Overall Experience

When looking at my overall experience in Barcelona and, especially, my time at St. Paul’s, I feel a lot of things including gratefulness to the school for accepting me in, sadness that my experience is coming to an end, and excitement to use my new found knowledge in my future classrooms. This school has taught me that there are a lot of differences between the schools in America I’ve known all my life and schools abroad that I am just now getting introduced to. Students at St. Paul’s are, plainly put, thirsting for knowledge every day when they come in and really try to make the most of each day. This has tested me as a teacher because I have had to change my teaching style to match their learning styles, not to mention molding my teaching around the language barrier. The teaching style of my cooperating teacher also varies from what most of my previous cooperating teachers have had before because he focuses on direct instruction heavily in each lesson and gives the students a lot of responsibility within each lesson. I expected to see a lot of differences in the teaching and learning of St. Paul’s than I have seen at other schools and that has lived up to my expectations.

However, there has also been a lot of similarities between the two countries’ schools I have been in. The students have just as much of a need to move during the lessons and outside of the classroom. This was expected because kids are kids and they need to move. Second, the teachers at all the schools I’ve been to have all formed a community within the school among their peers. St. Paul’s staff seems to have excellent relationships with their students just as I have seen in many other schools, I have been in. Disparities don’t come to mind when thinking of my time at St. Paul’s because it was such a great experience, however, one thing is I wish we had more time at the school. Between the two holidays and the all over amount of time we got at the school, it just didn’t seem like enough time at this incredible school.

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience within the time I had here. I am excited about seeing how this experience will further influence my life and my future students’ lives.