Purpose of Practicum
The first time I heard the announcement from our College Dean about the internship for SEAMEO, it really caught my attention and my interest to be a part of it. At first, I am nervous and hesitant because traveling without the guidance of a teacher or my parents is new to me. Despite this, I still pursue it because I want to experience new things and learn more information that will help me in my chosen career as a teacher, and SEAMEO INTERNSHIP greatly helps in its fulfillment.
This program break barriers and bridge cultures. It breaks barriers between the differences especially in communication between individuals with different nationalities and speaks different languages. It lets us, the participants, meet new people and interact with them. As for being a teacher, it breaks barriers in the sense that it taught us how to be the best teacher that we can be in our pupils, despite the difference between or nationalities. It bridge cultures simply by exposing us to a new environment with different traditions and way of living. We also learn about the culture of other people then shares our own culture as well. Despite the differences, it serves as the bond to keep everything balanced and in harmony.
I've experienced a lot of new things and a new environment. It gives me the opportunity to teach to other countries and to improve myself more not just as a teacher but an independent individual. Everything that I learned in this internship will surely be applied when I start to face the challenges of teaching once I stepped out of college. It's in a form of life-long learning that I'll always remember and treasure.
Procedure of Practicum
SEAMEO (Southeast Asian Ministry Education Organization) SEA-TEACHER is a 1-month internship program for future educators like me. This program gave us a chance to experience teaching outside our comfort zone and face the challenges of a new teaching environment. In a month we were taught many things, we experienced memories that we can always treasure. So how does this program works? Let me share to you the procedure that I experienced as one of the Batch 7 interns in this program.
Before we were chosen as an intern, we were interviewed by the coordinators of the receiving university that we will be assigned. In my situation, I am interviewed by the coordinator of CRRU (Chiang Rai Rajabhat University), Ms. Nok, as we call her. After being selected, she sent me a formal letter of invitation with all the information that I need to know about the program. Days before me and my other schoolmates who are also chosen fly to Thailand, we participated in an online orientation wherein the other details about our internship were discussed.
The program starts on January 7 and ends last February 2, 2019. When we arrived at the airport, we were picked up by Ms.Nok then brought us to the building in CRRU where the orientation and turnover program will be held. When we arrived in our receiving university, Chiang Rai Rajabhat University, we've had an orientation program where we meet the vice-president and the president of the university and talked about how to program will work. They also showed us the location of the schools that we will be assigned to. After the orientation, we were moved to a conference room where we meet our respective school heads who brought us to our host school.
The required teaching duration is 20 hours. In the school where I am assigned, Srikird Municipal School 1, I am given 3 days of observation. I am assigned to Mrs. Nootchanat Srithimuangchai, an English teacher of Grade 3 and Grade 4 students. After the observation days, Teacher Noot gave me the topic to be discussed for the upcoming weeks. I taught the 3rd-grade class for 2 weeks and the 4th grade class for 1 week. After I finished the number of hours required, we are sent back to CRRU for evaluation and presentation of the learning that we gained in our host school. (the full story of my journey will be posted in a different article)
Outcomes of the Practicum
I never expected it to be easy considering the adjustments that I and other interns need to face but those hardships are worth it as it adds another unforgettable memory of learning to my journey as a teacher. I consider this as one of the stepping stones in reaching my dream.
Through this internship, I meet new people, Filipinos, Indonesians and of course Thais who became my guide and friends. I learned a new culture and was exposed to a new environment. Most importantly, It helps me in improving the things that I thought before I cannot do and cannot improve. I never imagined that I can be an independent person. Fly to a different country without a supervisor or teacher and live away from my family in a month is one of the things that I never thought I can accomplish, considering that I am still dependent to my family especially to my mother.
I am the kind of person who finds it hard to make friends and blend to other people but in this program, I learned how to be open to them. Despite the fact that I am taking a Secondary Education program, which means I am expected to teach High School students, I learned how to adjust my teaching strategies to meet the requirements I need to teach Elementary pupils. The time that I read on the school assignments that I will be assigned to teach Elementary students, I am not sure of what I felt because teaching kids are new to me. I find it difficult on the first 3 days but after those, I started to enjoy it then love it.
This program lets me apply those things that I learned in our class, through this experience I became more confident that I can improve and be the best teacher that I can offer to my future students. This also makes me realize that teaching is what I want to do. I want to see the faces of the kids smiling every time they learn new things because those smiles are what motivates me during my stay in my host school. Lastly, this program makes me love teaching more.
Challenges of the Practicum
I have three points which I considered the challenges that this practicum gave me:
1. Homesickness and Adaptation to a new environment.
- in the first few days of my stay in our dormitory, I find it hard to stop to look for the presence of my family and the other people I know. I find it hard to adjust considering many things like the rules, the food, almost everything, even living with my roommate alone is hard for me. I always call my parents at night to ease what I am feeling. After a week I found myself slowly adjusting until I found myself comfortable and enjoying the opportunity given to me.
2. Shift and Adjustment in my Teaching Strategy
- In my home country (Philippines) I taught high school students during my teaching internship in the first semester of the school year. Teaching elementary kids gave me the challenge to adjust my teaching strategies to meet the needs of my pupils. Another challenge is some of them are not just ordinary kids, some kids have special needs to be attended to.
3. Communicating with the pupils and other people
- Teaching English to kids is indeed difficult especially if the language is not usually applied. I find it difficult to teach kids English considering the difference between how they learn English and how their teacher taught them English. How do I address this challenge? I communicate with the kids using the simplest English adding it with a little action so that they can learn and luckily I got good results. When I communicate with other people, I try to speak as simple as possible so that they can understand me. I also learned some basic Thai phrases which I used in the day to day conversations.
Overall Impressions
The experiences I've had from this SEA TEACHER project is really unforgettable. Like what I said, it gives me the opportunity to go out of my comfort zone, be an independent person and improve more so that I can be a better teacher in the future person. I meet new people which helps me to understand other people's differences. This is a journey which is really worth it.
Suggestion for Future Improvement
When it comes to the program itself, a month of stay is good but in my opinion adjusting it for 2 or 3 months will help the interns more to understand about the culture and to improve more. It maybe a little long but surely it will yield a better result, a better learning to the interns and to the people involved.