Teaching Practice Week- Wo Shi Lao Shi!| 3 min read

Looking very professional, dressed in their pressed shirts and shiny shoes they really did look the part as they clutched their lesson plans and discussed amongst each other what the day ahead may hold!

For the past three weeks the interns have been studying hard, attending classes everyday and completing assignments to prepare them for their internship in a Chinese school and all this week they get the chance to put these newly learnt skills to practice.

The interns were split into two schools, Beijing number 7 Middle School and Beijing Experimental Middle school to undertake their teaching practice, where groups of 5 of them had been busy working together to take it in turns all this week to teach their very own classes of Chinese students, under the watchful guidance of their English Language tutors.

As interns piled into the schools and were assigned their classes, students gathered around them excitedly shouting ‘hello’ and waving to their foreign teachers for the next week!

The first day of teaching practice is always the scariest as the interns anticipate what the students will be like and what their levels of English may be, but they got off to a great start by playing some introductory games and telling their students about themselves.
Some of the interns, all from different countries told the students about themselves and their Countries and the students seemed to be fascinated!

As the week of teaching practice continued the interns went from strength to strength, becoming more relaxed and at ease as they received great feedback from their tutors.  Their lessons were innovative and well planned, with each teacher intern confidently producing a 30-minute lesson to the students, whom loved their energetic and fun teachers!

By the last day of their teaching practice, interns spoke of how easier it had got as the week had progressed and how they had soon grown so close to their students, admitting although they will still be nervous when they begin their internship in their given schools in the following week, having had the week to practice had taken the pressure off and given them a lot of courage.

A ceremony at each school marked the closure of the intern’s week of teaching practice and they were over the moon as their students presented them with gifts of teddy bears, flowers and candy before they left. Posing for class pictures with their students, interns said they were sad to leave behind their students and how great they had been all week.

All in all the week went very smoothly and all that’s left for the interns now is to travel to their placements and finally get to see the schools, which they have eagerly been awaiting to intern in for the next semester!