Our last day has come. We have to take the flight but before we are going to do our last visit to do all the paperwork and to have a last meeting to learn about formal educational aspects. Teachers have to stay 23 periods a week and 18 hours of classes. Some of these hours can occupy the 7th hour or an hour in the afternoon to give extracurricular activities such as a journalism workshop, an Etwinning project, German, Italian, Art, Computer Science... The 7th hour serves as a kind of support for students who have not understood something in any subject. The afternoon is used for teacher who do not complete their schedule in the mornings. In English a teacher performs the journalism workshop in English and conducts the school website and as we explained the other day, and another English teacher uses it as workshop for etwinning . Students in 7th and 8th (1st and 2nd ESO) have:
Croatian: 4 hours per week
Mathematics: 4 hours per week
Geography: 2 hours
History: 2 hours
Biology: 2 hours
Chemistry: 2 hours
Physical education: 2 hours
Religion: 2 hours (optional)
Arts: 1 hour a week (actually. They have 2 hours a fortnight so that activities are carried out in a more continuous manner)
Technology: 2 hours
English: 3 hours
Music: 1 hour
In the class, there is a classroom book where each teacher must record the absences, what has happened during the class and marks which have been given that day . The teacher keeps track of her/his own marks apart. At the end of each class, there is a student who is responsible for carrying the book to the next room where they have class.
Apart from that . each teacher has his annual classroom planning. This planning must be created at the beginning of the course and all sessions are recorded. The authorities (advisors/inspectors) want them to have eleven columns. 1. Name of the unit, 2. Objectives, 3. Functional aspects, 4. Cultural aspects, 5. Methodology 6. Activities in the classroom 7. Activities for students 8. Correlation with other subjects, 9. Materials used, 10. Week of the year, 11. Notes (if there is any deviation, or any other data that can be collected.
All these documents have to be very filled in daily since their supervisors (inspectors) can appear at any time without notifying beforehand . A parent can write directly to the supervisor, fill in a complaint, and the next day the supervisor appears in your class . Parents can also leave that note anonymously. The pressure is strong enough because in 8th grade, marks determine the type of high school they are attending . The high schools are specialized in science and math, languages (where they study English, Italian and German), general basic high schools (which have more basic level) and vocational training schools. In all high schools Latin is compulsory in the first 2 years (our 3rd and 4th)
Parents have a fairly direct relationship with the Center. We have to take into account that it is a primary center. In the last two grades, which are those that we have been analyzing, parents are mostly concerned with their children’s marks. Teachers have period of parents visit which is performed in their own classroom. It has to be opened in case parents want to come without any appointment Finally, about students with special need , we have seen that despite being a school with a scarce funding, this aspect is really well covered. As we have already said 2 students with hard difficulties are 4 hours a day with the specialist teacher and attend subjects which we referred above accompanied by an Assistant Professor Also they tell us that there are other 5 students with special needs and each one of them is always with an teacher assistant. There are 5 teacher assistants in total.
Conclusions
To conclude we would like to point out that it has been a very enriching experience, where we have learned that, despite the cultural differences, educational system, etc., teachers work very similarly to us and with the same interest. You can analyze the positive and negative aspects of the system with all the ideas that you have been told throughout our blog. Personally speaking, we would like to thank all the Croatian teachers who have so selflessly preparing all the activities, we have been treated so kindly, they have allowed us to participate and observe some of their classes, they have always been worried about us, preparing coffee , delicious tea ... regarding students , we have to say that the have been very endearing, charming, the boys and girls were all the time helping us , holding doors for us to pass, taking us to different places…. THANK YOU VERY MUCH INDEED TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF THE OSNOVNA SKOLA SPINUT, IN SPLIT !!!! All our love.
Meritxell Sanglas ; Antonia Drlje ; Fadila Zoranić; Ivana Bokavšek; Anica Bašić, Victoria Cifuentes