It has been a long time since I didn't write on my blog. In fact, we had a long and a little bit boring holiday after the first semester because everyone was doing their teaching practice for the last three weeks and we, as exchange students couldn't start our first teaching practice in Denmark and that's why I have been a little away from my blog; not much to talk about. However, this week we, me and my friend Müslüm, had our first experience as a teacher in Denmark.
Our school couldn't arrange teaching practice for exchange students yet and as we were quite eager to go to teaching practice in Denmark we asked our Danish friends if they could ask their schools to have us as guest students so that we can at least observe one of their classes. Fortunately, Rikke and Alice could arrange it and we had the chance to observe one of their classes and give a presentation of Turkey. First, we went to see them while they were teaching. We met the students who were, in fact, going to be our first students. We had already had a kind of observation in one of the schools in Copenhagen so the environment was not too strange to us. However, it was going to be different because we were going to teach this time so we were quite excited. Last week on Thursday, we went to the school where Rikke and Alice have their teaching practice in Nykøbing. We observed them teaching to 5th graders for two lessons. Then, on Tuesday this week, we went there for the second time and we gave a presentation of Turkey in two different classes of 5th graders. For we do our first teaching practice in our last year of education , untill now we had never had a kind of teaching experience.
In our presentation, we talked about Turkey and Turkish culture. We prepared some questions for them to see what they already know about Turkey. Then, we started our presentation. Müslüm talked about Turkey's geography, population, social and political structure ; and I talked about Turkish culture, Turkish schools and religion in Turkey. In our first presentation with the class A, almost every student was eager and motivated to listen and they helped us a lot in this way without being aware of it. However, when we gave our presentation second time with the class B, we had a little bit hard time because compared to the first group they were a little bit slower at understanding what we were really saying . However, they were also motivated to learn about Turkey and they asked lots of questions. At this point, I, as a teacher, have learnt how important it is for a teacher to be able to make his/her class interesting so that students are motivated and ready to learn. Also, as they already knew that we do not speak Danish , they had to communicate in English with us so it was a good chance for them to force themselves to speak in English.
In this practice, what I also learnt is the importance of knowing your students academical level. In our first presentation, we knew that they were better compared to the other group so we didn't limit ourselves in language use. In contrast, in the second group, we had do to be slow and use simple sentence structure while speaking English. Also, Rikke and Alice helped us when the students needed Danish translation. So it seems that it is necessary for a teacher to know what your students can achieve and what they can't.
Besides, it was a really different experience to be there in front of the class as a teacher and having the responsibility to make sure that they understand and everything goes well. There seems to be lots of things that teachers should take into consideration such as managing your time, facilitating learning, trying to reach every student in the classroom, helping them to cooperate and so - on. So, there are many other things to talk about but in short it was a good oportunity and good starting point for us before we start our teaching practice in Turkey.
When it comes to the environment of the class and the school , it was almost the same as the school we observed in Copenhagen. They were sitting in groups of four students in the classroom. Students were wearing casual clothes, and almost all of them were walking all around the school without their shoes. What was different in this school from the one we observed in Copenhagen was the fact that they use school bells just like we do at schools in Turkey. So, they all have lessons and breaks at the same time which seems more effective. Otherwise it might be distracting for the students who are actually trying to concentrate on the lesson while others are having their breaks and probably making a lot of noise.
In short, as a teacher I had my first teaching experience in Denmark. It is obvious that it is really hard job to be a teacher.It is even harder to do it in a foreign country especially when you don't have the common native language with the students. Even while just getting prepared for two hours lesson, we had to think about many different points. Luckily everything went very well as to say in our first step towards starting to teach . There is also one more important thing that I learnt from this experience: as you start teaching you also start learning... So I am looking forward to starting my next teaching practice period so that I can learn and improve myself to be a better teacher for my students in the near future.
Besides, it was a really different experience to be there in front of the class as a teacher and having the responsibility to make sure that they understand and everything goes well. There seems to be lots of things that teachers should take into consideration such as managing your time, facilitating learning, trying to reach every student in the classroom, helping them to cooperate and so - on. So, there are many other things to talk about but in short it was a good oportunity and good starting point for us before we start our teaching practice in Turkey.
When it comes to the environment of the class and the school , it was almost the same as the school we observed in Copenhagen. They were sitting in groups of four students in the classroom. Students were wearing casual clothes, and almost all of them were walking all around the school without their shoes. What was different in this school from the one we observed in Copenhagen was the fact that they use school bells just like we do at schools in Turkey. So, they all have lessons and breaks at the same time which seems more effective. Otherwise it might be distracting for the students who are actually trying to concentrate on the lesson while others are having their breaks and probably making a lot of noise.
In short, as a teacher I had my first teaching experience in Denmark. It is obvious that it is really hard job to be a teacher.It is even harder to do it in a foreign country especially when you don't have the common native language with the students. Even while just getting prepared for two hours lesson, we had to think about many different points. Luckily everything went very well as to say in our first step towards starting to teach . There is also one more important thing that I learnt from this experience: as you start teaching you also start learning... So I am looking forward to starting my next teaching practice period so that I can learn and improve myself to be a better teacher for my students in the near future.
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