Reflection from visit in "Smart School"

 

     On Friday our whole group were at Smart School in Zakręt to observe some lessons. For me, it was the first time in bilingual school and it was a fantastic experience.  I am really happy that I will have my practice in that school. 

     The first lesson that we saw was in class 0. Children learned vocabulary about the weather. What really surprised me was that there were two teachers, one who spoke in Polish to kids and another one who spoke only in English. It was good for kids because they could at first become acquainted with this subject in their native language and after that, they could learn it in English so they understood more. Children sat on the carpet and they learned vocabulary, the teacher was using flashcards and children were repeating words several times in different ways, for example by singing or shouting. It was fun for them and thanks to this method they revised vocabulary and pronunciation. I think that the best moment in a lesson for children was when the teacher made an experiment. She made a tornado and a cloud in a jar. Children were very engaged in that exercises. They were so excited when they could help the teacher by shaking a jar and were happy when they saw a tornado. When it comes to that lesson it is good to mention how teacher controlled discipline in the classroom. When they were sitting in a circle and one boy was behaving badly, the teacher told him to stand up to calm down and it really worked. I think that it is good to have some kind of punishment for kids that they know from the very beginning and also that teacher knows that is the best for this particular group.
     The second lesson that I observed was ‘phonics’ in class 5. I was surprised when I saw that children learn a subject like that in primary school because the first time that I started to learn about this subject was at my university. At that lesson, children learned about differences between sounds ‘ch’ and ‘sh’. They watched a video about those sounds in particular words. Then they needed to write them in notebooks with a division for sounds, then they were translating them into the Polish language. That lesson wasn’t exciting for me. Children were participating in a lesson but they were just sitting in one place. I think that it could be boring for some of them. Here teacher controlled discipline by counting. When children were talking she started counting and before she said, five everyone was looking at here.
     A lesson about culture in class 6 was the third lesson that I saw and it was about kinds of schools in the UK. Children were very active and there was a lot of talking about schools. They were sitting on the carpet in a circle and their shared their knowledge about this topic. A teacher used flashcard with names of schools, for example, college, university and so on. After that children listened to the stories about people and at the end of the lesson they watched a video about types of schools in the UK. I was surprised how much they understood as they are in grade 6 but they speak in English without problems. When I was at their age I had problems with speaking in English because I was afraid of being judged. I assume that they do not have a problem like that because it is normal for them to speak only in English at lessons. It is the biggest advantage of bilingual schools.
     The last lesson was in class 3, and it was a CLIL lesson about Greek mythology. I didn’t like this lesson. In my opinion children at this age can’t sit in one place for the whole lesson and here they needed to do it. They have fidgeted all the time on chairs. A teacher also played them a record about women that was talking about her life in Greece. She was talking with a Greek accent and at the beginning, children said that they do not understand her and that she does not know how to speak English. The teacher explained to them that they needed to open their minds because people have different accents when they are talking in English. After that, they started to listen to this carefully. In my opinion, this record was too long for kids in 3 grade. They have a short attention span so for them, it is not easy to focus for 15 minutes at one recording. If I were that teacher I would change this record into a video with pictures. It would be more interesting for kids it that age.
     To sum up, I think that bilingual schools are great for kids. Nowadays, languages are very important in our lives. When we want to find a well-paid job we need to know at least one language and kids are like sponges, they absorb knowledge so easily that it is good to give them an opportunity to learn languages when they are young.