United States
An American Fulbright Teacher's Story, Part 2
By Holly Melton
John Melton is a high-school biology teacher in Northern California. Andy Neighbor is a sixth-form college teacher near London, England. (Sixth-form colleges serve 16- to 19-year-old students who are pursuing academic studies.) This fall, John and Andy began a one-year teaching exchange sponsored by the U.S. government's Fulbright Program. In this second article about the American teacher's experiences, John offers his impressions of his pre-school meetings and his first week with students. Look forward to the next article from the British family coming soon.
Staff meetings and class schedules
On September 4, John attended his first staff meeting at his English school. "We had a two-hour meeting, discussing things that, to me, may as well have been translating Latin verbs into Egyptian hieroglyphics, and for the full two hours you could have heard a pin drop," John reports, adding, "At my old school, there would have been several side conversations going on during the proceedings, and I would have been one of the guilty offenders."
Quiet staff meetings weren't the only surprise for John. He was also amazed that his English school has lab technicians who are trained and paid to set up labs, take them down, and clean the equipment for the teachers. (At high schools in California, science teachers do those jobs.) Also new to John were "shared teaching assignments." In the biology curriculum, for example, John might teach the genetics and genetic engineering units, while another teacher teaches cellular respiration and photosynthesis.
This term, John will be teaching seven different groups of students: three shared upper sixths (year 13), one shared lower sixth (year 12), two lower sixths of his own, and a GCSE double science class. (A GCSE class prepares students for "General Certificate of Secondary Education" exams.) Not only are these more preps and classes than John is used to, but his classes don't follow a consistent schedule. "You'll have neither the same kids day to day, nor will the classes occur at the same hour on any given day. This makes continuity very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve," John says, explaining, "I have several classes I'll see on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then won't see again until the following Tuesday and Wednesday. When I see the students again, many of them have completely forgotten what the previous lessons were about."
When John first saw his teaching schedule, he blanched. His principal reassured him by saying, "Even though your schedule looks complicated, it really isn't. After a couple of weeks, you'll be comfortable with it." But then a fellow teacher looked at John's schedule and exclaimed "Blimey!" (That's a British word for being amazed.)
The first week of teaching
"Students here speak more quietly than American students do," John says at the end of his first week of teaching. "I haven't yet had to tell anyone to quiet down. In American schools, especially in project or group work, it gets very loud. They're not being obnoxious, they're just noisy. Of course, it also seems quieter here because class sizes are much smaller. I have about 18 students in most of my classes, with one class having 13. At home, I had 36 to 38 students in some of my classes."
"They're respectful, they're focused, and they're here because they want to get further education," said John about his impression of the students he teaches now. "All in all, my fellow teachers, the staff, and the students have been great." Only one problem remains, John says: "I still find my schedule incredibly confusing. I look forward to the day when I know from one period to the next what I'm teaching without having to look at my lesson planner."
