My Experience Teaching Abroad, by Lydia Foster-Smith

While I am here in Spain, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to intern at Lycee Francais de Seville, a French international school for children ages 3-18. I work with students 1:1, in small groups, or entire classes, including being the head teacher for a Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) class. Through working at Lycee, I have been able to experience teaching in another country compared to my experiences in schools in the United States. One major difference I have noticed is the level of security of the school. Back in the United States, with so many tragedies involving guns and schools, our schools are always locked and visitors must sign in at the front office before going anywhere in the building. The staff and students all have IDs to badge into the building, and visitors have to press a button to speak with the secretary from outside before being let inside. We also have school police officers onsite at all times. As we discussed in class, there is such a presence of guns and firearms in the United States, that just does not exist in Spain. In the US there is such an emphasis on personal freedom because it is such an individualistic culture. Some people feel that this extends to owning firearms as well. However, in Spain, this desire to own a gun to prove that you have personal freedom does not exist. In Spain, the idea of someone coming into a school with a gun and shooting students and teachers is completely unheard of. The school doors aren't even locked, anyone can just walk in, wave to the secretary if they choose to, and walk around any corner of the school. The staff don't have badges, and visitors don't have to sign in. Overall, I have loved my time working with kids in Spain. One of my favorite parts is how excited my students are to hear about American culture and win American candy as prizes. For example, in my STEM class we had an egg drop competition where any group whose egg survived the fall won Halloween candy. 😀 It makes me so happy when students who were very shy the first day start waving and yelling HI TEACHER whenever they see me in the hallways. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience Spain as both a student and a teacher these past few months.

Here are some of the egg drop projects from my 8th grade STEM class