Arehdel

How about Portugal?

PS. I also remember about 25.4 as it's one day after my birthday [/quote]


Hi, from Portugal!

Here in Portugal the educational system is divided like this:
Ensino Básico: 9 years (4 1º ciclo, 2 2º ciclo, 3 3º ciclo)
Ensino Secundário: 3 years
Ensino Superior: about 5 years (but it depends on the courses... now with Bologne Treaty it will only be 3!)

You mentioned that in Poland teachers aren't weel recognised as well... this is very bad, isn't it? Would there be doctors, lawyers, whatever, if there weren't any teachers??
About the system being "oldfashioned" don't worry... I agree with you when you say students should be taught modern stuff... something they like... but here in Portugal the system has been changing that way and it seems not to have had good effects... Teachers here use technology whenever possible and even though students don't care!!! I wonder why...

I think the problem with my country is the isolated geographical position...

So your birthday is on the 24th April?

Well, after this short break, I must go on with test correction!

Keep in touch!
Have a nice weekend!

katee

Hi there,

The educational system in PT looks similar. As for university - usually it's 5 years: 3 for BA and 2 for MA, or you can have 5-year course for MA (5 years in a row, without getting BA on the way).

I've been teaching in high school so I actually I had adult students (at the age of between 16 and 19). What are you interested in being that age? You can teach them history of UK, for example, but put it in 'their language' and way of thinking - is much more effective. That what methodology is about, for me at least. Teachers should be flexible as having 30 students, each of them is unique.
You can teach by laughing, making jokes, watching movies, listening to music and so on. I had teachers who could do that but only few.

What do u teach? How many hours a week a teacher works in PT?
In Poland it's 19 hours a week (full-time in a public school) and that's actually what you are paid for. No one remembers that there's a lot of work apart from lessons as such! It's easy to say that working only 19 hours a week, you can get another job, but I don't remember a single week with only 19 hours of working. And when I think about those meetings with parents, conferences, tests preparation/correction (btw - have a nice correction! )... nunca mais! I liked teaching itself, I loved my students but all the 'mechanism' made me give the job up.

You are right, there must be teachers in the world! So why their/our existence is soooo miserable..
It used to be such an honourable profession

Nice weekend to you too,
Katee

__________________
Il n'y a que 2 choses infinies dans l'univers - l'univers lui-même, et l'erreur humaine... et je ne suis pas sûr pour le premier (AE)

Arehdel

What do u teach? How many hours a week a teacher works in PT?


Hi, Katee!

Yes, the Portuguese educational system looks similar to yours.
I teach Portuguese/English in high school (students aged 12-15, sometimes also adults...). Here a teacher works 22 hours in a school, but as a matter of fact has to be in school 26 hours... As you said nobody seems to recognise that we work much more than these hours!!!

katee

Hi,

By saying 'I teach Portuguese/English', you mean teaching literature, history, grammar and so on?
In Poland, when I say 'I teach Polish', it means I teach Polish literature. We've got a separate subject for history (which is called 'history' and it concerns the history of the whole world, including Poland ). However, I heard some time ago that the government wanted to introduce 'the history of Poland' as a separate subject but I guess they failed in doing this.

__________________
Il n'y a que 2 choses infinies dans l'univers - l'univers lui-même, et l'erreur humaine... et je ne suis pas sûr pour le premier (AE)

Arehdel

Hello, Katee!

Yes, I teach Portuguese, but more literature and grammar, you know? We also have a subject called History, where students learn, not only our history but also from the world... the 2 world wars, etc.

katee

Hi Arehdel,

So, obviously you are a perfect source of info about Portugal and help in learning Portuguese
Sometimes being a native speaker in not enough when there is lack of ability to explain things or find analogy with other languages.

Tell me something else - are you able to choose subjects on your own, in high school? For example, if you are interested in languages, can you skip a bit of chemistry, physics, maths, etc? Not totally, but have some basic course...

Have a great week!
Katee

__________________
Il n'y a que 2 choses infinies dans l'univers - l'univers lui-même, et l'erreur humaine... et je ne suis pas sûr pour le premier (AE)

Arehdel

Siema, Katee!

Yes, there's a possibility to choose some subjects (specially between French and English) in the 7th grade, and then in the 10th grade, too. There are five different areas that you can choose according to your interests.
When I was a student, in the 12th grade (the last grade before entering the university) we only had 3 subjects, all specific and according to what you would follow to go to university. Now, students have 8 or 9 subjects, but they are much easier, as they are not specific...


I wish you a nice week, too!