A classroom in Spain

Being at school has been wonderful. I absolutely love all of the teachers as well as the students. My mentor teacher is Catherine and she is one of the nicest, most supportive people I have ever met. That's saying a lot because I haven't even known her a week yet. I look forward to working with Catherine for the next three weeks because she is an amazing teacher. 

There are some similarities and differences between the schools I have been in at home and St. Paul's. I knew there would be these differences but I was surprised to see that the core content classes are actually very similar. The two main things that are different are the schedules (they are called timetables here) and how the students call the teachers by their first names. The schedules are very different because these students have classes in three different languages. This means the teacher may only see their class once a day some days. It's also very strange that these students do not get math or other core classes every single day like they do in America. I'm still not used to the students calling the teachers by their first name. I think I enjoy it. It's funny to hear the students say "Catherine!" Or "Katie!" whenever they have questions. Some similarities are the content being taught and attention getters. The teachers design lessons based on learning goals just like they do in America. The attention getters here in Spain surprised me because I did not expect to see things like that here. Below are some pictures of Catherine's 2A class. Such a great group of smart and talented students!

Here are the students working on times tables!

The students have planted their own plants for Science!

Students are learning about how trees change during the seasons. They drew pictures of the same tree in the winter and again now in the spring. Here they are observing the trees.