The Strangled Teacher

Okay.  I have to say it.  I feel like the teacher in me is being strangled here in Spain.  I'm having an internal battle between loving Spain's education system and hating it.  Clearly something is working here.  The students are brilliant.  And I still can't get past the fact that they write in cursive in 1st grade beautifully (even the boys!  Sorry for stereotyping.)  And they can color and draw perfectly at the age of four.  And they know every bone, muscle, joint, system in the body in both English and Spanish.  My mind continues to be blown daily.

However, the teaching methods here go against everything I have ever learned in both my college education and hands on experience.  Here, they teach by the book.  Literally.  I sit in each class and translate what they just read in Spanish.  That's basically it.  No arts and crafts.  No fun worksheets.  No Brain Pop.  No games.  Nada.  Zilch.  Nothing.  The concept that has been drilled in my head for years at college: "Learning is multi-sensory" has been thrown out the door here.  I find true happiness when in the rare moments I get to draw a picture on the white board.  For example, today I taught the structure of the human ear in 3rd grade.  Let me tell you, I was ecstatic when I had the opportunity to draw every part of the human ear.  AND THEN, because it is totally illogical as to why we have parts in our ears called the ear drum, or anvil, or stirrup, or cochlea, I drew pictures of the literal translations of each word.  (Imagine the sound that happens when you are surrounded by a halo or angels... ahhhhhh).  I was in heaven.  That is the extent of my creativity here in Spain.  "This is ridiuclous," I said to myself.  "Why am I getting so excited over drawing with black marker on a white board???"  Because the crazy, fun, creative teacher in me is being stuffed away in a closet with last years fad of mustaches.

SIDENOTE: The new upcoming fad with American students will be these...

Yep.  A garbage can pencil holder.  You heard it here first.

The crazy thing is, this teach by the book methods seems to work.  I can't wrap my head around it.  Eighty percent of the students truly know their stuff.  Maybe it's because there are no standardized tests which in turn leads to zero pressure on the students to be perfect (hint hint nudge nudge #chrischristie) And I can see that the teachers really do care about their students learning, just in a different manner than  I would.  They also don't have to constantly worry about insane assessments  or student growth or all of the political nonsense currently going on in New Jersey.

I'll give you a moment to process all of this...

Okay times up.  I mentioned above that 80% of students are flourishing. I dare to say that they beat our American student statistics hands down.  They really are brilliant.  But that leaves the other 20%.  These students are barely scraping by.  I'm expected to just ignore the bad behavior of these students, or expect them to automatically do poorly on their tests, etc.  None of this is said out of spite or malice by the teachers; it is just something normal to them.  Like being crafty in the classroom is normal to me.  But for these kids, they have to want to learn and if they don't... oh well.  Again, this sounds harsh, and I hope it doesn't offend anyone.  But the NJ teacher in me, wants to take each one of these students and work one of one with them secretly.  I want to excite them with learning again.  And reinforce that they do have potential to be good.  Because I can see that in each of them they truly want to learn but this teaching style just isn't working for them.  Therefore, they've given up.
Now, you're probably asking me why I haven't done any of my normal teacher things to change all of this:

1.  I don't want to step on any toes.  Like I've repeatedly said: the teachers clearly know what they're doing because it's working.  And also, there is always a teacher in the room observing me, so no secret english shenanigan crafts on my end.  I do attempt to sneak a few activities in when I can.  For example Halloween crafts or the days when I say, "I have this review game we can play!"

2. I only have about 45 minutes of time with each class.  Throw in crazy chldren, transition time, and explanations, and I am down to maybe 30 minutes.

3.  This language barrier thing is getting really old.  It took me 15 minutes with my one class to explain how to play Pin the Eye on the Monster.  Imagine playing a more complex game--- I would be explainging the entire time.

4.  The kids are kind of hyper.  I'll leave it at that.

5.  I am an employee of the school.  I do what they tell me to do.  There is technically nothing wrong with what they're doing, so I must abide.

6.  I do have my one saving grace which is the 1st grade class.  I love 1st grade because the teacher teaches with an American teaching style. (Try saying that five times fast.)  His lesson plans are exactly what I would be doing in the United States.  In this class, I also get to monitor the students-- a big thing that is missing in the Spanish classrooms.  I never realized before how much you bond individually with each student as you are monitoring them and helping them individually.  In almost all of my classes, I stand in the front of the classroom and speak.  (Barbara Andrews would have a coronary over seeing me standing in front of the room the entire time-- right Mrs. Schnetzer?!)  Because of this, I am the closest with these students.  (I even receieve besitos daily.)

SIDENOTE #2: Attention Spain-- you need to get on this hug trend.  We hug EVERYONE in America.  I never realized how much I missed human interaction in this form until I came to Spain where I am expected to be satisfied with a kiss on the cheek.  A hug truly makes you feel good.  I almost adopted  a street cat the other day (to be fair it walked into my house on its own accord... after I showed it a can of tuna...)  just because I wanted to hug something.  Even a snuggly hug with a cat would suffice right now.  I guess 6 year old besitos will have to do.

Sixth grade is pretty cool too because I have free reign over what I want to teach.  It would be even cooler if I had class with them:

          Week 1: missed for official business in Cordoba
          Week 3: there was a strike.
I guess two out of four classes ain't bad.

I'm also not just saying any of this because these two teachers read my blog.  I genuinely enjoy my time in each of these classes.  Actually I enjoy my time in all of the classes, but these two are my favorite.

So that leaves me with the internal struggle: being strangled as a teacher here in Spain because I can't be the teacher I usually am OR be strangled as a teacher in New Jersey with the politics that are so heavily involved in schools today....


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