LEARNER'S LOG

 

 

 

 

Reflection of First Semester Experience

Miamo Lydie

Department of Pedagogy, University of Warsaw

M3 - Professional and Academic Discourse 2300-GPTE-M3-PAD: First-Year Writing

Professor Małgorzata Matysik

15th February 2022

 

 

 

Reflection of First Semester Experience

I am requested to write a reflection on my whole experience during my journey so far as a master’s student for the Graduate Program in Teaching English to Young Learners. While many of my classmates might not really know where to start, my own concern is where to end, because there is so much to write that I need to be diligent not to turn what is intended to be a simple reflection into a voluminous coursebook. Some classmates called me “teacher”, each time I told them about the number of pages I have written for most of our writing assignments. But I will try as much as possible to give the essential, a sort of final product, and preserve and spare the reader of some details that may appear irrelevant, but which are the combination of ingredients that have resulted in such an unforgettable experience, my future warm memories from this academic journey.

It all began when I traveled from my home country Cameroon to Rwanda, to meet my brother who has settled there. He is an IT expert and has traveled to many countries in Africa and Europe, and he suggested that I should join him for us to work together on my study project. I had to choose between a university in Canada and Poland. On one hand, there was Canada, they speak English and French, and I have two other brothers there. For Poland, it was not a common name we hear back in Cameroon, as a study destination abroad. Listening to the Polish language on YouTube videos, resembled German that I studied as a course requirement in secondary school, besides French which is my native language. It was such a difficult language, and the next year I switched to English, which is one of our national languages, with French. There I was, having to choose again. I felt the same, and I wondered: what if the language were still difficult to learn and speak? What if I were the only black in my class or the whole university? So many “what if” began to crowd my mind, but they didn’t discourage me. I am the bold type, the type of person who sees opportunities behind the risks, and not the risks behind opportunities, and in this situation, I wanted to depict the opportunities.

Then I asked my brother, why Poland? He said it was the only country in Europe with a low cost of living, and he has been there before for a short while for professional reasons. He realized many people speak English and French too, and I am perfectly bilingual. It would be a great opportunity for me after my studies to easily find schools to work with. He was right, Canada, being a bilingual country like Cameroon, must be already saturated in terms of job opportunities. I was further encouraged to dig deeper on the side of Poland, searching for a very convenient field that would match my expectation as a teacher, and a language teacher specifically. My keywords were among others, “teaching English language universities in Poland”, “cheapest universities in Poland”, “Masters English programs in Poland”; “top-ranking universities in Poland”. Then I fell on the University of Warsaw, 1st best University in Poland, and 5th in the world ranking. I checked English programs, there were about 30, then I checked in the field of education. What a surprise to discover that not only was there a Master’s program in English, this English was specifically designed for teaching young learners! I didn’t search further or maybe just to check the application requirements. No need for a high GPA like was the case with most other universities, admission was based on the result of the online interview which should be at least a 50% score; I had 100%. We even had materials to prepare for the interview, and the usual requirements related to certificates. All this was quite affordable, and of course, we checked the general cost of the tuition fee, to have an estimate of what to prepare. It was around $4050 USD, whereas in Canada they could exceed $15000 USD! But we had a relieving shock when after paying the initial due for registration, just PLN 100, we discovered that this course was FREE! Even so, my brother said we should not rejoice so fast, maybe there was information that we missed, and he would completely be sure when they effectively admitted me. This was later confirmed, and it was amazing that there were more programs that the University of Warsaw was providing free study opportunities for international students. So, we went ahead to create the IRK, the online admission platform, which was a student account where we had all the information concerning this program and a channel of communication with the university. I pinned it to my taskbar for it to be constantly before me because from that moment, anything I was thinking about was meeting up with the admission requirements before the deadlines and preparing for the interview.

This was a critical turn in my life, with new objectives, new challenges, new attitude. I had to discipline myself such as doing more research about the University of Warsaw, on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I found out that the University of Warsaw has produced 6 Nobel prizes among whom women like Marie Currie in science, and Olga Tokarczuk in Literature just recently in 2019. I followed and subscribed to all the university’s pages, commented on posts, congratulated graduates’ achievements, and encouraged the advancement of research in artificial intelligence and archeology for instance, by determined well-equipped scientists in their renowned and sophisticated lab, and a very rich library full of a huge number of ancient and contemporary books of knowledge. I am yet to visit her roof garden which is the product of high talent, creativity, and great vision. I also registered for online webinars in English organized by Welcome Point of the University of Warsaw. In fact, I was already feeling like part of the institution, although I was not even sure of being admitted. Just acting by faith for things to happen.

