EDTECH537 Guest Entry

For my guest entry I asked my friend Melissa Matthews to write on her experience in teaching overseas. I hope you enjoy her entry!

My Experience as an International Educator

During my last year of college one of my professors mentioned the opportunity of teaching abroad. As I have always wanted to travel the world, I decided to jump at this opportunity. I applied with a company called Quality Schools International, which has schools located in 27 different countries, and the rest was history. They offered me a position in Tirana, Albania and without putting too much thought into it, I was on a plane- not realizing how the next two years of my life were drastically going to change. 

Within a few days of me arriving in Albania, they sent me to a new hire orientation in Azerbaijan.  Here I got to meet the regional director and other educators from all over the world. This orientation and training gave me great insight into the company, their values on educating their students, and the importance they see in their teachers. One thing they valued heavily was that every student is given the ability to not only understand the topic at hand, but master it. If the student is struggling with a topic and doesn’t understand it the first time they are given the test, then the lesson is adapted to fit the student’s learning abilities so they can retake the test and master it a second time. This was already an eye opening experience to me. I felt that back in the States, students were just given a grade based upon how they performed on the first test they took, and never had the chance to really understand the concept that was taught. This company valued mastery learning and really wanted their kids to succeed. 

When I got back to Albania, I experienced a much different community than I was used to in the States. My fellow teachers along with my principal were already treating me like family, and they were extremely supportive of me, my first year teaching, and my first ever experience being out of the U.S. Right away I dove into the curriculum and couldn’t believe the topics they were having me teach to pre-schoolers. Right away I knew that the bar was set high for their students. When I got my roster, I was shocked to see that I only had 9 kids in my class, and they still had an assistant for me. They said that no class ever exceeds 20 students (and even that was a lot), and that every elementary school teacher had their own assistant. They believed that the smaller the class size, the more opportunity for children to get the best education. The day before school started, they allowed the parents and students to come in and meet the teachers and see the classrooms. I was amazed by how many parents came to see me and welcomed me with open arms. I was also surprised at the huge diversity of students that I had and how I knew it was going to be difficult to reach each student, relate to the different languages they spoke, and vary my lessons in a way they would all understand. Within the first few weeks, I was able to separate my students into different learning groups so that I could adapt my lessons in order to reach each student’s academic abilities. I was also able to work with the highest and lowest kids in a more one-on-one setting to help them further their education or mend the gaps between them and the other students. 

I was really amazed within my first few months as an educator and how well my students were doing, and how some were achieving in ways I never thought was possible with preschool aged children. I had meetings with my Director and Director of Instruction on ways that I thought we could improve on stuff within the classroom, as the teacher before me had more “toys” than educational materials, and was surprised when they not only agreed with me, but gave me a catalog and told me to order what I thought was necessary for the classroom. I had never before experienced such positive feedback from school leaders and allowed to purchase educational materials. While I know most principals have the students’ best interests at heart, funding does not allow for much educational spending, especially per individual classroom.  

Over the course of the two years that I spent in Albania, I really felt like I made a large impact on my students. I was able to reach out to each student on a one-to-one level and really develop their skills far beyond my own expectations.  I had full support of my Director, Director of Instruction, as well as the parents of my students. I was able to even spend time with my students and their families outside of the school which helped me to understand my students on a whole other level. I was able to see some of them in their home environment and how they interact with their parents in their comfort zone. I was able to take those experiences and make my teaching more relatable to their lives. 

One of the biggest things I took away from my teaching experience overseas was the importance of 

student to teacher ratio. When I came back to the States, I worked as an assistant in the Special 

Education program. It amazed me to be in a classroom with 25 plus students, 4 students with disabilities, and an assistant that is in and out of the classroom every hour. With class sizes this large, it becomes very difficult as an educator to reach every student and all their different learning abilities. In some cases it becomes more focused on classroom management and teaching to the norm. We then lose the students that are already behind and don’t allow the high students to excel even more.