Entry 1: First Impressions

February 27th, 2014

I am doing my internship at METU College again and I am really happy about it. However, this time, I will be observing primary school students. I am sure that it will be quite an experience. Before meeting the school management, I was very excited since I didn’t know which grade I will be visiting. I have worked with 5^th graders last semester and they were lovely. This time I wanted to work with 2^nd graders, just to see the difference. I was also wondering what it’s like; teaching English to students at such a young age. It was something which I am not familiar with. 

When we went to the school to meet our mentors and to arrange a time for the school visits, we found out that our mentor took that day off and we couldn’t meet, which is very unfortunate. We asked whether we can see her schedule at least to decide on a day to have an idea. Thursday mornings were the only available time for both of us and our mentor teacher. As a coincidence, 4 hours in a row, we are supposed to observe the students who are in the same grade (4^th graders), which was the case last semester (5^th graders). By the way, our mentor teacher conducted the same activities differently for us because she didn't want us to get bored. Besides, she gave us ideas about changing the same activities according to class dynamics. 

At first, I didn’t think that 4^th graders are so different from the 5^th graders, but it would be helpful for us to see the difference between the levels. (I didn’t know that I couldn’t be more wrong back then.) There was also a problem with arranging the time. Since we meet another teacher other than our mentor, she rushed us to make our decision immediately when we are checking the schedule of our mentor. We got very disappointed. Since our expectations are high and we were very eager to go to METU College, this kind of behaviour implied that they don’t take this internship seriously or the student-teachers.  I know that I shouldn’t jump to such a conclusion by just looking at one person’s behaviour but I couldn’t help it. There was one thing that I need to mention, which I find very rude. When we meet the school principle and the other teachers, the manager didn’t shake our hands (the student-teachers). When she was talking, she wasn’t looking at us or addressing us. I just felt like I was on a field trip; it was so uncomfortable. Maybe, I am exaggerating it or they were really busy, I am not sure; but I can say that my first impressions weren’t so good.

Since we couldn’t meet our teacher, we decided to email her about the time when we will be visiting the school. I told her that we can come on next Thursday if it is okay for her, and she said she was fine with it. So we will be going to our school-visits without even meeting her. I hope it wouldn't be a problem to leave such an impression.