I must admit I became somehow selfish in my quest for God because my prayer life was strengthened, boosted, and motivated by the success of this project, not by the need to know God more. So, I told God to imagine all those lives that would be transformed, should this project succeed, or that would remain miserable, should it fail. I remember how at times I would lie down on my bed and laugh at the whole situation! But I was growing, mentally, spiritually, and even physically because, in the course of my preparation, I read somewhere the importance of sports in memory retention. Therefore, I started doing more physical exercises, especially running. That was even the reason why I researched the sports activities of the University of Warsaw and registered for the marathon, but by then I was just in the discovery mood, and I don’t know what became of it.

I didn’t end there. I downloaded many manuals and PDF books connected to my field, to have an idea of what to expect. For example, the Guideline for International students, the Curriculum graduate program, the faculty handbook, course description, and many others from the university’s site. Many were in Polish, and I had to resort to online translation tools and save the English version. There were books like Bloom’s Taxonomy- the Amazing World of Teaching, stating what I understood could be the various steps in teaching, which, to easily remember, I called ESAACK (from the top downward, Evaluation, Synthesis, Analysis, Application, Comprehension, and Knowledge). By then I could only have a vague picture of the whole thing, but as our courses later unfolded, I could identify certain stages in the teaching. For example, the Concept Checking Questions (CCQ) have something to do with Evaluation, Comprehension, and Knowledge process. Also, the Preparation-Presentation-Practice (PPP) teaching process surely touches on Evaluation, Synthesis, and Application.

One book that particularly marked me was “ The Heart of a Teacher” by Parker J, Palmer, who described exactly how I perceived education, and which was how I felt when I was teaching when he talked of teaching as a situation when “we can speak to the teacher within our students only when we are on speaking terms with the teacher within ourselves”, and added, “If teaching cannot be reduced to technique, I no longer need to suffer the pain of having my peculiar gift as a teacher crammed into the Procrustean bed of someone else’s method and the standards prescribed by it” Parker (1997).

Back in my country, I was in charge of teaching French as a Second Language to the whole school from nursery to primary. Reading the course outline, it was as if these pupils knew the language already. It included vocabulary some basic skills and was becoming more complex with grammar structures as the level increased. But these were all children who had never been in touch with French before, even the last grade, class 6, of the primary section! I had to start from scratch. From a, b, c and bonjour. Besides, the coursebook was too high for their understanding. So I pushed the course curriculum aside and set my own goals. Fortunately or unfortunately, my Director didn’t know anything about French and left everything in my control. He was only ticking my lesson plans without reading, just for formalities. Today, I am proud to have impacted the lives of those kids who kept asking for “Madame Lydie” or “Bonjour Madame” as they would call me, and complained that their new teachers no longer taught them “A comme ananas”. Till today, some parents regret my departure because their kids impressed them with French, which set a good base for them in secondary school. Whenever I requested a reference letter from my Director, it was always an opportunity for him to praise my work in his school. This is a satisfaction that no amount of salary can challenge. I was free to let the teacher within speak, develop my own techniques, set my own goals based on the needs, the means, and also the materials at hand, and achieve lasting results.

This said, when our Graduate lessons effectively began online, the first thing I checked was the students who were there, and to be more precise, how many Africans, I mean black Africans. There were four! I felt somehow relieved, I couldn’t really explain why. Maybe it has something to do with the old history of racism between blacks and whites. It was not even important because close ties were immediately created since everyone was so welcoming, open-minded, from the teachers to the students. There was even a course called Workshop- Developing Equality Attitudes Among UW’s Students, which I later dropped when I saw that it was not a compulsory course. I would love to learn more on that, but I also needed to focus and perform well in my main courses.

