Aaaaaand we finally get to the last school in Barcelona! (Well, last for now, because from what I gathered during the whole Symposium, there are A LOT of schools to be seen in this city! wow...)
Ok, so on the last day of visits, I went to the second religious school. The first one was Jesuit, and this one was Nazarene, so there was a slight difference between the two.
But MAN, oh man, was this school cool! I could see how happy the kids were and I could only imagine how cool it must be to be a student there!
So many interesting projects, so many interesting details!!
The students work primarily in projects as well, although they do have masterclasses, whenever a new topic comes to class, or a lot of questions are being raised about the same subject.
The teacher, as in the other schools, was more of a coach and a mentor, than the traditional figure of the one who brings the knowledge.
The architecture of the school was the most intriguing aspect for me, because when you saw it from the outside it looked very closed and "old". But when you stepped inside, all the rooms had been thought out to this new way of organizing the classes. This meant glass walls, flexible panels that could be moved according to the group's needs, lots of natural light and technology where possible. But as this was not a rich school, they were very keen on the idea that technology isn't everything!
The mother superior, who showed us around, repeated several times that is not about the resources you have, it's all about what you do with them. There is always room to optimize, even without fancy equipment!
And this was clear everywhere in this school. Through the years they were able to improve the spaces and the classes, but construction was still not finished. In fact, they have a part of the building which is none as "the bunker", because there was still not enough money to take the renovations there, and so the rooms are the four traditional brick walls, without any projectors or computers on them at this point.
But as they had this, they also had a robotics lab (which the kids called rob-Ethics, because the content of these classes and experiments was meant to be used for good! I thought this idea with the name was absolute genius!)
Not only this stood out to me, but also the fact that they had a small pool, which was used by the kindergartners to develop skills like balance, fluctuation and breathing. The whole point isn't even to learn to swim! It's so awesome to find people that think outside of the box like that!
Still in kindergarten, all children learn to play an instrument. This is based in the principle of Gardner that all kids have a talent and the ability to develop them, as long as they are given the right conditions and time to do so.
So, in this school, at the age of three all of them start learning the violin. When they are six, they get to choose if they want to continue learning it, or if they want to change to another instrument/workshop. This allows the children to get in touch with their musical side and to figure out if they have a natural talent for music. Those who like and want to pursue their music passion are invited to do so until they leave the school - at the end of high-school.
Similar to what happens with the violin, children also have a chess class, from the moment they are 2 years old until they get to 12. In these classes, they learn strategies, analyse professional games and even develop English, as it is mandatory to speak English during the class. Failing to do so will cost them a pawn in the game (literally) or get them disqualified. This way, they are developing their mathematical/linguistic/spacial/visual and logic intelligence!
Multiple intelligence is a very well known concept in this school. Children are not forced to develop only one type of intelligence (logic/linguistic) in detriment of all the others. Instead, they are invited to explore their full potential and to learn how they learn better.
When they reach high-school, the main methodology used is Problem Based Learning. Students are presented with "problems" that they have to solve, through research, critical thinking, group work, etc.
A group of seniors was explaining to us how these classes actually work, and they sounded so motivated! We even asked one of the girls - who had come from a "normal" school not too long ago - which type of school was better, and she had no doubts! This one, although of course at the beginning she had some issues adapting to a method that depended mostly on her and not so much on the teachers telling her what to do and when to do it.
All of the 6 students that were talking to us at the end had different "end of the year projects". And all of them in different areas too! One in physics, another one in history, another one in sports... Because this is what school should be all about: experiment different things, find your passion, become good in it and develop it to bring you somewhere in the future. Essentially: be happy to learn and learn to be happy!
Ok, so on the last day of visits, I went to the second religious school. The first one was Jesuit, and this one was Nazarene, so there was a slight difference between the two.
But MAN, oh man, was this school cool! I could see how happy the kids were and I could only imagine how cool it must be to be a student there!
So many interesting projects, so many interesting details!!
The students work primarily in projects as well, although they do have masterclasses, whenever a new topic comes to class, or a lot of questions are being raised about the same subject.
The teacher, as in the other schools, was more of a coach and a mentor, than the traditional figure of the one who brings the knowledge.
The architecture of the school was the most intriguing aspect for me, because when you saw it from the outside it looked very closed and "old". But when you stepped inside, all the rooms had been thought out to this new way of organizing the classes. This meant glass walls, flexible panels that could be moved according to the group's needs, lots of natural light and technology where possible. But as this was not a rich school, they were very keen on the idea that technology isn't everything!
The mother superior, who showed us around, repeated several times that is not about the resources you have, it's all about what you do with them. There is always room to optimize, even without fancy equipment!
And this was clear everywhere in this school. Through the years they were able to improve the spaces and the classes, but construction was still not finished. In fact, they have a part of the building which is none as "the bunker", because there was still not enough money to take the renovations there, and so the rooms are the four traditional brick walls, without any projectors or computers on them at this point.
But as they had this, they also had a robotics lab (which the kids called rob-Ethics, because the content of these classes and experiments was meant to be used for good! I thought this idea with the name was absolute genius!)
Not only this stood out to me, but also the fact that they had a small pool, which was used by the kindergartners to develop skills like balance, fluctuation and breathing. The whole point isn't even to learn to swim! It's so awesome to find people that think outside of the box like that!
Still in kindergarten, all children learn to play an instrument. This is based in the principle of Gardner that all kids have a talent and the ability to develop them, as long as they are given the right conditions and time to do so.
So, in this school, at the age of three all of them start learning the violin. When they are six, they get to choose if they want to continue learning it, or if they want to change to another instrument/workshop. This allows the children to get in touch with their musical side and to figure out if they have a natural talent for music. Those who like and want to pursue their music passion are invited to do so until they leave the school - at the end of high-school.
Similar to what happens with the violin, children also have a chess class, from the moment they are 2 years old until they get to 12. In these classes, they learn strategies, analyse professional games and even develop English, as it is mandatory to speak English during the class. Failing to do so will cost them a pawn in the game (literally) or get them disqualified. This way, they are developing their mathematical/linguistic/spacial/visual and logic intelligence!
Multiple intelligence is a very well known concept in this school. Children are not forced to develop only one type of intelligence (logic/linguistic) in detriment of all the others. Instead, they are invited to explore their full potential and to learn how they learn better.
When they reach high-school, the main methodology used is Problem Based Learning. Students are presented with "problems" that they have to solve, through research, critical thinking, group work, etc.
A group of seniors was explaining to us how these classes actually work, and they sounded so motivated! We even asked one of the girls - who had come from a "normal" school not too long ago - which type of school was better, and she had no doubts! This one, although of course at the beginning she had some issues adapting to a method that depended mostly on her and not so much on the teachers telling her what to do and when to do it.
All of the 6 students that were talking to us at the end had different "end of the year projects". And all of them in different areas too! One in physics, another one in history, another one in sports... Because this is what school should be all about: experiment different things, find your passion, become good in it and develop it to bring you somewhere in the future. Essentially: be happy to learn and learn to be happy!