Marymount International School May 14-17, 2012

My first week at Marymount was a roller coaster. I was forced to adjust quickly, considering I was only spending four weeks there; however, the culture differences took me longer to get acquainted with. Upon arriving at Marymount the first day, the vice principal warned us about one thing: the kids touch a lot and talk a lot. Kids from all over the world attend this school, and the common denominator is English. For me, since I was working with a four year old class, that wasn’t necessarily true. Although many of the students did speak English, many did not. I had one student who spoke only Russian and very little Italian. Another student spoke only Italian. The only English these students spoke were the prayers, “bathroom,” “tie my shoes,” and other commonly used phrases. These two students could not form a sentence in English. This was frustrating not only for me, but for the students as well.

The students here are so emotional and affectionate, not emotional as in they cry a lot. In fact, I did not see one student cry this entire week. Despite not being able to speak more than five words in Italian, I could understand their needs, wants, and feelings so easily. By the end of the week, I began picking up on certain words, tones, facial expressions to understand what they needed. In the United States, we grow up thinking any physical contact is taboo. We are such a conservative culture compared to Italy and I have never been that aware until I was fully immersed in the Italian culture. There were multiple times when I caught myself wanting to say “hands to yourself,” but then realized that is almost meaningless in their culture. One of the biggest culture shocks was the unisex bathrooms. The boys and girls use the same bathroom.

An emphasis is placed on the students working things out on their own. Although the students do still come up and tell the teachers about what another student has done, it does not happen nearly as often as it does in the United States. The students seem to take care of things and let it go. My teacher told me unless a student is severely injured or crying, the teachers try not to get involved. The kids are extremely cultured. In addition to speaking two or more languages, they participate in at least one extracurricular activity. These activities include soccer, swimming, another language, dance, and more. That means for the majority of these children, their day lasts from 8:30 AM until 5 PM. Preschool in the United States is usually three or four hours long.

My two teachers, one from Brazil and the other is from England, have completely opposite teaching styles. Although I’m glad I am able to see both, it seems to confuse the children. Consistency is key for younger children. Seeing two contrasting teaching styles in the classroom has only confirmed my own teaching style and how I go about interacting with my students. 

I went from feeling in the way (there were already two teachers for 17 students) to being a third teacher the first week. Once the kids warmed up to me, I knew it was going to be such a wonderful experience.