Most of you have already finished your teaching practice or are just at the end of it. It would be very interesting to read your impressions: what you had expected and feared, what you found out about teaching, about Polish schools, and... about yourselves. Has the experience changed your attitude to YOUR becoming a teacher? Which school level suits you best? Where would you feel least comfortable?
To encourage you, I'll write a few words about my own teaching practice from many years ago. The very fact that I remember anything of it speaks for itself.
- I took my TP in LO II - where else?? The teacher who supervised me was the one who taught me there as well. I came there just to do my duty - I had never thought of myself as a teacher. My mentor, though, took things very seriously: at the observation stage he explained why he did sth, how he approached problems that appeared etc. (We did not have anyone to visit our lessons from IFA.)
Then the day came when I was to stand in front of the class of matura candidates and teach them. Gosh, how nervous I was! They were pretty advanced, (an intensive program) and I thought they could ask me awkward questions or play tricks. But they were really friendly and everything went more or less OK - not that my supervisor did not tell me what to change or improve. I still remember a lot of his advice and follow it on day-to-day basis.
After a few weeks my teaching practice was over and my teacher said I HAD TO come to teach in our school after I graduated! Things turned out a bit different, but I was very proud! It was then that I started thinking of teaching as my future job. Actually, I realized that I liked it. And so... here I am.
