Final Report – Internship in America How I found my internship and who helped me with the organization To spend some time abroad has always been a dream of mine. But I have to confess that, when it finally came to that, it was really spontaneous. My boyfriend, a student at the University of Applied Science in Munich, was looking for an internship abroad as well, which was why we planned to go together. Having evaluated our possibilities – he as a BMW trainee promotion program member was offered internships in Australia and America – we took our chance to go to the United States. His future office was located in Palo Alto, California, which is why I then spent countless nights online, finding and contacting schools – public and private – to find an internship as a teaching assistant. I considered having the possibility to teach in an English speaking environment more useful for my future and my experience then studying at a university abroad. This search turned out to be way more complicated than expected: due to financial curfews most of the German departments did no longer exist. While looking for a school who would accept my application, I had to take care of all the paperwork, a stay in the US requires, and find financial support to make my stay abroad possible, which is how I got to ‘Student und Arbeitsmarkt’. This time was stressful and filled with all emotions possible. When I finally – one and a half months before my planned departure! – got an acceptance at the “School for Independent Learners”, I had even more stress finishing all the paperwork with my visa sponsor ‘Intrax’, the American embassy, my university, and my future employer ‘SIL’. In several phone calls overseas, the directors of the ‘School for Independent Learners’ and I worked on my training plan, which I needed for my visa sponsor, and we agreed on my future tasks: I was hired to be a German teacher and besides giving lessons I should rewrite the German curriculum. Besides all that we had to find a place to live for six months, which is in the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area a really expensive affair. Until I finally sat in the airplane on September 10th 2009 I actually couldn’t believe, I would really leave Germany for the upcoming six months. Without the moral support of my family and especially my boyfriend, who stood awake through the nights with me to help me with the search of a school and a visa sponsor and who never let me give up, it would have been really hard to make all that possible.
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Final Report – Internship in America Expectations, tasks, and first impressions My first experience with the School for Independent Learners was actually the Friday before my first workday, when I was invited to their weekly BBQ lunch. The school building seemed pretty small, compared to what I was used from Germany, but I learned fast that this private school only has 120 students, of which only around 25 are full-time students, all the others just come on two or three days a week for some classes. The three directors Ashley Sarver, John Wise and Richard Gowers, welcomed me warmly and introduced me to some of the full time students and teachers. Due to that experience I was really happy and excited about this internship. Since SIL is an accredited private high school with one-on-one classes, which is a system that I have never experienced in Germany, I was anxious to learn more about it. Since I was the first intern this school ever had, the number of my tasks increased during my time at this school. Besides rewriting the German curriculum I happened to be the only German teacher, since my predecessor left to teach at the East coast. This meant that I was teaching from the very first beginning. Michael, my fifteen years old student, had already taken one semester of German and he seemed to have an amazing feeling for languages – he also took French classes. His motivation and his quick intelligence brought both of us a lot of joy, and I enjoyed working with him a lot. In these classes I could use a lot of the didactic theory of planning lessons (with lesson plans, as you have seen in one of the monthly reports), which was a support for me, especially in the first few classes, when everything seemed new and exciting. Time after time my tasks increased, and so I was moving into the study hall to supervise students with their homework and be there, if they needed me, with whatever problems they had; I took part in the weekly student-council meetings and made individual time-management plans with students who didn’t seem to be able to do their homework at home without having a lot of trouble. Looking back I would say that all my expectations have been absolutely fulfilled! I have definitely learned a lot and I have never expected that I would really be allowed to teach so much, which gave me insight into the day-to-day business of teachers: I had to prepare classes, think about homework, correct latter in the next class, repeat grammar and make sure the student(s) understood everything we did during class, and so much more! I would have wanted, though, to be able to take part in teacher-parents meetings, to see how they interact, which didn’t quite work out in that time. But when I was meeting the mum of one of my students, explaining her why her son was not as far as he was supposed to be, without giving her the idea
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Final Report – Internship in America that it was her fault, I had the impression that I did a good job. Besides that I was really content about my internship and the possibilities to learn as much as possible in so many different areas. Since I was supervising the study hall during my work time, there was always a student who wanted to talk to me or who needed my help, so it was never boring and the frequent interaction with so many students helped me a lot to improve my communication and vocabulary skills.
My colleagues and the School for Independent Learners (SIL) At SIL there are around 30 teachers, which means, it is a pretty small school. But since every teacher has his/her own cubicle to teach in, there is no real ‘teacher-room’, in which you could spend your free periods and get to know your colleagues. Especially the fact that I was having my workspace in the building next door, made it difficult to have contact with the other teachers. But there were always two or three teachers, who just came over in their free periods to meet and talk to me, which I enjoyed a lot. We also had a water fountain in the study hall, so a lot of teachers just stopped by, when they needed to refill their bottles, or get something to drink. With two of them I still have contact every now and then. The map on the right shows the ‘School for Independent Learners. The upper building includes the study hall (from left to right): test center (used when students do tests, or if they want to learn/prepare classes), meeting table (meetings with parents, students, teachers, directors, etc.), my workspace, tables with PCs (which students can use). The backdoor leads to the small backyard the gym. The lower building includes two rooms with small cubicles in which the lessons are held.
