Busy week

On Monday and Tuesday I attended a workshop organised by IRC (International Rescue Committee) on "Mainstreaming Protection Principles", which, in a nutshell, means ensuring that human rights, safety and dignity are safeguarded across all activities and sectors of a development project. It was very interesting, and there were several areas that were particularly relevant to the project that I am involved with, including identifying barriers that prevent individuals or groups of people from accessing particular services.
One of the aims of the VSO Early Childhood project is to increase the access for migrant children to early years education. However, the reasons why some migrant children are not attending school are many, varied and complex, and this was one of the many questions that I discussed with the MoI education chiefs in our follow up meetings on Thursday and Friday. The purpose of these meetings was to begin to discuss the project in a bit more detail, and to find out some more about the background situation. In both sub-district areas where we will be working, there already seem to be some very positive initiatives going on in terms of supporting access to education for migrant children, and they are very supportive and welcoming of our project, which is all very positive. The next month will be taken up mostly with initial observations at the centres that we will be working with, to assess strengths and areas of need.
I am feeling quite frustrated with the language situation, as I have made very little progress since our initial language training. In fact, I might even have gone backwards! I have wondered if I should get some more lessons, though I'm not sure if that would help me develop the sort of language that I need. In some ways, having my coordinator to translate probably makes me a bit lazy. If I was thrown in the deep end and was forced to try and communicate on my own then I might get somewhere a bit faster. I will be getting a lot more exposure now that we will be spending most of our time in schools, so I'm hoping things may improve.

Thought for the Day 4

There seem to be lots of people going round with inspirational sayings on their T-shirts. Here are a couple that struck a chord with me that I thought I would share:

We make a living by what we get
We make a life by what we give

Experience is not what happens to you
Experience is what you do with what happens to you

Of course, there is no T-shirt saying quite as inspirational as my own:

Keep Calm and eat TIFFIN!

Looking at that photo I've just realised how much my hair has grown! I must find a hairdresser soon. I wonder if I will manage to communicate that I just want it trimmed, or if I'll come away with something more drastic?! I will keep you informed...

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Good Curry

In order to be able to communicate a bit better with the children, I got my coordinator to teach me some useful, basic phrases in Thai. (Slightly pointless in some ways, as part of the challenge of teaching these children is that many of them do not understand much Thai, but it makes more sense for me to try and communicate in Thai than to be introducing yet another language i.e. English)
So I now have a handful of phrases, mostly to do with behaviour management, as that is the main focus at the moment:

• Listen to the teacher
• Look at the teacher
• Sit down
• Stand up
• Sit in a circle
• Sit in your group
• Variations on the theme of Don't hit/ punch/ kick your friend
• Don't run around the classroom
• Speak quietly
• Well done
• Very good

We were practising them in the office yesterday, much to the amusement of any Thai speakers within earshot. I'm finding some of the pronunciation quite difficult. My coordinator keeps correcting me, but the problem is that I can't hear the difference between what he is saying and what I thought I said.

So today in school, a child came to show me his work and I said what I thought was Very Good, except that due to some subtle vowel change that I have yet to understand I apparently did not say Very Good, but curry. So to the children who came to show me their work after that I smiled broadly, gave a big thumbs up and said in English "Good Curry!" After all, tone of voice, facial expression and body language are so much more important in human communication than mere words!!

(P.S. Apologies to anyone who was anticipating a post on a mouth-watering culinary theme!)

Space Monster

It came from outer space, a hideously deformed creature with luminous orange skin and hunched back, its head far too big for its body, causing terror on the streets of Mae Sot....

... until one brave person dared to unmask the terrifying beast, to discover beneath the cunning disguise...

... a VSO volunteer, somewhat over-protected for motor biking in the rain!

