Practicum and stuff

So, I’ve been here for over a month, I‘ve survived the Teaching Practicum and I’m trying to make it through this summer alive, although the weather here is so stifling that I’m not so sure I’ll make it!! On average, the weather over the last week has been around 36 degrees Celsius which is approximately 97 degrees Fahrenheit. So, needless to say, I’m burning up all the time. I think it’s like 93 degrees even in the shade and there’s NO air conditioning anywhere and there are very few fans in my school and none in my house so.....let’s just say it’s hot.

The teaching Practicum went well; my first week i taught 10th grade and then this week i taught 6th grade. Without a doubt, I prefer to teach high school; they just have more to say and they have a lot to bring to the table. I don’t really like just giving out information and then checking for understanding, which is what I feel like elementary teachers do. With high school, we actually have discussions and we share opinions, thoughts, ideas and are able to do more than just grammar or basic conversation. I absolutely loved my 10th grade class and I think they loved me too! But don’t get me wrong, I also like my 6th grade class that I have now but they’re just a little too rambunctious for my tastes!! I actually think some of my pre schoolers back in Cincinnati were better behaved than some of these 6th graders!!!

So, my practicum was basically the most important part of my 10 week training; i got observed 5 times and i was being judged on my classroom management, my presence in the classroom, my ability to convey the material of the lesson and my ability to achieve the objective of my lesson. They also observe us to get a feel for what language levels and ages we’re comfortable with. All of my observations went well and I really want to thank all of you for you prayers and support because I don’t think there’s any way I could have gotten through this whole ordeal without a little extra help from upstairs haha.

Now I have to do this questionnaire in which i have to answer all of these questions about the type of place i would like to live and work in for the next 2 years (yeah, so basically it’s like my next 2 years are somewhat decided by what i write on this piece of paper) so needless to say, it was kind of scary to fill that thing out because i wanted to be sure that they understood everything i wrote and didn’t misunderstand me or anything. But luckily, we also have interviews with our Placement Manager where we get to go over our questionnaire and voice our preferences about where we want to live.

I’ve decided that I want to live in a fairly large city and teach at either a regular high school or a bilingual high school. So hopefully that’s what I’ll get but they can’t promise us anything. Luckily I won’t have to wait that much longer to find out where I’m going though! My questionnaire is due tomorrow and then my interview is next week and then the week after that, on the 9th, I find out where my new home will be!!!!! I’M SO ANXIOUS/NERVOUS/EXCITED!!!!!

But other than the practicum and the oppressive heat, things are still the same: life with the Gazda is great and I’m slowly but surely getting better with my Romanian skills. I think I’ve moved up from talking like a 2 year old to talking like a 4 year old....so things are looking up. It sounds a bit crazy, but in the month 3 days that I’ve been here, I can already feel a change in me; I can’t quite put my finger on it but I definitely feel like I’m learning a lot about myself and it’s really eye-opening. I guess I’m learning that I’m capable of things I never imagined I’d do.