Student Teaching in Berlin, Germany Past Review

I think my placement at a school abroad in Berlin, Germany has helped me become more aware of the diverse learners in my classroom which is something I have benefitted from doing my placement abroad. While in Germany, there would be times where I would feel really stressed out because I couldn’t communicate what I needed because I didn’t speak the language well enough to portray my thoughts and my needs. I would get frustrated which made me think of all the students that I would have in my classroom who are English Language Learners and would be feeling exactly how I felt. Even though I have had a lot of training in teaching English Language Learners and have worked with a lot of English Language Learners, I never really realized how difficult it is to learn a new language when you are surrounded by an unfamiliar language and really don’t understand what is going on. In the classroom I taught in and in the classrooms in America, a lot of the students are learning English and are expected to speak English in the classroom which can be frustrating for them since they are surrounded by an unfamiliar language and aren’t able to communicate which causes them to shut down and stop learning. Since I have now experienced that feeling of not being able to communicate and being frustrated when being surrounded by a language I don’t really know, I feel like I am going to be able to better help my students who are learning English because I know how it feels and will remember that feeling when planning lessons that are accessible to all the students in my classroom. Having this experience has really helped me see how important it is to think about these students who are struggling with the language and think about ways you can make the material accessible to them such as using visuals, building background knowledge, modeling, using cue cards, and making them feel comfortable in the classroom. Another benefit of doing my placement abroad was seeing how important multiculturalism is and how to successfully incorporate multiculturalism in your classroom. In the classroom I student taught at, there were students from all over the world with different cultures and backgrounds in one classroom. In the United States, our classrooms are becoming more and more diverse with students from all over the world as well. By teaching abroad, I was able to see how each child brings something to the classroom with their rich culture and we shouldn’t ignore that. Before I went abroad, I never thought about how important and beneficial it is to incorporate and promote multiculturalism in your classroom because I’ve never really been around such a diverse group of students before. The teacher I worked with during this experience did a great job educating the students on the different cultures in the world and making every student feel like an “expert” on their culture. Each week, she would research a new celebration or event in a different culture that she would teach about and immerse the students in all week. She would also invite the student and their family to come in and help teach about their cultural celebration as well. Not only did she include the community in her lessons, she also made each child feel a part of the classroom while retaining his or her cultural identity. Watching the students light up when it was their culture that the class was learning about and seeing how interested and excited the students were about learning about all these new cultures and cultural celebrations showed me how important this is and should be included in the classroom. Teaching abroad opened my eyes to how wonderfully diverse this world is and how we should embrace and learn about all the different cultures instead of ignoring them. As the years go on, our classrooms are going to become more and more diverse and I think it is very important and beneficial that we recognize the various cultures in our classroom and incorporate them in our teaching. Overall, this experience has changed my life and has helped me grow and develop into a confident teacher. This experience has helped me acquire the important skills that every teacher should have such as the ability to plan, differentiate instruction for diverse learners, manage the class, communicate, use various teaching strategies and self-reflect. It also has humbled me and has opened my eyes to the world of English Language Learners and multiculturalism as I was able to experience both of these things first-hand. My experiences that I have had from teaching abroad these last three months will forever be reflected in my teaching as I use the various teaching skills that I have acquired and as I strive to support my English Language Learners and incorporate multiculturalism in my future diverse classroom.