Progress at last

I feel that finally things are beginning to take off on the work front. We have spent several more days at the school that we visited. At the moment we are working with the teacher of the KG2 class (5 year olds), as the KG1 teacher is about to go off on maternity leave at any moment.
The area we are working on at the moment is general class routines, expectations and positive behaviour management. The teacher has not been at the school for long, and this is the first time she has faced the challenge of having a class of mostly migrant students, many of whom speak very little Thai. She seems very appreciative of the support and ideas we are offering. She really wants to do a good job with the children, but just seems rather overwhelmed by it all at the moment. There is not much of a routine or clear expectations of behaviour in place, and as a consequence (together with the fact that many children do not understand very well), the children tend to be quite disruptive and the noise level is somewhat trying, to say the least!
As well as observing, we have started to do some activities with the children, to show strategies that could be used. The ukulele is a huge hit with them, and we have taught them a couple of songs. They also love "Susan" - a puppet I created out of various bits of packaging for playing "Susan Says".

Given the right sort of stimulus they are actually very attentive and eager to learn and participate, so hopefully, with the positive attitude of the teacher to change, we will start to notice some improvements.

Yesterday we had a meeting with the VSO Education Programme Manager and the officials at the local MoI office of one of the sub-district areas to discuss taking the project forward in pre-school Child Care and Development Centres (henceforth to be called CCDCs!) The meeting was very positive and we have the go-ahead for working in their area. The Chief Executive was all for me going and basing myself at their office and working with their Education Chief! She seems to be a very nice lady, and we will have to collaborate quite closely with her, but I think I'll keep my desk at WE!

 

L-R: My Coordinator; Me (note M&S shirt and trousers - Thanks Mum!!); VSO Education Programme Manager; Chief Executive of Sub-District Area Office; Administrative Chief; Education Chief; Assistant to Education Chief

Today we did the same thing at the other sub-district area office. The Chief Executive was not able to attend, but his 2nd in command chaired the meeting. (He was present at the meeting I attended in Bangkok in May on migrant education issues, and spoke very well about some of the initiatives in their local area.) Also present were teachers from the two centres. The meeting was made slightly challenging by the fact that in the next room there was a group of teachers who had come to visit from other provinces on a kind of teacher exchange, doing very lively activities involving lots of singing and drumming! We soldiered on, and it was another very positive meeting. I get the impression that this is quite a forward-thinking sub-district and that there is already some good practice going on, so we will have a good basis to start from.

We also went briefly to visit the centres. They seem to have a very pleasant, child-friendly atmosphere, and the children are sooooo sweet! So at last it looks as if we have a project we can really get our teeth into. The next step is to organise follow-up meetings with the Education Chiefs at the sub-district offices and then set up the initial observation visits to all the centres.

And finally, for the shoe-lovers out there, here is the latest pair:

These are my indoor flip-flops that I change into at school. They had to be photographed un-modelled to show them in all their glory!

Watch out for the rain

The rainy season is gradually getting going, and it is beginning to cool down a bit. For the last week or so I have no longer been sleeping in the gale of a fan, I have started having warm showers, rather than cool ones, and the last few mornings I even gave my hair a quick once over with the hair drier before leaving the house, rather than letting it dry on its own. I have also discovered a small leak in the dining room ceiling...

We are still getting some nice sunny weather between the rain showers, but the showers are beginning to get longer and more persistent. I was out in a particularly heavy one on Monday on my bicycle. I did have my poncho on, but my lower legs and arms got pretty drenched, and when I got home I realised the water had got into my watch and it was no longer working. I was really upset about that. The watch was a present from one of the children in my class in my first or second year at the international school in Milan, which means I must have had it for about 12 years. I was feeling really cross with myself for not having left it at home and brought a cheap one here with me instead. I tried taking out the battery and waving my hair-drier at it to dry out the contacts, but to no avail.

On Tuesday, I must have driven my coordinator mad, asking him constantly "What's the time?" He was very patient (he always is!). I was resigned to having to go out and try to find a cheap watch somewhere, so imagine my surprise and delight when I got home on Tuesday and discovered that it had started working again! In fact, the delight was quite disproportionate to the event - I only just stopped short of dancing round the house with it clutched to my heart! I have resolved not to wear it when out riding during the rainy season, but to carry it in my bag and only put it on when I am safely at my destination.

