Here is Alinneke's message :-)

Hi everybody!

I came back on the 30th of April. I wasn’t that sad because I’m going to see the family in July again but now that I’m home. I can say that I really miss them.

I also miss the pupils and staff from both schools. It was such a nice atmosphere there! Compared to now, every morning my first thought is: “how many days before the holidays?”

My last week was wonderful! On Tuesday I visited a farm and I witnessed two lambs’ birth. On Wednesday I helped the year one teacher, we went to a leisure centre with the children and we played different sports. That was fun! And on Thursday my family organised a surprise party for me. That was lovely! I will never forget this week! And the others too of course… ;-)

I really enjoyed this experience; it allowed me to find out a bit more about the English culture and their teaching system, which is so different from ours! And I think much better…
When I’ll be a teacher I’ll try to apply some methods I observed in England. Because I do think that even small details could improve our courses. I think, for example, about a little but important thing, the classroom decoration. If you compare Belgian classrooms with English ones, the differences are important! The English classrooms are colourful; the teachers really emphasise the children’s work. One inside the classroom you really want to look at them. And it’s the same with the entire school too! I’ve never really noticed that in Belgian classrooms/ schools.

I can already observe some changes with myself. I feel more self-confident but I still have a long way to go! I think every experience we live has an impact on our life.

I wouldn’t change anything to my experience because everything, even the more negative points, taught me important things and values. We shouldn’t only live for positive experiences because the negative ones teach us more that we even think!

I would do this every year if I could! To finish I’d like to quote an Albert Einstein: “ The only source of knowledge is experience.”

See you soon,

Alinneke