While gap years are often used as a chance to recharge, math teacher Evelyn Pohle challenged the norms by trading her post-graduate downtime for six months of teaching English in the vibrant classrooms of Madrid, Spain.
Inspired by a friend who spent a year teaching in Thailand through the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), a nonprofit study and teaching abroad organization, Pohle explored the program, eventually choosing Spain as her destination.
“I thought Spain would be a great opportunity because I could travel to a lot of other places that were close by, and I had not been to Europe prior to going,” Pohle said. “I didn’t know a lot about Spain, but I loved it afterwards.”
Pohle often shares her European adventure with her students, bringing her unique experiences and enthusiasm to the classroom.
“I think it’s really cool, because I also want to go to Spain someday,” freshman and Math I student Charlotte Baker said. “I think that’s really inspiring, how she left home even though it was hard for her and she got home sick.”
Though Ms. Pohle now teaches Math I and AP Calculus AB at Portola High, she said her teaching experience in Spain was completely different. As a teaching assistant in a beauty school, Pohle interacted with students ranging from adults to adolescents. However, this wasn’t the only difference Pohle experienced in her classroom.
“Something that was really interesting to me was how laid back everything was,” Pohle said. “The teachers would come in, they’d spend the first 15 minutes talking with the students and checking in like ‘What’s going on? How are you guys doing?’ — that kind of thing. And then they would slowly start going into what we were learning that day.”
Pohle said that connecting with her students is extremely important to her, and she strives to reflect the emphasis on building relationships she observed in Spain in her classroom at Portola High. The impacts of her efforts are widely seen across her classes, according to her students.
“[Ms. Pohle] really cares about each student, and she wants to make sure that we all succeed inside of her class,” junior and AP Calculus AB student Audrey Shiono said. “Before she moves on to concepts, she asks questions to ensure that we truly understand everything okay.”
Though only a six-month experience, Pohle said she will forever cherish her unique experiences in Spain. Pohle encourages other teachers to experience teaching abroad at least once.
“I think that something that I see missing here in the U.S. itself, not particularly at the school, [is that] we don’t focus a ton on making connections with every person you see every day,” Pohle said. “So I think that is one thing that I took away from Spain.”
