The end of the summer vacation brought a special treat to the Musashi Urawa Japanese Language Institute, as we had a student teacher with us from August 23rd to August 27th. We had particularly looked forward to this visit, as the student was Ms. Kim Hyo Eun, a fourth year student in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the Bunka Women's University and a past graduate of our school.
Over the five days she was here, Ms. Kim made the most of her practicum by sitting in on numerous lessons, researching the teaching materials we use, answering students' questions, and asking her own questions of our teachers. Finally, on her last day here, she got the chance to try conducting a class on her own. She was rather nervous beforehand and worked hard on the lesson plan. However, she was calm during the actual class when introducing new kanji characters, and the results of the subsequent exercises proved that the lesson had been a success.
When the practicum was over, Ms. Kim commented that the visit had reminded her of her time here as a student five years ago. Now that she had experienced being both a student and a teacher, she had to admit that she felt it was more difficult for the teachers. That being said, it had been a great experience despite the hard work.
After a week of having her around the school with us, even the students looked disappointed when she had to leave. But we are all looking forward to the day when Ms. Kim becomes a full-fledged teacher ready for her own classroom.