I further discovered a completely new learning and teaching setting. I mean, as a Master’s program, I expected it to be overwhelming, full of notes copying, academic exigencies, overloaded schedule, and inaccessible teachers who would be so busy that they would hardly find time for our private needs, and we would be left alone to manage the situation as we could. But no! from the processing of my onboarding documents to the teaching proper, the staff has been so amazing! I will never forget Ms. Zaremba’s patience and kindness in seeing me through the admission process. Also, the professionalism of my teachers is worth talking about. If I take Ms. Małgorzata in charge of three courses alone, including Developing Teaching Skills, Pedagogical Grammar, and Professional and Academic Discourse, for instance, it is impressive! I also think she deserves to handle this Professional and Academic Discourse. Her feedback can be as long as a conference speech. She takes her time to identify any and every loophole in our works and can do it over and over again if necessary, just to ensure that we understand and succeed. Moreover, the system of recording lectures has been very helpful for me. In the beginning, seeing that the notes were many, and reading on my laptop throughout would destroy my sight – my brother offered me some lenses to this effect- I decided to print them. But I found myself with a pile of printed materials to read and it soon became boring for me. Besides reading lengthy books and notes on hard and soft copies, I could also alternate study modes just by listening. As such, while mopping the floor or doing the dishes, I usually had my earpiece, listening to lessons, or YouTube videos related to specific chapters or topics. I just kept the habit because it is a very efficient strategy to study, especially when I was writing my critical book review of “I am Malala, The Girl Who Was Shot by the Taliban”. I listened to the audio version, more than 25 chapters on YouTube, and wrote 5pages, including cover page and references.

However, all was not that easy. Some courses and topics needed more focus and took more time to understand. For instance, for a course like Pedagogical Grammar, I needed to seat down, watch, read, search more examples online, jut down notes, compare and analyze the various trends of tenses, modes, contexts, and so on. In a sentence like “Yewa will lend you his bicycle as soon as he finishes/has finished” for example, I realized that we could talk about the future using the past or the present tense without changing meaning or context. I also discovered the terms “finite” and “non-finite” clauses like in “Knowing my dad’s taste, it will be easy to choose a gift for him” and “Exposed to harsh weather, Natalia felt sick when we were preparing to travel.” But the difference with the gerund is still confusing to me. I need to dig more into it and do more comparisons. Pedagogical Grammar helped me to put names to language structures that we commonly used in conversations, surely because we copied from others. The truth is that as I grew up, and even during my experience as a teacher, these topics were mostly avoided by teachers, and only the common tenses are usually touched, the basics of past, present, and future tenses, which is something that should change, in my opinion. If the students get familiar early enough, at least at the secondary school level, it would be easier to make a clear distinction between all the complex grammar, especially conjugation structures.

As far as Professional and Academic Discourse is concerned, it is about writing, and I love writing. I have published 3 articles in a local newspaper in my home town. Once I have the theme and the objective, and if I don’t have any word limit, I just let my imagination flow, and I find myself writing pages. One of my challenges was to bring down my language level. On two occasions, my teacher commented on the “sophisticated” language I used, which would be good if I wanted to impress a certain category of audience, but if it were to transmit knowledge of information, it would be difficult. Actually, I thought that as it was a Master's course, meaning that a higher level, advanced English was required. I got it all wrong! So, now each time I type, it has become a reflex for me to right-click on a seemingly high-level word to have other synonyms options to fit a down-to-earth communication standard. It takes me more time, and I hope I am on the right track because what I may see as a low level may still not fit the requirement. Another challenge in this course was writing references and meeting APA standards. I tend to forget or get confused on how to reference a book, video, or web page, but I need to practice more and with time I will eventually become familiar with it.

For Second Language Acquisition, in the beginning, the lessons seemed long because the teacher spoke almost all the time, and unlike our other courses, the group works were very little. But the good thing about it was that he systematically recorded all the lessons. It was so important because I had difficulty registering for some of my courses in the USOS, and I missed 2 weeks of lectures before the administration could sort things out for me. So, the records were highly welcomed. I could catch up with the lessons and “rewind” and listen if I did not understand. Moreover, some aspects of this course like phonetics that will be tackled next semester according to what our teacher said, will be basically similar to what we will also see in Pedagogical Grammar in the second semester. He was careful not to intrude into the initiation process, as he said “not to spoil the fun”.

