of making sure that her lessons cover several areas of instruction, which I think is important because the students make better connections to different subjects over time!

Thanksgiving at CIPEC

CIPEC Week Nine: Thanksgiving at CIPEC

            I feel so gratefully to have had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with my students.  I taught them about my traditions in New Jersey with my family, showed them pictures of the wild turkeys that live in my backyard, and pictures of me at the Macy Day Parade in NYC.  The students had all learned about Thanksgiving in preparation for their feast on Friday so they were so excited to answer all of my questions.  After talking about Thanksgiving with K1, I went back to Ms. Guillian’s classroom to help with the second part of our lesson on magnets from last week.

            This week, each student brought in a large salad bowl and filled it with water.  Then, they each magnetized a needle by rubbing it against a magnet “100” times.  We then put a cork in the water and balanced the needle on top of the piece of cork.  After 5-10 seconds, the needle started pointing North.  The students were absolutely amazed that it worked every time!  After the main part of the lesson was over, I had the opportunity to talk to the students about what a cornucopia is and what their favorite fruits are.  Many of the students named fruits that the other students and I hadn’t even heard of.  I was shocked by how many fruits I haven’t tried. 

            After science class, I stayed in the science room with the students and helped them rearrange the tables and chairs for drama.  During drama class Ms. Jill read a Thanksgiving story and the students all silently but dramatically mimed the story.  Before the story, Ms. Jill referred to tidbits of history she had taught the students the previous class.  They also applied their science lesson on agriculture to the different farming techniques the pilgrims used prior to Thanksgiving.  Even though the students weren’t prompted to make these connections, the way the CIPEC curriculum is structured stimulates students to think about how each lesson they learn applies to larger phenomenon.