Savannah Glaves

C&T 491

Dr. Cho & Johnson

11 June 2019

Journal Entry #2

Improving yourself is always hard. Most people think that they are perfect at something,

or if they aren’t, then they don’t want to do it. However, most things are not like that. You won’t

be able to ride a bicycle unless you try. Teaching is the same way—you won’t improve it unless

you try. However, how can you improve? By experiencing it firsthand, of course. I am trying to

improve myself through this practicum by both shadowing and developing my own lesson plans.

Walking into class for the first time, I did not really know what exactly to expect. I had

never shadowed anyone before—let alone a teacher in a foreign country. I didn’t know what

Greg would do with his class. I didn’t know if I would be able to improve myself by observing

him. I knew he was a fun person to be around from past study abroad participants, but could he

actually teach?

Turns out, he could. He could teach really well, in fact. He engaged with the students and

made fun of himself to allow the students to have more fun in his class. Most of them seemed

like they actually wanted to learn English. His teaching style was more fun than any of my

teachers in high school had ever been—and they were still learning. Only one thing entered my

mind: how could my teaching style ever be great like his?

Watching his class allowed me to learn what it is like to be a great teacher. The readings

have helped, but actually experiencing his classroom has shown me how hard it is to lead a

classroom. The first week of class was very interesting during introductions, and even though
some classes were very energetic, there was also some that weren’t. There was a time when Kai

struggled to lead a class with barely any excited students. It was something I feared would

happen during my time teaching. However, my one time leading the class so far went pretty well

since I had an energetic class. I do need to prepare myself mentally for the less energetic classes

but starting out with an excited one helped me. I strive to be a great teacher like him and engage

even the shyest of student in the classroom.

I have had a few problems within the classroom, but not too many. I did struggle with

remembering what to do when I led the class the first time. I forgot to warm them up by asking

what they were planning to do over the weekend. I remembered last second and accidentally

spoke too fast for them to understand. When I lead a class again, I plan to slow down and

hopefully remember everything to do. I have also struggled with helping the students during the

riddles. I did well with the tongue twisters, since I mainly had to focus on their pronunciation

rather than their understanding. During the riddles activity, I sometimes gave obvious hints and

gave it away. It did not allow the students to learn, but it made me want to improve when Greg

told me that I gave too big of a hint. I worked on giving smaller, more abstract hints unless they

could absolutely not figure out the riddle. My problems have shown that there is room for

improvement and that I should work toward becoming a better teacher.

Along with my problems, I feel like I have dealt with a fair amount of stress during this

internship. I think I am the quietest out of the group, so it is harder for me to relate with both the

other teachers and the students. It has been hard for me to talk more than I am comfortable with.

I also had a family member die during this practicum. Both stress factors inside and outside of

the program have affected me, but I strive to work on my stress-relieving techniques in the

coming weeks.
 Overall, I hope to be able to improve many things in the next few weeks of this

practicum. I have struggled a bit, but I wish to improve myself. I plan to take notes from anyone

who is willing to help me. This practicum is allowing me to do things that I have always wanted

to do, and I hope that this experience will allow me to improve even more in the next few weeks.

By the end of this, I may not be the best teacher, but I will have at least improved. That’s all I

really hope for during this experience.