The Difference

A school in Miami, a school in Spain, there is a difference. In Miami we have something called block schedule, also known as periods. We have three classes per day and in total its six classes. One day you might have 2, 4, 6 and another day it can be 1, 3, and 5. The first day of school you go to every class to meet your teachers, and then you are divided into the six periods. There, in Miami, you have advanced classes known as the Honor Students but then you also have the A.P classes for even more advanced students. A.P classes are classes from the University for students who have higher learning and students whose teachers think they are ready for those courses. In Miami to graduate you need three things: One is to get 24 credits, two is to pass a national test called the FCAT, last but not least to pass all your classes. You get the 24 credits by every class you take and pass, every class is worth different credits. One class can give you 0, 5 and another can give you 1 credit it all depends on the class. Not everyone passes the FCAT, but to graduate you must pass it. If you don’t pass the FCAT, even if you’re the best student in your school with a scholarship awaiting you, you won’t get your high school diploma. The schools in Miami serve breakfast and lunch, here in Spain you have a snack and when you get home you eat your lunch. I went to a school where playing a varsity sport is everything? It can be Football, Volleyball, Soccer, Basketball, Swimming, Water polo, you name it you have it. If you didn’t play in a sport you would join a club. Well you aren’t forced to join either a sport or a club but it would look good when you graduate from high school and the universities start looking at you, to see if you are worth being in the school. You have any kind of club like Space Club, Art Club, Medicine, fashion, and the list just keeps going and going. We have bi-lingual schools; well every school is bi-lingual. If you don’t know English you take your classes in Spanish and you take ESOL classes helping you learn English. Here in Spain is different. You don’t eat lunch here, classes are different you have no electives. In Miami you had an elective for every taste. Music classes, Art classes, Phys.Ed, Technology, Auto Shop, Wood Shop and the electives just keep on going. Here you can’t even pick your classes, you pick the level you want and that’s it. The times over there were form 7:15am ´till 2:30 pm and over here it’s from 8:30am ´till 2:45pm. But if you played a sport or were joined in a club you would usually finish your day at school around 6pm or 6:30pm, because of practices and meetings. Here in the ¨Institute¨

For 4ºEso you have to buy your own books, and everyone pays for every photocopy you need and make. Your teachers don’t do them for you, you are responsible for them, and you pay for your work. In Miami you get your book free of cost, unless if you loose them, and you return them at the end of the school year, except for the work books. The methods of teaching are different, our schools are different, but we all learn the same thing just in different ways.

María 4º ESO A