2 Unexpected Outcomes of my TESOL Practicum

I was expecting to learn a lot and network during my TESOL practicum, but there were 2 outcomes that caught me by surprise.

Tears

I wasn't expecting to cry. I didn't realize how attached I would become to the job.

My dream job is to be a second language professor at a university. I have many years of education ahead of me before I get there, but I had the chance to do my practicum at a university, alongside a professor I respected, in a class full of international students. I didn't realize it until the end, but I was in my dream setting.

When it came time to do my final lesson, the night before I had so much trouble sleeping. I was up later than I wanted to be, knowing full well I had a class to teach the next morning, and this was the class my grade was riding on. At first, I wasn't sure why I couldn't sleep, but eventually I realized it was because I was really going to miss this.

I was always so happy being in the classroom with my students, helping them learn and grow as academics and as people. They motivated me in a way that online teaching or freelance teaching just cannot offer. I loved spending countless hours building lesson plans, practicing them, delivering them, and improving them. I love building connections with the other teachers in the department. I loved every aspect of my job and just did not want it to end.

But it had to end eventually. After just 4 weeks, my time in my practicum was complete. It was bittersweet. I was happy to have passed, making me a certified TESOL teacher, but also sad that I couldn't just stay on for the rest of the term.

I learned something really important from this experience though. The fact that I cried only further solidified to me that this is definitely where I want to be, this is the career path for me.

German?

Since finishing my degree and starting my TESOL Practicum, I renewed my love for German.

I've always loved my second language, but after having studied it intensely in my Bachelor's degree, I lost some of the fun in it. I was writing essay after essay, assignment after assignment, presenting project after project in German, on topics I wasn't always passionate about, for the last 6 years.

During my degree, I would spend a lot of my free time in my native language, English, and third language, Korean, as a way to decompress from German. However, since I had completed my degree and was doing all my practicum work in English, I started to find the fun in German again.

I'm enjoying German music and TV in a different way than I did during my degree. I don't see it as a way to study, though it can be, but rather as a fun way to decompress from English. This is definitely not something I was expecting to experience from my practicum.

Real soon, I'll have a series coming out with a load of German media suggestions from music to movies and so much more. If you're interested, keep an eye out.

We're nearly at the end of my TESOL Practicum series! In the coming weeks, we'll be chatting about some tips for a successful practicum, tips I have for young teachers, and some of my favourite memories with students throughout my teaching experiences thus far.