In class the other day, Jim set up sykpe conversations with teachers working all over the world. I thought this was a brilliant idea to not only learn about education abroad but to also connect with someone who knows first hand what it is currently like to teach outside of the United States.
My group was paired up with Melissa Richardson, a high school choir teacher working in Seoul, South Korea. We made an instant connection with Melissa not only because she is a 2003 Luther grad who knows the environment we currently find ourselves in. We talked about the Luther tradition of music and how she has seen this tradition carried out in the real world. She discussed the differences between teaching in the States and abroad. I was quite captured by what she had to say. In her experiences, she has found teaching outside the US to be an amazing opportunity that gives her the opportunity to focus on more than repertoire. She spends time teaching world music, with the interesting perspective of having students from multiple cultures present in the classroom. Melissa even showed us a xylophone she bought in her travels in Asia! It was interesting to hear how her philosophy of education has changed since leaving Luther and how it is still changing. She stressed that she is still trying to figure out parts of her philosophy (phew, we do not have to know it all to get a great job!).
Overall, the conversation we had with her was enlightening, interesting, and comforting in a way. Personally, she left an impact on me that she is probably unaware of. Previous to my conversation with Melissa, I had not put much consideration into teaching or student teaching abroad (I just thought it would be too different from what I am learning at Luther). After hearing about her experiences, my thoughts have shifted a bit. I'm not going to commit to going international just yet-for I find it to be very dependent on your personal life situation- but I'm definitely not ruling it out!
