hamster on a wheel

Since beginning my work at site, I have the pleasure of much more idle time than I can ever remember having. This is one of the main reasons I desired to join the Peace Corps at this point in my life. With idle time, my mind tends to migrate toward internal debates, conversations, and scheduling the future. This happens when I have extra time in my room, I'm participating in a conversation in which I only understand one of every 5 words (because it's in Khmer), I'm doing my laundry, biking, sitting by the riverside or when I'm taking a step back as my co-teacher leads the class. I wish I could let my mind chill a bit, but it always wants to be puzzling something out.

I often am asked by friends and family back home about how work is going or what teaching is like here. Although it's a 180 from my past several years teaching 7th grade at a no excuses style charter school and now I teach adults (18-20 year olds) who are training to be primary school teachers, I thought I would lay out some comparisons between the two. Keep in mind, this is based on my experience teaching this age/career tracked group the subject of English and does not necessarily apply to all students in primary-secondary school learning other subjects in their native language. I do not mean this as judgements but rather observations on the stark differences I have experienced as a teacher in both environments.

America
*Effective lessons were dependent on effective classroom management and thwarting misbehaviors
*Extensive lesson planning for the year and daily were essential for successful and focused lessons
*Learning was student centered and importance of individualized work was stressed throughout the lesson so that all levels and learning styles of students would be addressed
*Inquisitiveness is prized; asking questions shows students are processing and repackaging new material
*Individual understanding is the focus at all points in the lesson: during the Introduction to new material students are taking notes with demonstration from the teacher (this should be short in duration), Guided Practice is an opportunity for practice of the new concept with a safety net and finally Independent Practice (clearly)
*Copying answers from others is not acceptable
*Note taking is something that students must be trained to do in an organized fashion, stressing the details early on is important
*Testing occurred at the end of each unit for about an hour, in addition to trimester exams which lasted 2 hrs
*Every student had each class once a day for 1 hr; I wished for snow days to have a break

Cambodia
*Majority of students demonstrate respect by standing when the teacher enters the room and remaining attentive throughout the lesson
*Lesson planning is not commonly practiced; most teachers wrote lesson plans in teacher training school and improvise while teaching
*Classes are teacher centered in that the teacher stands or sits in front of the class and lectures while students copy and repeat the words of the teacher
*Students do not tend to ask questions, only those who are higher level tend to feel comfortable enough to do so
*The structure of the lessons in the English for Cambodia curriculum does not prescribe how the activities and new material should be practiced and presented; tendency of the teachers is to write notes and lecture, students copy and when expected to generate new material will take the notebooks from the leaders in the class and copy their answers or wait until the answers are reviewed so they can record the correct answer
*Note taking is an art involving different colored pens and white out, "doodling" would never be found and pencils are only used in primary school; students copy exactly what the teacher has written

*Testing is monthly, usually a 1 hr test about one chapter of material, in addition to a cumulative semester exam that lasts about 2 hrs
*Every student has English for 2 hrs per week, once a week; I wish for less holidays, meetings and exams that cancel classes so I can meet with students consistently

I should stop myself there because I'm sure I could add at least 10 more points to each, but that'll do for the time being. The following pictures show some of the learning going on this week at my house.

Roat reading; started to take the place of TV watching, my mom was reading once this week too (I like to think it's my influence of reading for hours everyday)

Newly illustrated A,B,Cs for my family to learn; my sister's and mom want to learn a new word each day

The learning wall; all produced by my dad except for the illustrated A,B,Cs

Mango season has hit, about 25 cents/kilo; these were presents from a student and the invitation for my tutor's daughter's wedding is pictured (it takes place on 3/3/13 at 3 pm, I will be a bridesmaid although I have yet to meet her)