Hello, my name is Eugenia.
I did an internship at a special school called “Team Gifted” in Fukuoka, Japan. I have been working for 11 weeks, from May 11 to July 24.
“Team Gifted” is a school for children with learning disabilities and is located in Akasaka, Fukuoka.
Currently the school houses 10 students from 9 to 16 years and most of them also live at that place.
Each student has another kind of learning disability, such as reading or writing disabilities, or an
attention deficit disorder, as well as a different way of learning and processing new information.
There are about 8 teachers at the school, teaching subjects such as Maths, P.E., or Japanese
language. They know how to support the children correctly and help them to achieve their goal of
studying at a high school abroad.
My main task as an intern was teaching English to the students. Depending on the
age and on the level, I either taught them grammar, new vocabulary or conversation skills, or I
played games with them while using English terms. The children are separated in different groups
of one to four students, preferentially those with a similar level in one subject, and are taught
respectively two hours in the morning and in the afternoon.
My internship reinforced my future wish of working together with other people. I
was able to learn many things about education, handling children and dealing with completely
different characters. Although it was my first time taking care of disabled children, it was a very
interesting and unique experience which taught me that even adults can learn a lot from children
who are so multifaceted and curious about unknown things.
The other teachers are very courteous and always supported me when I had
struggles or questions. They even organized a welcome dinner for me to get known better to each
other. They also were interested in my own culture and asked many questions about my personality.
My advice to the future interns at “Team Gifted” is: let the children enough space to develop
themselves! At this special school, they attach more importance to the process of learning itself than
to the syllabus of instruction. If the children aren’t forced to study accurately the course, they will
enjoy the lessons and learn how to deal with their learning disability, which is the most important
requirement for studying at a high school abroad.
In total, I have spent 3 months in Fukuoka and I cannot believe the time is already over. The
internship program gave me the unique chance to learn how to deal and communicate with different
people correctly. In the future, I definitely want to work together with other people and use
communication for achievement.
http://www.japanese-school-asahi.com/
