Immersion Schools - Reflection #2

 After many lectures, small class discussions, and countless hours of homework, I have finally made it to my senior year at Michigan State University. As a senior studying elementary education we are required to take a class called TE 401, which is a four hundred level teaching course. As a part of this course we are placed in a classroom to do 40 hours of fieldwork throughout the semester. Last week I found out I was placed at Post Oak Elementary School. Upon receiving the email I was obviously overwhelmed with excitement and immediately googled the school so I could learn more about it and possibly try to find my teachers home page. As soon as I googled "Post Oak" the words "Chinese Immersion School" popped up. I don't know too much about  Chinese Immersion schools because my only experience visiting an immersion school was when I visited China two summers ago. We visited a school called 3e International, which was an English Immersion school in Beijing that Michigan State administrators actually helped start. After visiting 3e International I thought seriously about possibly teaching there in the future, I loved the idea of an immersion school and wanted to be apart of student's bilingual education. However I felt that it was somewhat unrealistic to think my parents wouldn't mind me living across the world for an extended period of time and that I would be able to live in China not knowing the language. I had never thought of that fact that I could teach in an immersion school right here in the United States!

Yesterday I attended my first day at Post Oak Elementary. I am placed in a kindergarten classroom and will be going every Monday and Friday. My first day was a success! I stood in front of the classroom and introduced myself and had 25 little faces looking back at my yelling "Hi, how are you?" in Mandarin. The students I am working with spend their first half of the day in the classroom where I will be working, which is their English taught classroom. In the second half of the day the students move to their other teacher, which is their Mandarin taught classroom. Because my students are so young they are not yet fluent in Mandarin, but by the third grade students are all expected to be fluent. I am so excited for this experience and cant wait to watch these kindergartners not only grow as learners but also grow as fluent Mandarin speakers. I think this experience will solidify my wanting to teach in an immersion school in the future. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from my mentor teacher and my students!