i promise i have a job.
So... it's a lovely Saturday here in Sevilla... it's raining outside which I very much don't mind right now. Mari and I are sitting on our computers in the salón. She is playing on facebook (I vice to which, yes, I am culpable for introducing her,) and I just finished my chore for the week of cleaning the bathroom (a duty which I actually don't mind and that I'm pretty darn good at thanks to my work for Grace at the ranch for so many summers- whoop whoop housekeeping!). What a perfect time to write a blog, no?!
So I think I'll begin with explaining a little bit about the way Spanish school works. VERY different from the US.
Ok... so their school system.
It begins with a type of preschool called educación infantil that you do til age 6.
Then you enter educación primaria from 6-12...
followed by educación segundo obligatorio (ESO) from 12-16 of which there are 4 levels.
At that point, you receive a type of graduate certificate.
Then from 16-18, you have the option of doing further schooling called bachillerato (of which there are 2 levels) before going to the university OR doing a type of vocational training to enter the work world.
My school IES Doñana, is an Instituto de Educación Segundaria (hence the IES). It incorporates ESO, bachillerato, and the vocational training listed above... so there are kids from 12-18 running around. I work with classes of all levels of ESO as well as both levels of bachillerato. They are punks. Haha. And they don't really know English at all which means the HATE trying to speak it.
My instituto is actually huge. Although Almonte (my little pueblo) is rather small, the school is big because they bus kids in from other surrounding pueblos as well. I think there are like 90 different professores in the school and something like 2000-ish students, so it's a size I'm used to. Here is a picture I tried to take of Almonte from the bus window coming from the highway. It's not fabulous, but it kind of give you an idea of how these pueblos are just little entities or clusters of pocket villages that exisit as you drive down the highway.
And just a side note information, right now my school (as well as any building including my piso) is FREEZING right now because every edificio is built to expel the life-sucking, unforgiving, infernal heat of Andalucia during the summer... so during the winter, we have not a prayer to retain any minute amount of it. Here is a picture of the departamento de inglés where I used to sit and buscar materiales por el internet before I recevied my lovely new schedule. It kinda gives you an idea of how the inside of the school looks. Note the tiled walls and floors, read arctic.
ANYWAY, their school day works as follows:
primera hora 8:25-9:25
segunda hora 9:25-10:20
tercera hora 10:20-11:15
recreo 11:15-11:45
cuarta hora 11:45-12:45
quinta hora 12:45-13:40
sexta hora 13:40-14:35
As you may note, they don't have a lunch time because they all go home and eat afterwards (while I drive the 1 hour commute back to sevilla with my carpool), but the period called is a time for students (and professors) to go to the little cafetería and eat chips, candy, or a bocadilla (a sandwich with an obscene amount of bread in proportion to the tiny slivers of meat- most likely jamón- and queso).
The cafetería also serves café con leche and is more like a café than anything we would think of as a school cafeteria. The bar tender's name is Manolo and one time when he was explaining the difference between a manchado and a café con leche to me (answer the ratio of coffee to milk is much less in a manchado), he spilled coffee all over himself and blamed it on me (but all in jest), so we joke about that quite frequently now.
Other odd differences I've noted in the Spanish school:
1) the students all call the professors by their first names
2) if the students don't use their first names, they use maestra, or rather they whine maestr
a
3) the teachers do not have fixed classrooms, so the teachers move from room to room each class while the kids stay... personally I think this is dumb for a number of reasons, mainly because (a) there is no way to have stocked materials for your subject in your room, you have to carry them around and (b) it gives the students this "territorial" type advantage/control over the teacher which is horrible because their behavior is abhorrent already
4) because of how the teachers move around, they don't have a fixed "all day, every day" schedule... so they might teach 2 classes during primera and cuarta horas on Monday, then 5 on Tuesday, etc, etc.... this frees them up to come and go only when they have to be there, but often time leaves them with huecos or holes in their schedules
5) professors (not me, because I'm not really real) also have hours of guardia which are just times where they have to be "on call" to patrol the halls or to just be available to random student if they have problems
6) they don't do substitutes unless a teacher is out for an extended period of time, so if a teacher is just gonna miss a day, the kids just have a hole in their schedule and do whatever they want... really good for 12-16 year olds.
Well, now that I am in classes (nevermind the fact that it took me 2 months to get there), I am very quickly gathering funny stories which are worth telling, however as I realize that this blog is already a little long, I will save them for later to post with other fun recent pictures of me and the crazy people with whom I am doing life now. :)
And a PS... please just imagine what a dork I felt like taking pictures of the high school... I want to be able to put pictures of the inside, but I can't bring myself to do so when there are kids running around. Haha.
