Gina Carbone boasts some memorabilia from her time in Barcelona. Photo by Yasir Khaleqby Yasir Khaleq, Staff Writer
Gina Carbone, world history and AP psychology teacher at Fountain Valley High School, recently achieved her lifelong dream of teaching overseas, spending a year in Barcelona, Spain.
“I’ve been wanting to teach overseas for about 10 years and I was really worried about leaving Fountain Valley because I really like this job and I wanted to come back to it. So I put [teaching abroad] off, and then finally last year I felt like I needed to go or else I would never get a chance again,” said Carbone.
After convincing herself into it, Carbone joined the International Teacher search provider. Initially, she was interested in a job in Paris, but that didn’t work out. A job in Barcelona opened up and Carbone knew that she had to take it.
“I saw another job opening for Barcelona, Spain, which is my favorite city in the world. I was so happy that was there,” said Carbone.
Carbone has taught psychology and history for years, and that’s exactly what she would teach in Spain. However, the transition wasn’t necessarily easy. She was thrust into a completely different curriculum with no training, which is always difficult. She ended up teaching IB psychology, which is similar to AP, but different. IB is the International Baccalaureate program, which is an international equivalent to AP. It is a rigorous academic program that prepares high school students with college level classes and is widely recognized across the globe.
“I taught world history and IB Psychology, which is a different curriculum. That was difficult for me because although the content is the same, the curriculum is very different. So it was very hard for me, teaching IB,” said Carbone.
Carbone had already previously lived in Spain for two years, so that aspect of the job wasn’t anything new to her. However, teaching an extremely diverse and unique group of students was a different challenge altogether.
“My students were from all over the world. I would ask them where they were from, and they’d have difficulty because they were raised in so many different places. They spoke perfect English. They were from Russia, France, Saudi Arabia, Chicago. All over the place,” said Carbone. “They were very serious, very motivated, it was a private school. They were very into college education, and getting what they needed to get done.”
Although life in Spain wasn’t new to her, Carbone still had to adjust to the vibrancy of Spanish life. In Spain, life comes before work, and the two are completely separate things. “What do you like to do?” is a more common question than “What do you do for a living?”
“Everything is very social. Everyone lives outdoors. They’re on the streets constantly. I could walk home at five in the morning, and be totally safe because there were thousands of people on the streets. They eat dinner at 10 PM. They don’t start going out at night until 1 AM. Their night stops at 10 AM the next morning. They really love life, and they have these great festivals and celebrations. They really value personal time. They work to live; not live to work,” said Carbone.
Overall, Carbone is happy to be back at FVHS, with better pay and being much more organized. Still, Carbone highly recommends anyone with a similar passion going and living their dreams.
“I’m super glad I did it, and I would encourage anyone to try it for themselves. That was my dream, and I was really scared of fulfilling that dream but I did, and it was better than I ever thought it could be,” said Carbone.
AYEE GO MS. CARBONE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