Back to Profiles
NANCY OJEDA MATA
Internship Field: Education
Major: Sociology
Host: Werbellinsee-Grundschule. 3. G. Berlin-Schöneberg
Location: Berlin
Duration: September – December 2006
Description: "Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday afternoons I taught English to the 5-9 yr. old pupils. I was assigned to 3 different classes each day. I would work with 6 to 9 students at a time for 30 minutes and then a new group of students for another 30 minutes.
Mondays, Fridays and Thursday mornings I would assist the English teachers in their classrooms. These students were in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade. Most of the time I would also work with groups of students outside the class helping them with their English work or practicing speaking and listening skills.
For two weeks I also had the opportunity of working with 30 students in the “Free time Area.” While the other students were on vacation, these 30 students came to school to participate in different activities and fieldtrips.
Comments: "All the projects and responsibilities were worthwhile. What I liked the most was having a good mix of teaching and observing other English teachers. I was able to learn from the other teachers as well as from my own mistakes."
The responsibilities and challenges varied from day to day and class to class. As I got to know the students more and more it became easier to teach them. One of my goals was to always try to motivate the students who did not want to participate in the lesson. I had a few students who only needed a little more attention and encouragement to participate in the lesson. My greatest challenge was always trying to make the English lessons fun in order to keep all the students engaged and motivated to learn. Since the students were always excited about coming to my English lessons I think I was able to overcome that challenge."
German language skills: "I taught the students English and they taught me German. I also practiced my German language skills with some of the classroom assistants when we had time. I can understand so much more German than when I first arrived to Berlin. However, there is always room for improvement!"
For further information, please write to nancyom@stanford.edu