I had my German practice in school #48, which is located in Prioskiy – to my mind one of the most terrific marginal districts in the city. The school provides the teaching of three languages for their students – English, German, and French. I was a teacher in the 10^th grade, which is not that nice as you may think – the level of knowledge is poor, to be honest.

Still, my group consisted of 5 students – all of them were girls. Having no idea about German they represented quite a sad picture of those students who don’t want to study and are not treated well by their teachers. The school itself has some criminal elements among the students. This is certainly the influence of the surroundings. Many were excluded for drug or alcohol addiction, indecent behavior or offending the teachers in a vulgar way. I heard a great deal of claims from the teachers who said how wonderful it would be to punish their students in a physical way - they don’t understand any other means for calming them down, but simple and strict violent treatment. Some even said they are wolves.

Nonetheless, there are clever and education-oriented students in the school. What is the most amazing about them is that normally they belong to Azerbaijan community of the district. They possess that inner compulsion for studying mentioned by one of the Russian psychologists. They want to study and they do study. When I had an English lesson by chance, one of them came to me afterwards and asked me something about higher education. I saw it in his eyes that he’s looking forward to getting it anyway. Among other things, he was one of the most active students at the lesson, and the most talented in English in the class I believe.  

As far as my professional growth, I can’t actually say anything. Though any school can provide this, perhaps that wasn’t my aim there. Speaking honestly I’ve never claimed to be willing to become a teacher someday, so during this practice I tried to get the maximum of pleasure while communication with my kids. Some things were managed by me, others not, but the result is still nice – new experience has never been too steep for anyone.