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Hi, I am new to teaching overseas, but have taught in the uk for a while.
I have a question for anyone teaching in Spain: Am I going to get used to this? It all seems so wrong the way things are organised as a business and learning takes a backseat to earning. The parents are not really very communicative and the SMT are pretty useless.
I came from a fairly good school back home, do I just need time to adjust? or should I leave now and put it all down to experience? I am really unhappy with my school and do not know what to do for the best. I was sure that I had made the right decision coming here but now I am doubting myself.
Any advice would be really appreciated.
thanks x
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Posted by:
jaffet 30/09/2007 at
20:32
Hi,
I taught in Spain last year and felt the same as you about the school. I battled it out till the end of the year because I am stubborn. I was very unhappy and in retrospect I wish I had just left.
Not really advice, just saying I know exactly how you feel.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
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If you do a search on your town and on the posts of ariel2 and spanishdream you may find some advice on your school! It is a lively area though and no doubt a fun place to live.
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Thanks jaffet and aishaelena,
The town does have a lot of life, but the school has left me so tired it is difficult to motivate myself.
Maybe things will get better soon and I will start to enjoy spain a bit more.
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I meant to say do a search on this forum. If you type in your town in the search box and then do the same with those posters names, you will see that they could give you some advice based on their experiences of your school. It seems they had a similar experience to you but I am not sure how long they stuck it out.
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I know how you feel, i wanted to leave by Christmas of my 1st year at my school, for the same reasons, unhappy, stressed, tired and felt that the whole thing was just a business opportunity. But i stuck it out until the end of the year and then for some stupid reason decided to stick it out another year so that i completed my 2 yr contract. Went through the same thing all over again, made it to Easter and thought thats it i cant go on. Only wish now i had left when i first thiught about it as i now feel i kinda wasted a yr and a half for nothin. Thats just my opinion, if you think things may improve then stay, but i knew that other teachers were unhappy and had been for a while, so i knew that things were definitly not going to get better.
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Posted by:
ElH 02/10/2007 at
12:18
I spent several years teaching in Spain, both at a school South of Barcelona, and another much further south. I sympathise with your feelings in a school where business comes first: that is why the SMT is often (in your view) useless and (in their view) powerless. The school's owner will dictate how the school runs, and the SMT (if one actually exists) have to implement whatever curious ideas the owner requires. Examples of curious practice imposed by owners in Spain include banning the Parent Teachers Association, forcing all Key Stage 4 students to take 12-14 GCSE's, creating a timetable that has no free periods for teaching staff.... All this on top of relatively low salary, and a rising cost of living in Spain. Many of the managers are given the choice of doing what they are told or facing fairly abrupt dismissal. For teachers, the unfortunate choice is to give up, or face up to delivering an inferior product to their students. However, I would point out that there are good schools in Spain, with professional management supported by owners who care about their staff and students (although within my personal sample they are in the minority).
For me, the key to survival was my life outside the school (although often in the company of other members of staff). it meant that my marking and prep were not to very high professional standards, but I decided that the pay did not justify the extra effort (feel free to criticise- I am not proud!).
Good luck- wherever you are in Spain you will not be far from history, good food & drink, and hospitable people.
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Posted by:
HannahR 04/10/2007 at
12:52
I totally agree with ElH. I also taught in Spain (Madrid), for 5 years, and was pretty shocked by some of the practice. However, if you really throw yourself into life outside school, and do the very best you can for the children in the classroom, then you should be just fine! Relax, enjoy, go with the flow and come back to the UK when you can't take it any more!! (-;
Good luck!
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Hey Ad in,
Sympathize totally, I taught at the cazy school south of barcelona too. The owner is a psycho and didn´t like certain nationalities either.
The school was segregated and we had little to do with the upper school, just how the owner wanted it.
If you can find a job elsewhere go for it.
good luck
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Posted by:
Much Ado 08/10/2007 at
16:50
I feel excatly the same way. I arrived in Spain this year and have been startled to find that teaching and learning and indeed, the 'whole child' really do take a backseat. I am working with staff who teach from a textbook, place emphasis on recall and not understanding and do not plan lessons. Perhaps the most shocking thing, however, is that I have never once heard anyone in manangement mention how the school develop or improve the provision offered to the student. Unfortunately, the emphasis is on profit.
I consider myself quite a thick-skinned and determined person, yet I feel like there is no option but to leave immediately before I stagnate professionally. The moral: never work for a private company!
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