Submitted by Victoria Kaminski on the 2014 winter session program in Budapest, Hungary sponsored by the School of Education…
We began our EDUC390 practicum this week by working with students at the Britannica International School of Budapest and the International Christian School of Budapest. It was an eye opening experience to work with such phenomenal students and staff. At the Britannica School, students came from all over the world with a variety of cultural and linguistic differences. These differences put students and staff in a unique position to learn from one another.
I have been working in a first grade classroom (called Year 2) with students from South Africa, Israel, Russia, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, and Romania. The amount of culture these students have been introduced to and their acceptance of differences was astounding. One of the students in class, just 6 and ½ years old, can fluently speak four languages and is progressively developing skills in another three. She told me that when new students join the class, a frequent happening, she tries to learn their native language so they can feel comfortable if they speak neither English nor Hungarian. Students readily speak English to all teachers, staff, and with each other in the classrooms. However, the main yard (playground) is a mixing pot of languages. During free time, I played several rounds of Duck-Duck-Goose with students from a variety of grade levels. At first, the game began in English, but then it progressed to Russian, French, Hungarian, etc. The children had a great time mixing up the languages and even creating entirely new ones just to confuse me during the game.
It was truly amazing to see the kinds of things that students are capable of when they come together despite their vast differences.
