A Year of Teaching in Turkey
Last year, Alice Gustafson Elementary School Teacher Jennifer Erickson took a leave of absence to teach English in Turkey for the entire school year.
Teaching in different countries is not new to Miss Erickson. For the past five summers, she has taught in remote cities in China, Mongolia, Laos, Oman, and Iraq. She had yet to teach a whole school year in a different country, though, and surprised herself when she said yes to Turkey.
“Originally, I was going to be placed in Morocco, but that fell through,” she said. “Turkey opened up, and it turned out to be an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
During the 2017-18 school year, AGS Teacher Jennifer Erickson taught school in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
Miss Erickson said she really had no idea what to expect. The only thing she knew was that she was going to be teaching English to 140 students in grades 1-4 at the the private Zafer Koleji primary school in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
When she arrived, she met three teachers who would form their primary English Department: Patrick from Arizona, Edin from Bosnia, and Gülbahar from Turkey. Miss Erickson was was also met with a beautiful apartment—nothing like the apartments she had in other countries.
“My apartment in Turkey was nicer than my apartment in the United States!” said Miss Erickson with a smile.
Miss Erickson said her biggest surprise, though, was the amount of time Turkish children spend at school.
Miss Erickson with one of her students at Zafer Koleji primary school.
“The school day went from 7:40 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. and most of my students stayed for after-school care until 6 p.m. while their parents worked. Teachers took turns supervising the after-school program each night, and, on Monday nights, we stayed for faculty meetings,” she said. “We ate breakfast and lunch with our students. Random plan times were squeezed in throughout the day. Five Saturdays during the school year, students went to school from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for ‘portfolio presentations’ designed for their parents and set up and facilitated by teachers.”
Miss Erickson said she savored the 10 days of vacation teachers received for mid-year holiday and traveled to Turkey’s central Cappadocia region and to the cities of Pamukkale and Ephesus, also in Turkey. In April, Miss Erickson’s parents stopped in for a quick weekend trip to Istanbul.
Speaking of trips, Miss Erickson said that the field trips at her school in Turkey were much different than field trips in the United States.
“Everyone goes on a field trip, including janitorial staff, administrators, teachers, students—the entire school! We all piled in buses,” she explained. “On one trip, we traveled to the Anıtkabir Mausoleum, where the founder of Turkey is buried. On another trip, we set off on a tree-planting expedition to replenish the forest. On this trip, high school students came along to help.”
Miss Erickson is already gearing up to teach abroad again this summer, but isn’t quite sure yet where she’ll land.
Two things are for sure: 1. She will go far and 2. She will find a terrain and culture completely different than 60510!
