Feliz Navidad!

With the holidays upon us it is interesting to see how Sotogrande International School approaches Christmas compared to schools in the states. Back home it is obvious that the separation of church and state is taken seriously and schools avoid anything that could be interpreted as promoting Christianity. This means that schools will have “winter festivals” and send “holiday greetings” but will conscientiously avoid decorating and talking in specifically christian ways. Schools general avoid teaching about any kind of religion in school just to be on the safe side. They leave that instruction to the parents and many students never get a good understanding of other religions or a non-biased idea of their own.

Our classroom "Thinking Tree". It has questions
 we have about Christmas and things we know.
 Around it is an  art project with fractions.

That approach is very different here at SIS. In P5 we are teaching a unit of inquiry on Festivals of Light, meaning various religious holidays around this time of year that have a significant element of light. We focused on Divali, Hanukkah, and yes, Christmas. This means we actually taught the Christmas story. It also gave us a chance to talk about where our Christmas traditions come from and the meaning behind various symbols. The teachers were confused when we mentioned that we would probably never teach this kind of content at home. They said that it is important to show the kids how all of the religions have common elements and ways of celebrating.

The main lobby of the school is all '
decorated for Christmas

It is also interesting how the school itself approaches Christmas. There are Christmas trees, garland, ornaments and other decorating filling the school entry way and many of the public spaces and common rooms around the school. The younger students are putting on a Christmas play about the nativity story, and there are a couple different Christmas festivals and Christmas bazaars. There is absolutely no attempt to be politically correct or to lessen the importance of Christmas in these celebrations. There are a couple reasons behind this. For one, Spain is a very Catholic country and there is not the concept of separation of church and state that we have in the states. It is not something the teachers and parents worry about or get offended over. There are a few students who come from backgrounds other than Christian, but they do not seem concerned about the proliferation of Christmas celebrations- it's accepted as part of the culture here.

Feliz Navidad!
Alyssa

Going boating in November!

Going boating is something we Minnesotans cherish during those short three summer months every year. In Sotogrande, however, we’ve been “boating” for the last two weeks- in November! Allow me to explain… Libby and I have been full-time teaching for the last two weeks in Primary Years 1. As mentioned in an earlier post, our unit of inquiry is on materials. The students went on “hunts” around the school for things made from metal, glass, wood, plastic, etcetera during this unit, as well as studying the properties of these materials, such as smooth, bumpy, squashy, etc. While distinguishing between smooth and bumpy things, one of my curious students, Tom, raised his hand and asked “Miss Christa, do you have smooth things in America?” Another student replied for me by saying, “Tom, there are smooth things EVERYWHERE.” He gave her a knowing expression and said “Yes, everywhere except Africa!” Needless to say, their comments and questions have been endless free entertainment for us!
The first boat we made was out of a square piece of tinfoil. Every student got one square piece to design their boat however they wished. Miss Lin and I filled up the water tables in the courtyard outside our classroom, and the students put their boats to the test! After a few minutes, we added an extra challenge…adding toy people to the boat to see if it would still float! We had talked about floating and sinking earlier in the week, and this was a great demonstration on the difference between the two concepts.
Later in the week, we made paper boats (paper hats tipped upside down!) The students enjoyed making the boats, but the fun part was of course testing them in the water! Even with aprons on, we had a lot of wet jumpers for the rest of the day! After the project, we talked about whether or not water was a good material to use when making a boat, as well as the difference between waterproof and absorbent.
The final piece of this project was completed last week. In partners, the students made plans for making their final boat, constructed the boat, tested the boat in the swimming pool, and finally reflected on their experience. The students were so motivated to make the best boat they could and spent one morning working hard on their construction! Most of the students made the boats out of old cardboard boxes, and decorated them with flags, toilet paper rolls, etc! To say the students were excited when we finally got to bring the boats to the pool is a big understatement!
This whole experience was such a good example of the IB school philosophy. The young children worked mostly on their own, and used their imagination and prior knowledge to construct their own learning. Libby and I really enjoyed the unit, and I think the students did too! Who knows when the next time we’ll be able to go “boating” in November will be, right?!

Experiencing behavioral problems

This past Friday was our last day of full time teaching. Through all of our classes of students here at Sotogrande International School we all have experienced different languages, cultures, routines and especially for me, behaviors. I have a student that is being tested for ADHD and behavioral problems. When I’m teaching, she will get up in the middle of my lesson and wander around somewhere in the classroom. There are lots of signs for ADHD and behavioral problems. I have learned a lot of different teaching strategies that have helped with her behavioral problems. One strategy is where I have a treasure bucket and I put in a treasure when students are sitting nicely on the carpet or just when they are following the Golden rules. I say their name followed by a reason why I’m putting in a treasure in. This student also has a mat that she sits on, on the carpet, which has a number seven on it. This really helps because the mat is right in front of my red chair. When the rest of my students are sitting on the carpet and she isn’t yet, I count down from five, four…etc. This is a great technique that I also used at my other student teaching placement. My cooperating teacher made a sticker chart for her behavior during the three daily playtimes. If she were behaving sensibly she would be able to put a sticker of her choice in the column. I know Christa had this same technique in her classroom with a student and it worked pretty well. This past week a physiologist came in to observe her. It was kind of nerve racking having him come in but my cooperating teacher reminded me that “he’s just here to observe the student not you.” After observing the student he told my cooperating teacher that I was handling it very well.
I have learned a lot of different techniques and how to enforce good behavior within my classroom. Although this was a difficult teaching experience I’m glad to have had the opportunity to work with this student. She is very funny and has a great spirit. Every year a teacher will have a different set of students with different learning abilities.

Report Cards

It's that time of year, report cards! Here at Sotogrande International School the students will not be taking home a letter grade A through F, because there are NO GRADES in primary. Instead of a letter grade to indicate where the student falls in terms of meeting the expectations for the class, the student has a checklist showing what skills and knowledge they have and what they are still working on. They also have a small paragraph written by the teacher about that students' work habits, behavior and ability in class. We've been watching as the teacher work on these comments and noticed that they make a Herculean effort to say something positive about the student even if in extreme cases is is merely, “comes to class on time” or “is well-liked by peers”. We helped to do the maths report. For this we selected what level the students were at for a variety of objectives- “applied”, “understood”, “in progress” or “with support”. They also have some assessments that are conducted outside the classroom. For example they have a reading test to find their reading level. This test is standardized and conducted by a teaching aid.

The advantage of this sort of system is that more attention is payed to the individual student and their performance based on their potential. It reduced the comparison to peers and lets the students ability speak for itself. It also puts less pressure on the students and gives the teachers more flexibility- they are not bound to give a specific grade based on scores. In fact, most things we collect are not assigned points or recorded in a grade book. Instead comments come together to create an overall picture of a students ability and knowledge.

The disadvantage of this system is that it is very subjective. As Ashley and I realized as we prepared parts of the reports, it is hard to unattached your personal impressions about the student from their performance. It is also less standardized and hard to find how the student falls within the class and even harder to compare in different classes.
-Alyssa