Entry 2: First Day at School

March 6th, 2014

Since we didn’t know our mentor, we waited for her outside the class. Some teachers were passing by and every time someone comes near the class, we thought it was our mentor teacher, then they enter another class, and we knew that she is not. We felt uncomfortable because we won’t be able to recognize her or she won’t recognize us. I was afraid that this will leave a bad impression. When we met, I saw that she was okay with it, which was a relief for me. We entered the class and seated ourselves at the back of the class to observe the class. 

Let me tell you about the learner profile first. There are 11 students (4C) in one class and 13 students (4G) in the other class. That was really surprising for me. It was great news, as well. Actually, the classes are split into two in English courses. There are English classrooms opposite of every class. The half of the class moves to that class and they have a different English teacher. I didn’t just like that practise, I fell in love with it. That must be every teacher’s dream. Instead of dealing with 30 students, 12 would be a perfect number for language classes. You can monitor the students easily. You can assign them tasks and control them whether they are doing or not. Above all, all the students have the chance to SPEAK in the class. That was something which was different from 5^th graders (22-24 students in each class). Also, they don't like kinaesthetic activities as much as 5th graders do. They rarely move away from their desks since our mentor teacher is very authoritative. Considering their age, they should be more energetic and lively but they are very passive in the class. Of course, this doesn't mean that they don't participate in the classes. They love to speak English. They are very eager to do activities. I will continue to compare them with 5th graders because their age is so close to each other. Observing that they show great difference in behaviours and attitudes towards learning English has really surprised me. In this case, this situation may stem from teacher behaviour and attitudes, I guess.