My Experience of Internship

The interaction with students and teachers during my month-long internship at Redbridge International Academy has helped me to look at the opportunities and challenges faced by a teacher and to reflect on my own competencies and limitations. The entire atmosphere at RBIA has given me better perspectives and a creative outlook towards being a teacher. Life in the school as a trainee teacher made me cultivate the basic skills required by a teacher. Thus, the four weeks spent in the school gave me a lot of experiences, each of which taught me great lessons. Everyday brought new opportunities and challenges. But I gathered valuable life lessons from each of these and from every person I met during my internship.

In Redbridge International Academy, I had the opportunity to interact with students of ICSE, IGCSE and also IBDP students. Having conversations with the students and teaching them a few lessons, I gained a comparative knowledge about various boards of education. The classrooms are lively with a student-centric approach where students participate in the discussion with the teacher. Experiential learning has been given much emphasis and most of what is learnt theoretically, has been put to practice either in labs or in the field. Above all, the school recognizes the fact that a holistic development of a child requires all-round training which must include extra and co-curricular activities. Thus, RBIA organizes frequent field trips and provides space and opportunities for sports and artistic skills of students. As a result, the students are happy and are full of life in the campus.

Observing the teachers, staff and management in RBIA, I learnt the way how to deal with students of various interests. I had the opportunity of closely following a few teachers and to observe the classes. For my surprise, the classroom atmosphere was a lot different from what I’ve been used to. The teachers did not take a dominating position but let the students form their ideas. The teachers remained calm and gentle throughout the teaching hour and were very generous in appreciating the good works of the students. Every teacher maintains a very cordial relationship with every student even outside the campus. In short, these observations helped me realize what it really means to be a professional teacher.

The Redbridge International Academy is also an IB world school which has IBDP students. Hence, the students are encouraged to inculcate international mindedness and to imbibe the values portrayed in the IB learner’s profile. I had the chance to participate in the CAS, TOK and Extended Essay sessions of DP where I could see the students coming out with their ideas which would benefit not only their academic endeavours, but the society at large as well. The teachers guided them just as facilitators which was great to see. This helped me to reflect on the role of a teacher in developing the higher order thinking skills of the students.

The school culture at Redbridge International Academy has fascinated me greatly. The experience at this school has given me an overall picture of the challenges faced by teachers in an IB school, and the various aspects of being a teacher. This experience has made me a reflective person. The role of a teacher goes beyond the classrooms. The students expect much more than that from the teachers. A teacher does not merely transfer knowledge to them. In the modern world there are various sources of information from which students can gain knowledge. But a teacher is the cause of making students competent enough to construct their worldview and perspectives. It is the sole responsibility of the teacher that the students grow up in a healthy atmosphere with all aspects of development being taken care of. The teachers and the entire team at Redbridge International Academy is committed to achieve these objectives in the students.