Internship

This week was a big one! Not only did classes start, but I finally started my internship! I am placed in a Secondary School on the outskirts of London, which educates students from Year 7 to Year 13 (basically equivalent to 6th Grade to 12th Grade).

The education system here is overall pretty much the same. The UK teaches the same subjects, kids are in school for similar hours, and the students overall are not so different from those in the US. However, there are plenty of little differences, from the structure of the day, to the length of lunch (40 minutes!), to the hole punches (only punch two holes in the middle rather than 3) and the size of the paper (A4 paper is about 1/2 inch taller, and slightly narrower than standard letter sized-paper used in the US).

It looks like my role at the school is essentially going to be that of a Science department assistant, helping classes which can benefit from multiple adults in the room, and teaching the occasional lesson, although I am also hoping to be able to focus on studying the curriculum for comparison to the CT curriculum. Here, the educational standards are set nationally, rather than on a state-by-state basis.

Classes have also been very interesting, as both of my professors are extremely smart, witty, and thought provoking in their lessons, the first of which have gotten me thinking for their own reasons. While we knew what to expect from David, Christine came to us as an unknown and quickly blew me away. We had an extremely intense and honest discussion about the nature of US society vs. UK society which I thought was absolutely brilliant, and I can't wait for more of the same. I think that all term I won't have any problem going to either class (although the 6-9 timeframe isn't ideal).

Overall, I think that this first week of getting into our work has been an exciting one and it bodes well for the rest of term. Up until now, I have been focused on the personal aspects of my trip as far as seeing the sights, eating the food, etc, but after this week, I am excited to get to work on getting the most out of the educational aspects of my journey as well!