Here's an interview that Chloe recently did with Harriet from AIM Overseas.
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Hi Chloe, thanks for joining me for this interview.
Why did you choose to go on the Teacher Education and Practice Program?
Mostly to gain international experience and to gain knowledge on the US curriculum and the way their schools work.
Did you have any assumptions as to what the US would be like before going?
Not really. I went in open-minded and had no clue of what to expect and everything ended up being a pleasant surprise!
What were you surprised by while you were there?
I was really surprised with the funding of the schools in the US. Though generally, worldwide, funding for schools is always a big issue. I was surprised that in lower socio-economic areas, most of their students received free lunches. I was also surprised by the lack of funding and their tightness of budget; they really had to be careful of what they spent it on. I know funding for schools in Australia is similar, though I think that they spend more per student in the US.
What was the most memorable part of the program?
Oh goodness! There was a lot! Laughs
Well, we visited about 13 different schools during the program. We did that every morning and that was just amazing! We went to some older schools then we’d visit some brand new schools that had only been open for two years. We visited public schools and we visited private schools. So on that side of things it was amazing!
And even just our campus – UNCC [University of North Carolina Charlotte] has just an amazing campus! It was just so overwhelming! Coming from Griffith uni which is, well, I thought Griffith was large but UNCC was just so mind-blowing, it was great!
And then there were so many cultural activities that got put on for us - we experienced a lot of Charlotte itself. They took us around and took us to a lot of cultural activities most days so that was really good!
So do you feel like you really got to know American culture?
Yes, definitely! We met so many people and they even took us around in their free time and showed us different things outside of classes!
Were these other students at UNCC?
Yes!
How did you meet them?
Basically they’d see us sitting in the cafeteria and hear us talking and they’d come over and talk to us.
What made them come over to talk to you?
I think it was maybe our accents! They loved it, everyone loved it! They’d ask us what we were doing there and why were there. We had name badges on as well so that probably contributed to it.
We had to wear the name badges around campus because we were doing lots of school visits. We had to dress professionally everyday because we went had our classes from 8am-12.30pm and then straightaway we’d go to do our school visits so we didn’t have time to go to the hotel and get changed; it was just easier to wear the professional clothing, plus it looked good as well!
So tell me about the weirdest or funniest thing that happened to you during the program.
Oh goodness! Laughs
Well I don’t know if it’s weird but we went to a country bar and it was just so much fun! We got taught line dancing and we rode bucking bulls and all that sort of stuff. I guess being in North Carolina, that kind of stuff is the norm; coming from Australia we don’t really have many line dances so that was pretty different!
Hold on, did you say you guys rode bucking bulls?
Yeah!
Do you have video footage of this?
I do! And I have a lot of photos! Laughs
And are you going to use these for blackmailing purposes?
Oh, I could!!! Conspiratorial laughter
So were most of you over the age of 21?
There were 17 of us, and all of except for two of us were allowed to drink; those two were still allowed to go into the bars but they had to get big black crosses on their hands so everyone would know that they were under 21.
Bethany [another AIM Overseas participant] turned 21 while we were over there, on Australia Day, so we celebrated Australia Day and her birthday in a big, big way! We went out to dinner then we went to one of the local bars that we visited quite regularly, it was good! All of our American friends came out with us and even our program coordinators came out with us!
So what did you learn during the course of the program?
Oh wow, umm… a lot! I can’t even pinpoint! Hmm… Well we did a one-week internship at the end of the program at Carolina International School and I think we learnt a lot from our supervising teachers. Being in a different school scenario, the schooling system, everything was just so different. We all took valuable lessons from our mentoring teachers.
And especially with the students – every day we had question-answer time with students in different classes and we learnt as much from them as they did from us – it was really good.
What would you say to other students thinking of going on this program?
Do it! Don’t second-think it! It’s worth every single cent and worth every single bit of your time – just do it!
And are you and the other participants on the program still keeping in touch?
Yeah, we’re all talking to each other on Facebook, just like everyone else in the world! Half of us are going south to meet the south people and the other half are going to come up some time to meet us [in Queensland] so we’re all still keeping in touch!
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