Rainy Season

The rainy season in Cambodia presents us with particular challenges. It is the state school holidays and many students must help their families to plant rice. When the rain is particularly bad it is difficult for the students to get to school. Furthermore, the rain on the tin roofs in the classrooms makes it impossible to be heard at times. Although we produce handouts and exercises to use when the rain comes on really hard there is a cost involved. We also find that with the reduced attendance the income for the school is limited and there is no surplus to provide the small prizes for the best improved students at the end of each month. We would also like to provide the Scholarship Class kids with appropriate school bags for their books as most bring their books to school in flimsy plastic bags which tear and their books get wet.

Teacher Training

All our teachers understand the need to be innovative in the classroom and we encourage them to improve their skills. We recently held an interactive workshop on Interactive Classroom Activities (Many thanks Amanda !) and this was enjoyed by all.

Joe from the Peace Corps has invited our teachers to join sessions he is giving on English Teaching Methods and a Grammar master class. Joe is an experienced teacher and these sessions are very valuable and will improve our skills and knowledge. Today we started looking at the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach. Here are some pictures from today's class.

Classroom Rules/Team Points

At our monthly meeting in May (minutes at http://www.chumkriellanguageschool.com/minutes/staff/may-2007.html) we determined that student behavior, particularly in some of the younger classes was a concern. We were fortunate to have some experienced volunteers to give advice and we held workshops on reinforcing classroom rules and introducing a Team Points system. This has been very successful and we see significant improvement in student attention and behavior.

Home Visits

Through some generous donations by friends in the UK we have been able to provide petrol payments to allow the teachers to undertake home visits. This is really important for the school as it allows us to get feedback from parents and also promote our school in the local community. Here are some pictures from last Saturday when Mr Rekha visited some of his students with Sandy.












On Monday, our volunteer Richard made some home visits to the Scholarship Class along with Mr Thy. Here are some photos of the families.

Computer Class

Sandy's computer class continues to be popular with the students and they are learning fast. Most students have never used a computer before and although they love playing games, they are also learning to type and experiencing the internet and email. Thier written communication skills are also improving through educational games.

Here are some pictures of Mr Phon's students at computer class last week.