Next year will be my professional Platinum anniversary, my 20th year teaching. During that time, I have instructed little kids from 7- to 10-year-olds -exhausting- to university. Basically, I have taught 10 years in secondary (high school) and 10 in university (those little kids were my boss’ and she asked me to go to their school to teach the Spanish classes, it was an amazing experience but I don’t have the patience). Each type of school has different pros and cons.
St. Vincent de Paul is a small school and I love many the advantages that brings:
Something I would never be able to do at a bigger school would be to teach and coach at the same time (other than at secondary schools, where many times you are required to coach), but I have already written about this (for example: here)
Every month we have a special birthday lunch when everyone that has a birthday that month, students, faculty, staff, is celebrated. The kitchen staff prepares a great lunch, and the Student Council prepares a video. I was recently cast in the birthday video, the last of the year, where the theme has been fighting the many iguanas we have on campus. (if you want to skip to my Oscar winning performance, go to minute 4:24 but you would miss a hilarious film and a great tour of school)
Another thing going on is that the students have started a podcast, and they recently invited me to participate. It is called In-Formation, and while it is an easy pun, it is very informative. You can listen to it here. It is an honor to follow an illustrious list of guests including the rector, a couple of students about to graduate, a bishop, etc. To listen to the podcast click below:
https://www.svdp.edu/information-podcast
So, while there are drawbacks to working in small schools such as lack of diversity of students, fewer courses to teach, etc. I really enjoy the benefits of teaching at such a special small school.
Antonioyrocinante's Blog 