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Week 3: Overall Experience

Overall, this experience has been amazing. I have enjoyed my time in Barcelona and at St. Paul’s. I was impressed by many things here and I cannot believe how quickly time has flown by. One thing I am still very impressed with are the students. The amount of effort the students put into their work is incredible. They are so intelligent and hearing them being able to speak three, four, or five languages fluently still amazes me. The school and the city are also covered in beautiful artwork everywhere. The students are encouraged to be creative everyday and the school is covered in artwork. The city is also covered with beautiful art, mostly from Gaudi. It is so fun to just walk around and look at everything. I was also very impressed with the school lunches. They offer so many different options and serve dessert every day. The food here overall is just incredible and tastes fresh. I will miss the food and my students so much! The biggest struggle for me has been the content that I tea
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Week Two: Similarities and Differences

St. Paul’s School and Barcelona have many differences and similarities to Kentucky and the schools there. The school is set up quite different. There are 24 students in my class, which is what schools in Kentucky strive for, although it is typically larger than 24. The school day starts at 8:45 and there is a 30-minute break for second breakfast starting at 10:45. During second breakfast, everyone eats a snack provided by the school and the kids can go outside and play until 11:15. At 13:15 (1:15), everyone goes to lunch. There is an hour and a half for lunch. When the students are done eating they can go outside and play until 15:45 (3:45). The lunch is very good! The teachers usually get served slightly different food than the students and there is always dessert and wine (yes, they give the teachers free wine at lunch) on the tables for the teachers as well. Class resumes at 15:45 (3:45) and ends at 16:30 (4:30). This is much different than the schools in Kentucky. It makes
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Weekend Trip to Nice (5 days late)

Nice was soooo nice!!! For the first weekend, the other student teachers and I decided to book a trip to Nice, France. We left early Saturday morning and came back Sunday night. The food was by far the best part, although the views were amazing as well. Saturday we walked around the Old Town of Nice, which had cute shops, pastries, and restaurants everywhere. We then went to the rocky beach, which was very cool! It was the first time I have seen the Mediterranean and it certainly did not disappoint. The rocks on the beach were surprisingly not bad to sit/ lay on, however, I would not encourage walking barefoot across them. It was about 60-65 degrees, and there were some people swimming still (CRAZY!). We then hiked up about a hundred stairs to get to the top of a mountain where an old castle in ruins was located. This also contained a huge park and the most incredible views. On Sunday we took a bus to Monaco, which was about a 45-minute ride. Monaco was beautiful, and very
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Week One- First Impressions

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I have been in Barcelona for 3 days, and wow! The city is beautiful, the food is delicious, and the school is amazing. St. Paul’s The school is huge, it has several buildings and teaches grades Preschool through -12. There is a giant area with multiple soccer fields and a grassy area for the students to go to after they eat lunch. The buildings and outdoors have gorgeous artwork everywhere and the students are very creative. The staff are predominately from England, and everything is taught in English, except Physical Education, Spanish, and Catalan, another popular language in Spain. The students speak a minimum of three languages and many are fluent in many other languages as well (which blows my mind). I cannot imagine learning core content areas in a language that is not my first language, it just shows how intelligent these students really are. The fifth-grade students are so sweet and eager to learn about me and America. They ask me questions any chance they get. I h
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Pre-departure

Welcome to my blog! I am leaving for Barcelona, Spain on Monday for my International Student Teaching! In Barcelona, I will be at St. Paul’s Catholic School in fifth grade. I am looking forward to learning about the students, the school, and the culture. I anticipate the school to be very different from the schools in America. According to my research on St. John’s, the students go to the same school from the time they are 3 years old until they go off to college. The school also has four buildings; all have classrooms, and some contain indoor gyms. The school also has multiple soccer fields and gardens. It appears that teaching languages is very important to this school as well. They teach a large part of their curriculum in English. Additionally, the school has cultural trips and ski trips built in (how cool is that?!). Comparing the two educational systems is what I am most excited about. I am looking forward to learning and being immersed in their culture! In the meantime, I am f
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