Hello Teacher

Wednesday 6/17/2015

First day at PIO

Today was our first day visiting the school where we will be working for the next few weeks. VAC arranged a tuk-tuk ride for us accross town to People Improvement Organization. PIO was founded in 2002 by Phymean Noun. Noun built the school at the city dump site. Her hope was to convince families living at the site to send their children to school instead of having them work sorting through the trash at the dump. The school now has three locations around Phnom Penh. Although the dump next to the first school (where we will be working) closed in 2007, the area is still one of the poorest in the city. 

(View from the classroom. The building with the red roof and green walls is where the students have computer and seeing classes)

We arrived at PIO school around nine fifteen. John, a man from New Zeland, greeted us at the door. It turns out John came here to volunteer just over three years ago and decided to stay on. He mostly works with the volunteers who come to the school. John gave us a tour of the school campus, although I hesitate to call it a campus because it is so different than what a westerner pictures hearing that word. There was a school building, a small patch of land covered with sand on which to play, and a shelter building for students to sleep in when they have no home to return to. Students who live in the shelter are often victims of poor circumstance, perhaps their parents divorced and remarried and the step parent did not want to raise the child, maybe they have no parents, maybe they don't know where their parents may be.  Despite their circumstances the children were full of energy and joy. Almost every student greeted us with "hello teacher!" and either a wave or a high five. We stopped in the kindergarten class where the other two volunteers that we were touring with would be working. There were one hundred tiny kindergarteners on break running frantically around in circles, locking each other in cabinets and kicking and punching one another. When we arrived much of their attention was drawn to us. We got hugs and high fives. We had requests to pick them up. Many students asked in perfect English, "what is your name?" At the end of the tour John gave us very brief instructions on how to structure a lesson plan. He walked away at one point without telling us where he was going or what would happen next. We sat on tiny wooden stools in the entryway not knowing what we were supposed to be doing for hours. Eventually we surmised that this was the lunch break. Although the star house had packed us a lunch, we were hesitant to eat it since it had been sitting in the heat all morning. We came to the conclusion that perhaps the rice was the safest and forewent the meat and vegetable dish. 

English class began at one o'clock.  Today we were just observing to learn about their teaching methods and figure out how much English they already knew. We were told we would be teaching sixth grade grammar. I made my way toward the back of the class and tried to shove all five feet and nine inches of me into a bench behind a small desk.  The students could tell I was uncomfortable. The smallest boy in the class, Nob, moved his bench out to make room for me. Nob's English was very good. I sat looking on with him for the entire class, asking him questions when I didn't understand what was going on. He was adorable and fairly diligent in his work. At the end of our time together, I asked Nob how old he was. When he said thirteen I just about fell off the bench. He was so small. The entire time I thought he must be nine or ten. We later found out that although we are teaching sixth grade, our class ranged in age from thirteen to fifteen. Apparently, since these students come from poor backgrounds they are older than the average Cambodian sixth grader. 

I was excited to get to work, but even having observed the class it was difficult to figure out their level of English skills. They were working on the difference between will and going to (a fairly advanced subject for which I even had to look a few things up to make sure I understood the difference) but seemed to have trouble with comprehension in conversation. We were told we were to teach unit 8 and were given a very basic book that the students were not using in the classroom. Lesson planning was going to be difficult, but I was excited to get started. 

$0.50 large water at PIO

$.75 tuk-tuk home $3/4 people 

$3 ice cream and a coconut Danish at the blue pumpkin (highly recommend!)
Today's Total: $4.25