This week for the first time I had to set off for work in the rain in the morning. With my bright orange poncho over my rucksack, which had my ukulele poking out at the top, and my outsized motorbike helmet, I looked like some sort of hunch-backed alien from a far-off planet! I will try and get pictures....!
I did not think I would ever say this, but I am almost beginning to enjoy riding around on my motorbike (though not in the rain!) Progress indeed! Last Sunday I finally got my act together to go the film night at one of the bars in town. The film was Monsoon Wedding, which was very appropriate given the weather that evening! Also last week I had a go at the ladies' football, but I think that is probably not going to be for me. I'll stick to the aerobics, and perhaps give yoga a try as well, which is something I've been thinking of for a while. I'm unlikely to be riding my bicycle much during the rainy season, so I'll have to make sure I'm getting some other exercise.

A day out

Today I went with Alice to visit one of the migrant learning centres that she works with. These are schools that have been set up by the migrant communities themselves. The one we saw today was established over 10 years ago. It is about an hour's drive from Mae Sot, in an area populated by Thai Karen. The learning centre has around 700 migrant students, from nursery to Grade 12, and has received support from various NGOs and projects, though usually targeted at the older students. The work that Alice started last year with the nursery class is the first focus on Early Childhood.

The book corner. There were no books or other resources, and story-telling was not a feature of the school day. This little book corner is now stocked with home-made and published books, and the children love to hear stories.

Other resources provided by a VSO small grant for improving the learning environment

 

This young teacher is new and untrained, but was doing a fantastic job with the children.

Using different materials to practise letter formation

 

 

This is one of the Kindergarten teachers that attended the training workshop in May. Note the home-made charts in use on the wall!

The school has dormitories for students whose families are in Burma, or whose parents work too far away for the children to be able to attend school.

One of the buildings for the older students

 

 

On our way back, we stopped off to have a picnic lunch at a waterfall. The area has been developed as a very pleasant and scenic local attraction, with steps and walkways leading down from the road through the trees. Apparently in the dry season the water is crystal clear, but because of the recent rain it was very muddy

School Visit

On Thursday we returned to the school that we had postponed our visit to on Monday, only to find the place all closed up and no-one there, except some workmen collecting rubbish. I had arrived before my coordinator, so with my very basic Thai I managed to establish from them that there was indeed no-one there, the teachers having all gone.... somewhere. I didn't get that bit! I was assured that everyone would be back the next day. So it was back to the office for another day of reading up on principles of pre-school teaching practice and curriculum (2-4 year olds being my area of least expertise!) One of the Thai team in the office phoned the school director for us and it turned out that an emergency meeting of teachers had been called by the ministry the previous day, and the director had forgotten to inform us.

So we went back on Friday, and this time everyone was there! This is the one remaining school that I will be working with (as opposed to pre-school centres). The story by now is too complicated to try and recount! The idea is for me to work with the Kindergarten classes (4 and 5 year olds). We spent most of the day in the KG2 class with the 5 year olds, just observing and interacting a bit with the children. The really frustrating thing for me is not being able to communicate directly with them in the way I normally would. But then that is exactly the frustration that the teachers feel when trying to communicate with the children who do not speak Thai, so I won't have any problems putting myself in their shoes!

The main activity that we observed in the morning was what I suppose would be called a "phonics and handwriting" lesson in the UK, which seemed to go on for a very long time, with lots of practice in exercise books. At one point we left to go and see what was happening next door in KG1. When we came back, some children were still carrying on with their letters, and the rest were playing with plasticene. There was some very imaginative play going on, including a whole meal being meticulously prepared in one corner, and a complicated outdoor lake scene complete with boats being created in another corner.

At 11.00 they stopped for lunch, which was eaten in the patio area just outside the classroom. After lunch, they were able to play outside, though by this time it was pretty hot, being almost mid-day.

When they returned to class, the idea was for the children to have a sleep, though none of them seemed especially disposed to the prospect! After  a bit of poetry recitation and Buddhist chanting and meditation, most of them did settle down, and we were able to spend some time chatting to the teacher. She gave us some very useful background information about the curriculum expectations, the background of the children and the challenges that she faces in trying to support them, in particular with their language development to get them to Grade 1 standard. There seems to be a strong emphasis on writing, which probably explains the length of time spent on writing practice in the morning.

We will need to return and spend more time observing to get a clearer idea of the areas for support, but already from this one visit I can see there is plenty of scope for developing practice in a whole range of areas from interactive and child-centred learning activities to classroom management and discipline. Main question is, where to start?