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Final Report – Internship in America One part of the lower building, with six cubicles on each side, the same interior can be found in the other room of this building
One of the cubicles from the inside: besides a table and two chairs there is not much space left. Some teachers decorate their room individual with posters, maps, shelves and/or plants.
Our house, living in California, and ESL Two weeks before we finally started our flight to the United States, our search for an apartment hadn’t shown any success yet (the San Francisco Bay Area is – as the heart of the Silicon Valley – one of the most expensive areas to live in), which is why we decided to put an ad on www.craigslist.com. We have been really lucky when we got an answer the same day: a woman was asking whether we would be interested in renting her house for the upcoming six months, naming a price which was pretty regular for an apartment (!) in the San Francisco Bay area. She was going to spend these six months in Texas with her husband and they were looking for someone to take care of the house. After some emails and having clarified all the details, we decided to trust them and accepted her offer. They picked us up at the airport, and we shared the house for the first month, which was – looking back – a good idea, because they helped us with all the small things, you just don’t know when you come to a country for the first time. After the first four months our landlady and her husband moved out and we had the six rooms for ourselves. The house had a big garden with a pool, which we could both use all the time; gardener, pool boy and cleaning people have been included. This house-offer was an amazing chance and we have been so lucky! In general I was really positively surprised: people everywhere in California have been so friendly, you would never stand somewhere longer than 30 seconds with a map in your hand, without being asked whether you need help, couples on the bus just start friendly conversations and everyone (especially our neighbors) offered help whenever we would need something. 4
Final Report – Internship in America Although Californian people usually eat healthy, there are still a lot of fast food chains and possibilities to go out for lunch or dinner. Since fresh produce is pretty expensive, it is mostly smarter to go out for dinner (you can get all you can eat buffets for $7 - $12) than buy all the groceries, which is really expensive in California. Since we really tried to ‘live the American life’, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends, turkey, stuffing, smashed potatoes, and a lot more side dishes, just like ‘real’ American families do, we even ate in front of the TV sometimes, with extra TV-tables, which our landlady had at home. I would say, we really tried to live the American way of life, and since we have been speaking English as soon as we have boarded the airplane to San Francisco, I definitely learned a ton of new vocabulary, and expressions, and the frequent use of the language, with my boyfriend as well as with native speakers, helped me gain self-consciousness and fluency in my speaking.
Contact with residents Besides the few outer school meetings with my colleagues, I got to know an American couple, the boy a colleague of my boyfriend, with whom we met regularly. They introduced us to typical American restaurants, the American lifestyle, and accompanied us to some of our weekend trips. Since me and my boyfriend both came to America to learn and improve our English skills, we have been talking English even without native speakers around, what helped us a lot to get used to communicating in this language on a daily basis.
Motivation for my future studies Since I had the chance to experience day-to-day work in this school, and especially because I was able to prepare, hold and teach my own lessons, I am now more than sure that my choice of studies is exactly the right thing for me. Although SIL just offers one-on-one lessons, which are different than usual classroom lessons with 30 students, I have learned a lot and I face the last semesters of my studies with a really high motivation.
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Final Report – Internship in America Looking back I enjoyed my time at SIL very much. My colleagues have been really nice, my work with the students in and out of class was fun and I think the students really liked me a lot and trusted me. On my last day the teachers, directors and students wish me farewell with a cake and a surprise party, it was great!
The cake and the balloon I got for my farewell party!
What future interns/students should know If you want to go to America, no matter where, what you should definitely do, is get a bank account at the ‘Deutsche Bank’ in Germany, before you leave. The ‘Deutsche Bank’ is a partner bank of the ‘Bank of America’, what means you can withdraw money with your German bankcard without having to pay fees for every transaction. If you plan on going to America and using a car over there, you should make sure, whether they need the international driver’s license. In California, for instance, this document is not accepted, so you have to get a special Californian driver’s license after three months. If you need a rental car, especially with drivers under 25 years), you should book on http://holidayautos.de/. Besides not having to pay a special insurance fee for drivers younger than 25, you also get the first gas tank filling included, and all that for around 50€ a day (effective march 2010)!
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Final Report – Internship in America More interns needed at SIL My employers at SIL are definitely looking for more interns, so if you are interested, visit the homepage http://www.sileducation.com/ to get more information. I enjoyed my internship as a German teacher very much, I learned a lot and I definitely had a lot of fun as well! I would recommend such a semester abroad absolutely, this is a lifetime experience!
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