On their part, I think that the four courses left can be paired up according to their close interconnection. The first pair includes Teaching English to Young Learners and Student Practice Clinic which are related in that while the former gives the theory of anything concerning the classroom- teacher, student, environment-, the latter is about the effective application in the classroom, fieldwork. To this effect, I was placed in the International Trilingual School of Warsaw, and I started on the 10th of January. I have covered 14 hours so far, out of the 20 hours requested this semester. I could have covered all the hours if I had my visa earlier. The remaining 6 hours will be carried over and added to the 40 hours I am supposed to complete for the second semester. This reminds me of how lucky I am, because many of my classmates are still struggling for their visas, and so will have a total of 60 hours to cover in the second semester of this first year. Another requirement for this course is the creation of our blog to post our reflections on some lessons, webinars, and workshops. It really forces everyone to go digital, and I like it.

The other pair is made up of Young Learners in The Classroom and Research Methods in Education. The former was a preparation and a sample of our final research Thesis. It consisted of presenting a research paper with all the stages involved. We had to decide as a group on a topic to work on, do research, and present the final paper. Our Topic was Young Learners’ Autonomy Implementation in Free Democratic Schools. Although we have a passing grade, we still have a lot to improve on. But it was a good exercise. We had a glimpse of the workload ahead, for our graduation thesis. About the Latter course, Research Methods in Education, it was the beginning of the whole process that will end in the second or last year of this Graduate program. Our teacher invited some colleagues to teach specific fields in research, like how to conduct an interview and the various types of research methods that can fit our research topic. One thing I need to seriously focus on concerning this course is the SPSS training videos we received during one of such webinars because it is very technical, and I will have to analyze the statistics of my research myself. The teacher closely follows our work so that we are up to date with the requirement by the end of the second year.

During my Journey to get my visa in Tanzania, I met a Ph.D. student who helped me answer the research guidelines that the teacher gave us. I am happy to be able to count on his experience. In the hotel where I was lodging, I also met a British former NATO officer with whom I discussed my thesis while taking our breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. He told me he had once been invited to give a presentation in a university concerning the nature of his work. It was interesting for me because I had a potential person who would fill out my questionnaire. I have a clear idea of what I want to research, concerning parents’ volunteering in education, although the more I think of it, the more twists it can have, and the more daring it becomes. But I can say I am set on my objectives concerning my Thesis.

Among our courses there is also one placed under among other workshops, talking about unity, social acceptance among people of different cultures, which I found interesting. We were supposed to do it for one semester only, and although it is now optional for those who have already taken the course, I still registered for it this second semester, just like many other classmates who share my feelings about it. It was just like the course on Equality that I dropped.

The final course, but not the least, which is just a university requirement, the Occupational Health Safety, concerning safety measures in case of an emergency within the university premises. I found it particularly important because, with all the huge campuses and buildings with so many infrastructures and modern equipment, one needs to know safety measures to save lives. What I don’t know is if there are/were some practical training attached to it, but which have been suspended because of the Covid-19 security measures, because although I have passed the online test, I have forgotten most of the techniques explained, and I am not sure if I understood the others well. No matter the situation, it was the first time I heard about it. During my Bachelor's program In my country, I didn’t have it, and I don’t think it has been added to the program.

To conclude, my First Semester was a great experience at the University of Warsaw. The teachers were simple and open-minded people, accessible, and always available to help. The courses were interconnected in such a way that one strengthened the other, and one was also a sort of revision for the other. We could therefore have a variety of teaching approaches from different teachers on the same topic. I am looking forward to learning as much as I can because my dream is to open my own school in order to implement all these innovative ideas, which I am sure will not be accepted in the educational context of the country in which I studied. It will be difficult to try radical teaching approaches and create a different learning environment when you are under a boss and a crushing academic system. For sure, the ideology of Learner’s autonomy like the ones in Mary Montessori, Free Democratic schools, and Summerhill Schools will raise a lot of eyebrows in some conservative communities! But I have a strong conviction that the outcome is worth the pain and the trial.

 

 

References

-Parker J. Palmer, (1997). The Courage to Teach: The Courage to Teach.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Pp 12, 32

-PB Impact, (2020, Sept 7) I AM MALALA - Prologue (read audio-book). I AM MALALA - Prologue (read audio-book) - YouTube

- The Amazing World of Teaching. Bloom´s Taxonomy - The Amazing World of Teaching