The Interview
- Oct 10, 2017
- 2 min read
On October 8th, 2017 I had my first meeting with the person who would be my counterpart for my placement at Haapsalu Rahvaulikool: Mari Kald. I made this short video to demonstrate what was going through my head prior to my first meeting with her:
*It has just come to my attention that in this video, I spelled "Rahvaulikool" wrong. It should not have the "K" at the beginning.
Fortunately, the meeting with Mari went pretty smoothly. It had a few moments that were awkward to get through because she did not know why I was working with her, what program I was studying, what she was supposed to do with me and what my role would be in her class. She initially thought I was there to monitor her class and record official observations. Unfortunately, I did not have a lot of answers for her either as I was not sure what she wanted or needed or what role I could fulfill for her in her English classes.
However, personally, Mari and I got along really well even at the initial meeting. We had the same approach to teaching and I found out that she is also a master's student at Tallinn University, studying to become an educator focusing specifically on teaching English to adults. We managed to do a little bit of expectation setting where we agreed that I would come first to observe several of her classes. I told her I was not comfortable with or knowledgeable in teaching English so we agreed that I could work with her students to do a few cultural exchange courses. So far the plan we have laid out looks like this:
I will spend next week observing 3 of her classes (1 beginners level English, one pre-intermediate and one intermediate).
Following that, I will spend 1 week teaching a cultural exchange course to 3 of her pre-intermediate or intermediate classes.
I will do another week of teaching on a different topic to the same classes.
Throughout those weeks, I will have time to do interviews with her, maybe other instructors and possibly some of the students.
I will begin next week on Tuesday, October 10th to observe her Beginner English class. Then on October 11th, I will observe her Intermediate English class and finally, on October 12th, I will observe her Pre-Intermediate English class. The other dates have yet to be set.
Overall, my interview/intial meeting with Mari went well and I am a little nervous for the weeks to come, but hope that they will go smoothly and that I will not just be interrupting her classes with my own agenda just for the sake of saying I had a "placement." Looking forward to the weeks to come!
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