Observations

A new week means a new schedule and this for today I was a bit confused as to what my schedule was. I went to the school and did not go to my homeroom because I thought I was meant to be in the library. Turns out I was not, so I missed my year 9 boys for nothing. So sad. After a bit more confusion, I came to find out that I was needed in the library for the first two periods. I was helping D. who is the wonderful Romanian teacher who I had met my first week. She, as I believe I mentioned before, teaches English as a second language. I primarily observed during the morning periods, but it was nothing short of interesting.

 For the first period, she had N., Y., and S. who are two Japanese students. (S. is the student who I worked with all last week and N. is another Japanese student who was in my classes last week. N. is very self-motivated and hard working.) Now, I have been wondering how the students with language barriers stayed afloat. Besides having a teacher with them to work on some big assignments, and having an electronic dictionary, they (at least the Japanese students) have a few lessons a week where they can catch up on homework with some assistance. Learning English is also a part of these supplemental lessons. I sat while D. helped a Japanese boy with his English. She is seriously great at her job. They were working on Macbeth, which was the chosen piece for the English class, and she had a great strategy. First Y. read a section (in modern English, rather than Shakespearian). He was then meant to underline any words he did not understand then look them up in his dictionary and write the word in Japanese. This way they can improve their reading, speaking, and vocabulary. Y. did not want to work and seemed tired. Turns out he is the brother of S., who shares the same apathy.  D. did so well trying to work him through the reading and asked great though provoking questions that helped him grasp the general message of the passage. I also learned that many of the Japanese students do not take the English controlled assessments; instead they take an international exam.

The next period we had one more student. The boys used this time to catch up on homework and were able to ask questions to clarify anything. I could really see the difference between the three students. S. is not motivated to work and definitely plays into the fact that he does not understand English. He is constantly using this as an excuse to not do work. During this period, he managed to spend more time watching a video on the computer. N. does so well. He does know more language than the other boys, but still is not fluent. He does not let this stop him though. He diligently works and asks for help when he needs it. His questions go beyond simple comprehension. N. asks for more complex synonyms in order to better his work. He also seems to be reluctant to speak in Japanese when the others ask him homework questions.  I did not catch the name of the third boy, so I will simply call him Boy. Boy did not want to work with D. so I’m pretty sure he used another homework assignment as an excuse. He did not however, work very hard on this homework. He spent most of the time looking up cartoons as well and became defensive when reprimanded. I think it is so interesting how they all differ. The American stereotype and British as well, of Asian students are that they are extremely bright and academics are extremely important. I do not see this with Boy and S.. They have no motivation, and I do not think the language barrier is the only cause of this. Since the boys were more or less working, us teachers sat and chatted, which was lovely. And Jose and Mary came to visit, which was great.

Since I had no true idea of my schedule for today, I kinda made it up and went with D. to her next lesson. She had S. for that time and they were going to read a short story then look up words and answer questions. I truly admire her for having the patience to deal with them for three periods of lesson. S. was very reluctant to work and was easily distracted by anything, from his pens to the computer mouse. D. kept working to get him to read the short story and look up the words he did not understand. S. did not seem to want me there, and asked why I was there. I feel as though he is a bit embarrassed having someone observe. The main message D. has been trying to get across to S. is that he must practice during summer in order to ensure he will not regress. She has been encouraging him to listen to English television, and read newspapers. She has even emailed his father, though none of this seems to be having an effect. I can’t remember if I have discussed S.’s home life, but I will here as well. S. and Y.’s family love the Japanese culture and do not speak English as home. This hinders the boys’ education of the English language. They get no practice at home, especially during the summer break. Learning is disabled when there is a language barrier and even more so when the learning of English contradicts the home life. (I remember learning about such things in class.) So even though D. stresses and encourages, it simply is not a priority at home, so it hurts the boys tremendously. S. is extremely reluctant to practice at home. He sees summer and a break for him which means no English practice and he became very defensive. I seriously do not know how D. stays so calm and engaged. She earnestly cares about his mastering of the subject and is one of the teachers that I have seen truly has an interest in her students. She also knows about their interests and pets, etc. She is so great.

So turns out I have tons to say about today, which I didn’t think I would, but I don’t care. Maybe I have so much to say because I got to work with my favorite teacher and with students who need assistance. Basically, students similar to the ones I want to work with. Bam.  (Once again, I may have already stated this but, I have noticed that education is written about quite often in the papers, which I find super interesting.)

After lunch I attended regular lessons. I had history with year 10 and had a few of the students who I had gotten to know. It was good to see them again. The class was looking at pictures, letters, etc and had to analyze them. Much like the DBQ’s we had to do for AP. I worked with three boys and helped to motivate them to actually get work done and help them analyze the picture. Thankfully I have done this before, so I was useful. I then moved on to math, which they call maths with some more year 10s. For this class, I really just observed as the students were simply going over their exam scores. They were in the C/D range, which I think it interesting. Almost everyone had these marks. Apparently this class is a preparation for the next year and no one is capable of getting an A. That’s so weird to me. I may need to research this whole system. They also don’t have “F”, the “E”. It’s super weird. I also learned that 6 form (which I believe to be the same as 12^th grade) do not have to wear uniforms.

Their school system is really weird. Some classes are two years and even though one may have a D, you can bring it up to an A by the end of the second year. Also, some classes take precedence over others and students are missing secondary classes quite often to take other exams. It’s so complicated. Maybe it’s more organized during the rest of the year, not leading up to summer. Who knows? Tomorrow I am going on a field trip to The British Library with year 10, so I’m excited. I’m sure it will be great! We also get to see The Lion King tomorrow! Woohoo!

Ps. The cut up chicken and the hummus from Sainsbury is quite delicious and our mouse has returned. Great.

Week Five: Day One: Internship 8