Here... and just to end... Yesterday Beth and I went Christmas shopping in the centro and while we were walking back by the cathedral we had a "I can't believe we're living in Spain" moment and took a picture and then walked around listening to our ipods. I find that Coldplay is perfect for this type of setting. I got cold and am actually wearing three purchases (hat, scarf, sweatshirt) that I somehow ended up with for myself when shopping for others. Oops.
So I think I'll begin with explaining a little bit about the way Spanish school works. VERY different from the US.
Ok... so their school system.
It begins with a type of preschool called educación infantil that you do til age 6.
Then you enter educación primaria from 6-12...
followed by educación segundo obligatorio (ESO) from 12-16 of which there are 4 levels.
At that point, you receive a type of graduate certificate.
Then from 16-18, you have the option of doing further schooling called bachillerato (of which there are 2 levels) before going to the university OR doing a type of vocational training to enter the work world.
My school IES Doñana, is an Instituto de Educación Segundaria (hence the IES). It incorporates ESO, bachillerato, and the vocational training listed above... so there are kids from 12-18 running around. I work with classes of all levels of ESO as well as both levels of bachillerato. They are punks. Haha. And they don't really know English at all which means the HATE trying to speak it.
My instituto is actually huge. Although Almonte (my little pueblo) is rather small, the school is big because they bus kids in from other surrounding pueblos as well. I think there are like 90 different professores in the school and something like 2000-ish students, so it's a size I'm used to. Here is a picture I tried to take of Almonte from the bus window coming from the highway. It's not fabulous, but it kind of give you an idea of how these pueblos are just little entities or clusters of pocket villages that exisit as you drive down the highway.
And just a side note information, right now my school (as well as any building including my piso) is FREEZING right now because every edificio is built to expel the life-sucking, unforgiving, infernal heat of Andalucia during the summer... so during the winter, we have not a prayer to retain any minute amount of it. Here is a picture of the departamento de inglés where I used to sit and buscar materiales por el internet before I recevied my lovely new schedule. It kinda gives you an idea of how the inside of the school looks. Note the tiled walls and floors, read arctic.
ANYWAY, their school day works as follows:
primera hora 8:25-9:25
segunda hora 9:25-10:20
tercera hora 10:20-11:15
recreo 11:15-11:45
cuarta hora 11:45-12:45
quinta hora 12:45-13:40
sexta hora 13:40-14:35
As you may note, they don't have a lunch time because they all go home and eat afterwards (while I drive the 1 hour commute back to sevilla with my carpool), but the period called is a time for students (and professors) to go to the little cafetería and eat chips, candy, or a bocadilla (a sandwich with an obscene amount of bread in proportion to the tiny slivers of meat- most likely jamón- and queso).
The cafetería also serves café con leche and is more like a café than anything we would think of as a school cafeteria. The bar tender's name is Manolo and one time when he was explaining the difference between a manchado and a café con leche to me (answer the ratio of coffee to milk is much less in a manchado), he spilled coffee all over himself and blamed it on me (but all in jest), so we joke about that quite frequently now.Other odd differences I've noted in the Spanish school:
1) the students all call the professors by their first names
2) if the students don't use their first names, they use maestra, or rather they whine maestr
a3) the teachers do not have fixed classrooms, so the teachers move from room to room each class while the kids stay... personally I think this is dumb for a number of reasons, mainly because (a) there is no way to have stocked materials for your subject in your room, you have to carry them around and (b) it gives the students this "territorial" type advantage/control over the teacher which is horrible because their behavior is abhorrent already
4) because of how the teachers move around, they don't have a fixed "all day, every day" schedule... so they might teach 2 classes during primera and cuarta horas on Monday, then 5 on Tuesday, etc, etc.... this frees them up to come and go only when they have to be there, but often time leaves them with huecos or holes in their schedules
5) professors (not me, because I'm not really real) also have hours of guardia which are just times where they have to be "on call" to patrol the halls or to just be available to random student if they have problems
6) they don't do substitutes unless a teacher is out for an extended period of time, so if a teacher is just gonna miss a day, the kids just have a hole in their schedule and do whatever they want... really good for 12-16 year olds.
Well, now that I am in classes (nevermind the fact that it took me 2 months to get there), I am very quickly gathering funny stories which are worth telling, however as I realize that this blog is already a little long, I will save them for later to post with other fun recent pictures of me and the crazy people with whom I am doing life now. :)
And a PS... please just imagine what a dork I felt like taking pictures of the high school... I want to be able to put pictures of the inside, but I can't bring myself to do so when there are kids running around. Haha.
Here... and just to end... Yesterday Beth and I went Christmas shopping in the centro and while we were walking back by the cathedral we had a "I can't believe we're living in Spain" moment and took a picture and then walked around listening to our ipods. I find that Coldplay is perfect for this type of setting. I got cold and am actually wearing three purchases (hat, scarf, sweatshirt) that I somehow ended up with for myself when shopping for others. Oops.
posted by Julie Ann at 1:20 PM
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