RCOE International Student Teaching Spring 08

My name is Lindsay Richard and I am an Elementary Education major. I am planning on doing my international student teaching in Dublin, Ireland. I chose to be a teacher because I love children and I want to make a difference in their lives. I want to be a support system for my students in my classroom.

In my teaching program so far I have enjoyed the opportunities that I have received by having internships in the schools. I think the more experience you have with children the better you will understand how they learn and you will be able to teach in a way that they learn best.

The reason that I applied for international student teaching is because I want to experience other cultures and see how children learn in other cultures. I want to have the experience of going to live in another culture that is not my own. Working in North Carolina, especially in agricultural environments, there is a large immigrant population. I could and probably will have students in my class that will have come from another country and it will be a culture shock and hard for them. I think that if I have had a similar experience it will help me be a better support system for those students. I think this will be an experience of a lifetime.

I have not traveled out of the United States before. I have only been on an airplane once in my life and that was to New York City. I have only traveled on the east coast of United States; therefore, I am very excited about this trip!

I am very curious to learn about the educational system in Ireland, how it compares to ours and the daily schedule for an elementary aged child. I enter this teaching experience are to gain a greater insight when teaching students of multicultural situations and to increase my awareness of sensitivities that may exist of which I am completely unaware. I want to learn new and different teaching strategies that I may use when returning to North Carolina. I want to learn about Europe as a whole and get a lot of cultural experience there. I am very exited about this trip and can not wait to start planning.