Summary and Suggestions:

Purpose of practicum

The Southeast Asian Teachers Student Program, often known as the SEA Teacher, offers pre-service teachers the chance to advance their professional development and aims to provide us with skills so that we may compete on a global scale.

This program gave me the opportunity, as a student teacher, to experience teaching practice in another country. Having my practice teaching at the international level, especially at this royal university known as the Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University (VRU), was a great honor. It gave me a chance to share my expertise and impart my knowledge of teaching to the students as well as to the teachers of the institution.

It helps me to become flexible and adaptive in all things and helps me to understand the fundamental purpose of education and the significant role it plays in influencing people's values, competencies, and wisdom. This experience has taught me that language is not a barrier when you really want to teach students, but rather a means of fostering a stronger bond between you as a teacher and your students. It provides me with a different set of perspectives to embark on in life, to be hopeful, and to be grateful for discovering new things, no matter how small or big they may be.

Procedures of practicum

On my first day, the receiving school had a brief orientation about the schedule program while I am staying there. After that, I deployed to their demonstration school, and they assigned mentors to be my facilitators and buddies. I gave two days of observations, and after that, I had already started my practice teaching. And the remaining days and weeks are for other activities, such as cultural field trips to the amazing places in Thailand.

This was my weekly schedule and the things I should accomplish before the practicum ended.

This was my schedule while I was doing a practicum at VRU. Everything was designed based on what I was going to do and the other activities.

Outcomes of practicum

The results of my observations and expertise acquired throughout the practicum are presented:

Adapting to a new environment helped me develop my skills, abilities, and talents, such as communication and adaptability.
I learned how to become independent and self-reliant, as it required me to take care of myself and manage my own affairs.
Because students are still learning how to speak English well, I have to understand the fundamentals of their language as well in order to have a flexible teaching style. I have become more accountable as a result of my need to adapt to cultural and educational changes.
It gave me an opportunity to learn about the culture, traditions, customs, and values of the country. It gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of other cultures and expanded my cultural horizons.
It provides me with different perspectives to embark on in life, to be hopeful, and to be grateful for discovering new things, no matter how small or big they may be.
Build camaraderie between students, teachers, and people in my surroundings.

The challenges of practicum

The ability to overcome challenges is what gives life purpose. Challenges are what make life fascinating. I also encountered some challenges throughout the educational program, some of which are listed here.

Language

The first challenge that I encounter is the language barrier, since some of the students don't know how to speak and understand English. There are times I use Google Translator whenever I'm not familiar with other words in Thai. I'm also studying and learning Thai words and phrases so that I can communicate them well. Since they can't also understand English well, I start teaching them the basic English words. Hence, every time I went to school, my heart was flowing with happiness because I knew that I could learn from my students as well as from my surroundings, and at the same time, I was excited to impart new learnings to my students about all those things and be able to represent my school in their country.

Culture

The second challenge was the culture, because this was different from my country. For instance, inside the classroom, you should be gentle while talking to the students, but in my country, it is okay if you want to shout, especially when students are making noise and not paying attention.

Overall impression

SEA Teacher Student Exchange Program was a great opportunity for a student teacher like me to experienced teaching abroad. Experience is the finest thing I gained from being an exchange student. This will be my greatest accomplishment and most memorable experience, and it will significantly affect me both personally and professionally.

Even though it can be difficult to interact with people you don't know and to adopt to a new language, culture, religion, and educational system, I have faith that if you put courage, passion, and respect while socializing them, you will overcome all of these.

Suggestions for future improvements

Although I firmly understand that this program is well thought out and examined allow me to offer a few ideas;

I think there is a need to expand the program's duration because I think a month of practicum is not enough. It should have enough time to get to know the country, especially its culture, language, and educational system.
The receiving university should arrange activities for the Sea Teachers so they can share and show their cultures and talents.