My ten weeks internship at
Riverside Middle School came to an end last week. It was a journey of learning
experience as a teacher. Throughout my
internship, I came across many new teaching ideas and classroom practices that
I value more than anything. I have to thank my teacher partner, Ms. Sharon
Barnette who has 27 years of teaching experience. It was a bless to be
partnered with her as she has been very open and understanding. We shared a lot
of things during the 10 weeks of internship. Miss Barnette has always been very
supportive and encouraging. She gave me the freedom to get thing done in my way
and conduct the lessons in my own style. She never once stopped me from doing
all the things that I wanted to do in RMS. Our relationship became so close
that I almost shed tears when she gave me a hug before I leave the school for
good.
 |
As for the students, throughout
my internship I realized that kids are kids no matter where you are. Students
in RMS are not exceptional. They have the same cheekiness that our Malaysian
students have. I did not see the difference in students’ conduct when I compared
them to our Malaysian students. However I find that students in South Carolina
especially those who are in RMS are very respectful. Well the way they see
respectful here is not the formal greetings and wishings but they way students
bring themselves. Students here are more casual in greeting their teachers
which I really like ( I think I have blogged about this before). On the last day,
we spent a few minutes together after the end of every lesson taking
pictures.
Well, one of my friends said that…we
started without any problems and had a smooth sailing throughout the internship
and it is good that we leave when the sail is smooth rather than leaving when
there is a thunderstorm… all’s well ends well…
