Within the teacher exchange programme between Alberta (Canada) and Catalonia, Joan Mercader High School has welcomed a teacher from Lacombe Upper Elementary School in Alberta Canada. This exchange programme is organized by the service of Foreign Languages of the Catalan Education Department and The Alberta Teachers association, and it is a unique opportunity for teachers to get familiar with an education system of a different country, to improve the communication and methodological skills, as well as to get to know the culture and traditions of the host country.
The exchanges last a week. The Catalan Education Department provides previous and following support, although it does not pay for the teacher’s trip and stay expenses. There are a total of four teachers in Catalonia taking part in this job shadowing experience. Among them the teacher Marta Mercadé in our high school and the teacher Ian Wilson, who visited our school during the week of March the 27th giving lectures about his hometown, school and country and having workshops with different faculty members. Marta Mercadé is visiting the school in Lacombe, Alberta, during the month of April.
The expression job shadowing in education involves observing and sharing faculty experiences, so that teachers who develop the same job in a different cultural, social and linguistic background can successfully apply new methodologies, ideas and projects in their everyday teaching practice, when they are back in their home classes. These exchanges aim to promote the use of different languages, tolerance towards diversity, and also to share experiences and improve the teacher’s daily performance.
During the week that the teacher Ian Wilson was in our high school, he had the opportunity to get into all the English lessons in the level of batxillerat, some civics classes in ESO and get to know some of the youngest students in the optional lessons of 1st ESO. In these classes, Ian Wilson taught students interesting and surprising facts about his home country, Canada, such as the geographical organization, languages, traditions, native people, education system, the weather and others. Ian Wilson is also responsible for safety and wellness in his school system, and had a meeting with his equivalent in our school, the teacher Rosa Expósito, with whom he discussed emergency evacuation and lockdown drills. He also had meetings with high school assistant principals and faculty to acquire more knowledge about how our school works here.
We are sure that Ian had a very busy week full of enriching activities that allowed him to get an accurate picture of our high school, without forgetting cultural visits to the main sights of Igualada, Montserrat, Sitges, Barcelona and Tarragona, so that he also got a general overview of our country.
Without any doubts, a very enriching experience for the two schools taking part in the programme that we would like to repeat in the future.
Marta Mercadé
English teacher at Joan Mercader High School.
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