Alana Augello
Pre-Trip
Hi, my name is Alana Augello. I am a Junior in Elementary Education Major from Bethlehem PA. I love to travel and visit new places. When I heard that Dr. Jayne Leh was offering a course International Field Experience and taking a trip to Germany I fell in love and knew I wanted to go.
I enrolled in this course to really view education from multiple perspectives and to be able to compare and contrast what I knew of a school system to that of another country. So far, I have nothing but positive things to say regarding this course.
I have learned so much of the history of Germany in such a little time. Aside from that, I have learned valuable tips for traveling and I am excited to blog my trip and present all of findings upon returning. Future students should not anticipate difficulty. This course is enjoyable and full of information. The students will take from this course what they put in. Each of us come extremely motivated to class each week and leave with even more knowledge then we arrived. It was a joy to go to class and I am sad our class time is over but I am super excited for the trip!
Post-Trip
I see myself as a future educator for younger children. My role is to educate and teach elementary students grade K-6 and make them able to move through the school system successfully. I will act as a support system for the students and create interactive hands on lessons for them to easily master the content. I could also see my role as continuing my ESL certification and being able to go to another country and teach English to students. Also, after being in a different country, I now know what it feels like when you are in a room where they do not speak your language. This very well may happen to me as a teacher having students who may be bi-lingual and I need to stress the importance of making sure they feel included and are understanding what is going on to make sure they are academically successful just as the other student in the class.
I would do this trip again in a heartbeat. There was nothing I could have wished for other then to stay longer. I would wish for possibly a different location just because I am trying to travel and see different countries but because of the partnership and connections made in Germany I understand the challenges of up and picking another destination without knowing people around.