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!

Classroom Management at Escuela Carlos Aguilar

My pre-practicum is in a 1^st grade classroom at Escuela Carlos Aguilar. So far I am enjoying working in the classroom and have made note of classroom management procedures put in place by both the classroom teacher and the school as a whole. I was placed in a private Catholic school for my first practicum placement in a 5^th grade class and it has been quite a change to be at this school with such a young age group.

Our classroom is made up of 25 rambunctious 1^st graders who are the youngest grade at the school. The classroom is fairly small and with all the materials stored around the room there is not a lot of space for movement about the classroom. For the first few weeks the tables were arranged in two long rows, but as of last week Eli (the classroom teacher) changed the tables around into smaller groups of tables put together. The students do not have assigned seats in the classroom and I wonder if that is not something that is common in this country because I know some of the students in the class could benefit from being closer or farther away from others.

Throughout the first few classes one of the main focuses Eli has made is teaching classroom rules to the students. She has pictures posted on the board of children siting properly in their seats, respecting one another, raising their hands, etc. When she first showed the students these pictures she had them tell her what they thought they meant and in this way they were able to comprehend in their own words how they should be behaving in the classroom. These “posters” have stayed on the wall since the first week and Eli occasionally will refer back to them to remind the students how they should be acting at school. Eli also teaches a lot through song. All of the students are eager to learn the new songs whether they are about the new subject they are learning or about cleaning up after themselves.

The students at Escuela Carlos Aguilar are given a much greater amount of independence than I would ever imagine seeing at an American elementary school. When the kids need to go to the bathrooms, which are located out around the building, they can walk out of the classroom and go by themselves. Also, before any meal they eat at school (there is no cafeteria so snack and lunch are eaten in the room) or after painting the students have to wash their hands and are given soap and sent off on their own to the bathroom sinks. Additionally, at any point during the day the kids are wandering out of the classroom which leads to a general patio or blacktop area and I have to go and corral them back inside. However, for the most part they know how they are supposed to stand in line, girls lined up behind each other and boys on the other side and they all participate in classroom activities.

Since I have never worked with this young of an age group I am unsure exactly what the normal criteria are for discipline but I do think this class could benefit from more clear instruction on how to problem solve amongst themselves to lead to less hitting, pushing, kicking, etc. Although the class size is big and the room is a little smaller the students should be able to respect the space and one another without always needing teacher intervention. I will continue to note other ways Eli manages the classroom in the weeks to come!  

Teaching and Final Thoughts About Beechen Cliff

During my final day at Beechen Cliff, I taught two lessons. The first was

observed and for a class of Year 7 students, and the second was with a small group

of Year 10 students. Both lessons went well overall, but there were definitely some

things I would have done with the Year 10 students if I had more time or was better

about spending the time I did have. The Year 7 lesson went smoothly, but I wish I

spent more time on the first part of the lesson than I did. With both of these lessons,

I have learned yet again the importance of time management. When I have taught

lessons in the past, I have had a problem with not having enough planned for the

class period, and rushing through certain activities. This semester, I think I have

gotten better about structuring my lessons. Now I just need to work on figuring out

exactly how much time I should spend on each segment—specifically trying to

spend more time on the important elements of the lesson, and less on the activities

that are less substantial.

I have really enjoyed student teaching at Beechen Cliff overall. All of the

English teachers were very welcoming, and they engaged in conversations about

teaching and my past experiences in schools often. In my past prepractica, I spent a

lot of my break time with either my supervisor or the other student teachers.

However, in this time around, I ate lunch in the English department’s staff room, and

therefore was able to interact with the teachers and listen to some of their thoughts

about teaching and Beechen Cliff as a school. It seems like a lot of the teachers are

happy at Beechen Cliff and enjoy teaching the students there. A few have mentioned

to me that they wished they had more freedom in their curriculum planning. It

seems that many find the National Curriculum a little rigid, and aren’t happy with

the extent that they have to teach to the GCSEs.

I have also really enjoyed working with the students at Beechen Cliff for the

most part. Many of the students are very insightful, and several of them are very

funny when they strike up a conversation with me about Compton, the Red Sox, and

Donald Trump. They have a lot of really interesting things to say, but I wonder if

they are not engaged by the way some of the teachers instruct the material. Many of

the teachers tend to deliver their lessons and only ask students to copy things down

or write for an extended period of time. I think the students find group work

stimulating, as well as projects, but I rarely see this in classes.

Beechen Cliff was an insightful experience for me because I got to not only

witness a British school, but also an all boys school. I have enjoyed exploring the

implications of both.

The Importance of Shakespeare in the UK's English Curriculum

There is one unit at Beechen Cliff that spans all years and all academic levels:

Shakespeare. Every year, the students can be sure that they will be learning at least

one Shakespeare play. In Year 7, the emphasis is on A Midsummer Night’s Dream,

Year 8 is an adapted version of Othello, Year 9 is Romeo and Juliet, and Year 10 is

Macbeth. I have not really observed many Year 11 classes, but I would be shocked if

they did not study Hamlet. These plays are often the subject of a unit of work.

Of all of the ways the teachers handle how they deliver this unit in its

entirety, I thought the Midsummer Night’s Dream unit was most effective. Each class

in Year 7 individually studied the play, pairing it with scaffolds and videos so that

the students, who are still pretty young, would understand. Then, each class was

assigned a scene from the play. Within the classes, the students would be grouped

with five or six other students. Each would choose a character from that scene to act

out. Then students were given the opportunity to rehearse this scene as if they were

performing it to a wide audience. Students were encouraged to bring their own

creativity into the play, acting out the scenes in whatever way they saw fit. Each

group would then perform their scenes to the rest of their individual classes. The

teacher would decide which group performed the scene best, taking into account

how well they understood their lines and how enthusiastic they were in the way

they presented their characters. Once the teachers decided which group was best,

those groups would perform their scene in front of the entire Year 7 on a stage. The

scenes would go in order, so that each class is represented and each students gets to

witness what watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream would be like.

I thought this unit was an effective one because the classes I observed were

always very engaged in rehearsing their scenes. The other Shakespeare units do not

interest the students very much. In the Year 9 class I participate in on Tuesdays,

many students have told me that they do not understand the language in Romeo and

Juliet, and that the plot is too confusing to grasp. They have only studied the play by

looking at the lines and analyzing them. Perhaps if the students were given the

opportunity to engage with the play in a more creative and personal way, they

would like it more.

With this in mind, I planned my lesson for next Tuesday to engage the

students creatively. My CT was extremely helpful in providing me with the materials

I would need to deliver this lesson effectively. It is situated at a point in the unit

where students should understand Treasure Island’s characters and be prepared to

create characters that model the ones imagined by R. L. Stevenson. I am looking

forward to teaching this lesson and I hope the students find it engaging and

meaningful.