AULA DE INFANTIL EN UN COLEGIO INTERNACIONAL

Si ya has leído su anterior post, Claire es una joven pero experimentada profesora bilingüe afincada en España, que también ha disfrutado de un tiempo de enseñanza en Inglaterra. En esta ocasión, Claire comparte con nosotros su día a día en el colegio internacional en el que está a punto de terminar su periodo de prácticas. Sin más preámbulos, ¡entremos en materia!

A day with me in an International School

I know it might sound a bit odd*, but I’m indeed doing another teaching practice, despite my experience both in the UK and Spain. Validating teaching experience is not as simple as it seems.

What I’m on the verge of* sharing with you is what an average day in the Early Years classroom at this international school is like, follow me!

8:45 Us teachers, TAs, and other staff members are expected to arrive by this time. We welcome the students (after the nurse has checked their temperature upon* arrival) in the classroom and ask them to change their shoes (if they have a PE lesson today or their break is taking place in the gym instead of the playground) and provide them with* something to do.

This might be a wipe-clean book to practise handwriting; laminated sheets with numbers and words to read; Jolly Phonics finger books; flashcards to read, classify or put in order; their names laminated in a cursive font for them to find and read, and so on.

9:00 School officially starts for both Early Years (3-6) and Primary (6-12). In EY, 50% of the teaching time is in English, though the teacher of one of the three 5-year-old groups being a native speaker makes this group way more exposed to the English language than the other two classes, as during the beginning and end of the day, plus break and lunch times, this teacher is in charge of his children.

An hour and twenty minutes for the first learning bit of the day, before enjoying some free time in the playground or the gym. Then having their snack in class and two more hours ahead before heading to the lunchroom.

An hour and forty minutes of free playing later, the afternoon classes begin. We usually plan playful learning centres for the afternoons, especially when spending the whole afternoon with a single group.

These centres will have different activities and games where the students will practise some concepts they’ve learned or will boost their oral skills.

Right before getting to play, the children are asked for the rules to follow. They are usually quite sensible when it comes to recognising what they must/mustn’t do and the reasons why.

This is an example of what a “centres afternoon session” looks like:

1 – Making 3D shapes using plasticine and sticks

2 – Little individual whiteboards and pens plus a laminated list of tricky words

3 – Starfall Learn to read short stories levels 1-14 (TA guided)

4 – Dobble

5 – Basic info interviews with microphone (teacher guided)

6 – Chess (whether on Smartboard or chessboard)

Each pair of students will change to the next centre (anti-clockwise) every ten to fifteen minutes, having tidied up their activity/materials before rotating.

At the end, the kids will rate each game or activity from 0 to 5 using their fingers. They will also choose their favourite centre and explain why.

I must say, even though there are many things that I would change or do differently at school, I find it the perfect blend of an English school and a Spanish one, so I can have a little of my dearest London back in my life on a daily basis ?

On top of that, being surrounded by international students can’t be more enriching for the whole education community. As soon as you step inside, you will hear both staff and students speaking German, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Catalan, Polish, Chinese… Switching to 3 different languages can be mentally exhausting at times, but it’s definitely worth it.

Would you like to find out more about how we work certain concepts here? Leave a comment below and I will be more than pleased to share it with you all.

Claire

Glossary:

• odd – strange, different, weird
• to be on the verge of – to be just about to do something
• upon – at the moment of
• to provide with – to give

Y nuestro día en la escuela internacional  ha llegado a su fin, pero seguro que habéis cogido un montón de trucos de nuestra compi Claire. ¿Cuál te llevarás contigo a tu propia clase?

Te leo en los comentarios.