Jornal do Agrupamento

After graduating one semester early from university, I decided to pursue volunteer positions instead of immediately searching for a job. In the past, I was a one-on-one reading tutor for third grade students in Detroit, Michigan. I created individualized weekly lesson plans to improve my students’ competency with grammar, letter-sound relationships, and reading comprehension. This valuable tutoring experience led me to seek more opportunities to develop my teaching skills. Through an American program called CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) that promotes teaching abroad, I applied to become an English Language Assistant in Portugal for three months and was placed in the AEJE school district.

I chose Portugal because I love traveling and discovering new places. I have previously volunteered in Nicaragua, studied in Argentina, and personally traveled to France and India. I have been in Aveiro since the beginning of March and will be here until the beginning of June. Portugal is a beautiful country and everyone I have met here has been extremely kind and welcoming. In particular, I greatly appreciate all the teachers at the Sao Bernardo school who have let me into their classrooms to both observe and assist with lessons given in English.

At Sao Bernardo, I work with sixth grade students in the bilingual program. I attend many of their classes that are taught in English, including science, history, citizenship, and physical education. In these classes, I help teachers incorporate aspects of English language and culture into their lessons. For example, one of my favorite class sessions so far was a physical education class where I taught the students how to play kickball, which is a traditional game in American physical education classes. I had fun teaching them something new and I think they enjoyed learning as well. Overall, the students at Sao Bernardo have been great. I can tell that they understand a lot of English but are sometimes too shy to speak it. In the next couple of months, I hope to encourage the students to practice speaking English more often.