In order to reflect on the general experience of my internship in Practicum IV. I will explain first briefly the initial expectations I had for it. Thus, I will be able to compare it with the final outcomes and see if I achieve it or not

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As you know I was assigned in the 4th grade of primary education, I had never been before in this cycle in my previous internships, so I saw it as a great chance to see the main differences among the three cycles, as I already have been in the others in my previous experiences in primary schools. From the beginning, I saw this internship as an opportunityto gain and master the skills required for becoming a professional teacher. However, I must mention, that I believe in lifelong learning, that is why I think that to become a professional teacher, you must keep training, and that every day is a new learning that helps you to improve.

Personally, I believe that the value of the internship is not only that it provides you a level of information about the methodology of the school, also that you receive a true picture of the day to day real life in a school. What means that besides the strong emphasis on the planning and development of the unit plan, that is one of my main goals in the internship, I also expected to develop a critical point of view that helps me to know what aspect I want to do as a teacher and the others that I should avoid. Even though, I have already done three internships more and I have experience working with kids, I consider that observation of teachers in their professional roles is central towards developing a successful internship. That is the reason why one of my expectations was to observe the teacher and try to be engaged with her and the way of teaching she uses. Because having a good relation with your mentor will enable you to become more a part of the class and maybe even teach some tasks apart from the ones of the project I had developed. You must not forget that when doing this internship, I was in my last year of the degree, so my goal was to teach and use the maximum learning opportunities I could have.

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Once my experience is over, I can reflect about all those expectations I had in mind and compare it with the reality after the internship. The first aspect I want to talk about with for me is crucial is the mentor. As I said before, I consider that having a cordial relation with your mentor is a key aspect, as it will make that you become part of the class where you are doing the internship. In my case, I do not have any complain about Marta. In fact, I can say that I appreciate her dedication and patience with me, as I have learned a lot from this experience. And what is more important for me, she made me feel involved not only in the class also in the school. From the first day, she said to the kids that I was like a teacher, so they had very clear what was my role. Besides the implementation of the teaching unit, my mentor also gave me the chance to carry out several classes. Now that we are analyzing the different relations I experience, I have to say that with regards to the students I do not have any complain. I consider myself a committed teacher, so after eight weeks getting along with the kids, I felt a bit melancholic when the experience was over. However, as I am doing my internship for Practicum V in the same school, they will see me in the English lessons. In fact, in the playtime or when they are in the corridors they came to me and tell me that they miss me a lot, even though it has been less than one week and they see me each day. Maybe you will seem that this is not important, but for me it is, because it means that they like the “teacher” Helena.

Regarding the teaching unit that I implemented, I was scared at the beginning as I had many challenges when applying it. Such as the fact that the students are not used to work with groups, so most of the times they argue and fight when doing activities in which they are grouped in this way. However, I consider that I achieve the goals I stated as the main ones of the project. Both, me and my mentor, could saw that session by session they were using the strategies I provided them and getting better when working with peers. Another indicator of success for me, was the fact that the students were motivated towards the activity. I consider that the class sometimes has a lack of motivation, so at the beginning I was not sure if the topic of “agriculture” will engage them. But I changed my mind when I realize that is not only the topic what has to make them feel engaged, also the methodology used, even as others. Let me explain and anecdote, that shows their level of engagement. When in the first session I explained the whole project, I introduced them the final product, showing them a model made by me of how a Lapbook looks like. For them the concept of Lapbook was a new one, but I could appreciate that they seem to like the idea. The day after my intervention one of the students came to me and showed me a “Lovebook” he did at his house the afternoon after I explained the concept. My mentor, gave us the chance to show it to the class and the kid explained how did he made it, since I had not explained yet the techniques, he showed us where did he look for videos and finally explained that he name it Lovebook because it was the place where he will write the secrets of love. Honestly, I was amazed, I didn’t expect that situation to occur and all the kids were looking at him fascinated for his idea. Since that moment most of the kids did Lapbooks and bring it to class to show them to the classmates. In fact, the last day of the Practicum IV, the teacher and the students gave me a collection of texts and drawings that the students have prepared for me. My surprise came when I saw that some of the kids did a small Lapbook talking about me. If you do not mind, I would like to show you some, because I am really thankful to all of them, and I consider that if they are able and they want to do a Lapbook is because they enjoyed my intervention.