SCHOOL HAS STARTED
it's now the third day of the start of school.
we've been waking up at 5am these days, and out of the house by 6.15am.
A 45 min drive later and we get to the village.
most of the villagers do not own clocks or watches,
which means the children have no concept of time,
which means they're always super EARLY.
Once we drive through the gate we're usually greeted by swarmps of children.
it was fun on the first day,
but now we're like "they are ALL here!!"
---------------------------------------
we're still adjusting to waking up early and keeping the energy level high for the children throughout the day.
it's been really cool though.
the children are absolutely different from anything i've seen in singapore.
extremely keen to learn,
and even the naughty ones are mild compared to the ones i saw in SG.
Just a look or a slight tap is sufficient to get them to behave.
Which is not to say they don't get restless.
children being children,
if you don't engage them, you lose them.
so that's always a challenge.
but i really thank God for these precious ones in my class (most of the other classes seem to be very good too).
----------------------------------------------
my dad just forwarded me a mail on teachers making a difference in the lives of the students.
which is kind of strange because he has not responded well to any of my attempts to consider teaching as a career, and even more so now coming over here.
Our school accepts children from 4 to 13 years old.
so you get a pretty big range of kids in here, in different classes of course.
the 4 year olds are the lost ones, or the carebear world, is our code for these little ones.
they have a periennial lost look, and more often than not you'll see some wandering about looking very lost.
the good thing is the village is pretty safe, and most of the kids look after each other.
it's an incredibly warm sight watching 6 year olds share their snacks and feeding each other.
i don't think even young siblings do that in SG.
it's highly amusing though.
everytime i'm teaching in my class,
from the corner of my eye i'd be able to look out the glass door and see Pok ushering one of the lost ones back to the herd.
i've been helping out Pok in her carebear world class in the afternoon.
11 lost carebears in their own world.
it's pretty funny.
they don't even respond to their names,
so you can imagine how difficult it is to take attendance on the first day when we saw all of them for the first time.
and not all their mothers were around too.
in the end we resorted to asking the few mothers who were around and thank God some of them knew the other kids.
Still, some kids are known by their nicknames but their registered name is something else which no one has heard of so it's overall a really interesting time.
----------------------------------------
two days ago we were distributing cups of water for the carebears and we wanted all of them to start drinking at the same time (it was a drinking water exercise to ensure they are hydrated).
One young one started drinking and the three of us instinctively went "GOM!" (or Don't) at the same time.
the poor girl dropped her cup and water ended up all over the floor.
wasn't a big thing.
i just thought it's funny how we all surrounded her with a sudden "GOM!" and scared the living daylights out of her.
And then there is BB.
BB is the cutest thing you can ever see.
her eyelids are always half closed,
so she has the most ideal carebear world look.
today the local teacher taught the class the Khmer word for trousers,
and asked who was wearing trousers.
the 2 boys in class stood up, together with BB, who was wearing a skirt.
So all the teachers guided BB to sit down and explained to her that she wasn't wearing trousers.
BB looked at us lost as usual with her half closed eyes,
and then slowly lifted up her skirt to reveal her shorts underneath.
she is the smartest of us all.
-----------------------------------------------------
I take a 8 year old class in the morning.
there're 9 boys in class and 2 girls, so i have my hands full with restless boys.
but they are a good bunch.
you can see it in their eyes.
they will learn if you can catch their attention.
my challenge now is learning enough Khmer to understand what they are chattering to me about.
and dealing with the extremes in class.
on one hand there are two who are older and learn a lot faster and look very bored,
and then there are two who are a lot slower, and i suspect one may be dyslexic.
but even the slow ones are precious,
such good boys they are.
now i just have to learn enough Khmer to encourage them to keep trying, and one day they will get to where they want to go.
time to sleep so i can wake at 5am tmrw.
Prang lang! (jiayou!)
it's now the third day of the start of school.
we've been waking up at 5am these days, and out of the house by 6.15am.
A 45 min drive later and we get to the village.
most of the villagers do not own clocks or watches,
which means the children have no concept of time,
which means they're always super EARLY.
Once we drive through the gate we're usually greeted by swarmps of children.
it was fun on the first day,
but now we're like "they are ALL here!!"
---------------------------------------
we're still adjusting to waking up early and keeping the energy level high for the children throughout the day.
it's been really cool though.
the children are absolutely different from anything i've seen in singapore.
extremely keen to learn,
and even the naughty ones are mild compared to the ones i saw in SG.
Just a look or a slight tap is sufficient to get them to behave.
Which is not to say they don't get restless.
children being children,
if you don't engage them, you lose them.
so that's always a challenge.
but i really thank God for these precious ones in my class (most of the other classes seem to be very good too).
----------------------------------------------
my dad just forwarded me a mail on teachers making a difference in the lives of the students.
which is kind of strange because he has not responded well to any of my attempts to consider teaching as a career, and even more so now coming over here.
Our school accepts children from 4 to 13 years old.
so you get a pretty big range of kids in here, in different classes of course.
the 4 year olds are the lost ones, or the carebear world, is our code for these little ones.
they have a periennial lost look, and more often than not you'll see some wandering about looking very lost.
the good thing is the village is pretty safe, and most of the kids look after each other.
it's an incredibly warm sight watching 6 year olds share their snacks and feeding each other.
i don't think even young siblings do that in SG.
it's highly amusing though.
everytime i'm teaching in my class,
from the corner of my eye i'd be able to look out the glass door and see Pok ushering one of the lost ones back to the herd.
i've been helping out Pok in her carebear world class in the afternoon.
11 lost carebears in their own world.
it's pretty funny.
they don't even respond to their names,
so you can imagine how difficult it is to take attendance on the first day when we saw all of them for the first time.
and not all their mothers were around too.
in the end we resorted to asking the few mothers who were around and thank God some of them knew the other kids.
Still, some kids are known by their nicknames but their registered name is something else which no one has heard of so it's overall a really interesting time.
----------------------------------------
two days ago we were distributing cups of water for the carebears and we wanted all of them to start drinking at the same time (it was a drinking water exercise to ensure they are hydrated).
One young one started drinking and the three of us instinctively went "GOM!" (or Don't) at the same time.
the poor girl dropped her cup and water ended up all over the floor.
wasn't a big thing.
i just thought it's funny how we all surrounded her with a sudden "GOM!" and scared the living daylights out of her.
And then there is BB.
BB is the cutest thing you can ever see.
her eyelids are always half closed,
so she has the most ideal carebear world look.
today the local teacher taught the class the Khmer word for trousers,
and asked who was wearing trousers.
the 2 boys in class stood up, together with BB, who was wearing a skirt.
So all the teachers guided BB to sit down and explained to her that she wasn't wearing trousers.
BB looked at us lost as usual with her half closed eyes,
and then slowly lifted up her skirt to reveal her shorts underneath.
she is the smartest of us all.
-----------------------------------------------------
I take a 8 year old class in the morning.
there're 9 boys in class and 2 girls, so i have my hands full with restless boys.
but they are a good bunch.
you can see it in their eyes.
they will learn if you can catch their attention.
my challenge now is learning enough Khmer to understand what they are chattering to me about.
and dealing with the extremes in class.
on one hand there are two who are older and learn a lot faster and look very bored,
and then there are two who are a lot slower, and i suspect one may be dyslexic.
but even the slow ones are precious,
such good boys they are.
now i just have to learn enough Khmer to encourage them to keep trying, and one day they will get to where they want to go.
time to sleep so i can wake at 5am tmrw.
Prang lang! (jiayou!)
