Here I am, sitting in a hotel in London the day before I embark on my Learning from Life placement in Slovenia! This will be the first time I have been abroad with just friends which is something that really excites me but brings on nerves at the same time. I’m going to discuss a few thoughts that I have before I set off on Friday.
The opportunity was something that I just could not pass up! The chance to experience a totally different culture, country and ultimately way of teaching. I feel that the opportunity will not only help me as a teaching professional but also help me as a person. This opportunity will allow me to gain independence in my life, having lived at home during my time at university this is something I have no been able to fully experience.
The whole point of this placement is that we learn through our life experiences, at first a lot of reactions to this module are, “why are we not just teaching? etc, I feel that giving us a broad look at different placement will ultimately aid us when we are teachers ourselves. There is a whole lot more to life than what we do in the classroom, obviously this is extremely important but having other experiences whether it be in a foreign country or in a completely different setting will benefit everyone massively in the long run.
I am also extremely excited and slightly nervous to meet the class I am going to be working with on Monday. I believe the class I am going to be working with are going to be of around P1 age children. It will be extremely interesting to see how teaching differs in Slovenia to that of Scotland.
Sitting here today it has finally hit that I am actually doing this, I am going away abroad for my placement. If it wasn’t for the encouragement from my friends to go through with this I really don’t think I would have. I am honestly so happy that I did decide to do it as I know how much I am going to learn during this experience.
Tomorrow is going to be such an exciting day, finally arriving in the city of Ljubljana, which I have been told is absolutely outstanding. I am also looking forward to seeing where we are going to be staying and meeting our new housemates from the University of Minnesota.
