Progress

I have (successfully?) completed my first year teaching at the high school! Yay! The year flew by, and despite the number of frustrations that I’ve faced, I am very pleased with some of the improvements I have seen.

This past month has been a confusing hodgepodge of semester tests at my school; some weeks I didn’t have to come to school, while others I did. Last week, I gave my semester exams to my 10th and 11th grade classes, which went pretty smoothly, besides the 0’s I had to give out for cheating. I don’t think I have fully explained the extent to which cheating saturates the education system here, so I will give you a brief overview. From observing and talking with teachers, I have concluded that cheating is an inseparable attribute of the education system in Cambodia, students having never been taught the concept that cheating is something they should avoid. On the contrary, from an early age, they are allowed to look at each other’s papers, talk, use their books or even buy the answers for a test from their teacher. Students here are inherently bad cheaters; they blatantly glance at other student’s papers, create cheat cheats which they don’t even try to conceal, and loudly confer about answers. They’ve never had to worry about getting in trouble for cheating, so why would they be secretive? In Cambodia, cheating is not a bad thing; it’s the only way students know how to take a test.

Then I show up one day and explain that cheating is absolutely unacceptable in my class. I explain what cheating is, why it stunts educational growth, and impose an automatic “0” policy for anyone caught cheating. This elicited many blank stares and puzzled faces, even from my co-teachers. But throughout the year, students caught on (as did my co-teachers), especially after my theatrical seizing of tests while shouting “ZERO!” in front of the perpetrator’s classmates. For the most part, cheating has significantly decreased in my classes, which has encouraged students to think on their own and study harder. Unfortunately, a few students didn’t fully get the message and I had no choice but to give them 0’s on the final exam last week. Despite cries and pleas after the test from guilty students, I had to stick to my policy so that students understand the importance of doing their own work and using their own brains.

My 10th grade class and my co-teacher, Phaneou

After my 11th graders finished their exams, they presented a gift-wrapped box with a bow on it. I wasn’t entirely surprised about the contents of the box since the week before they asked me what size shirt I wore. Nevertheless, I was delighted when I found a heavily-sequined Kmai-tastic shirt that boasted “Girls Save the Earth.” It was such a nice gesture from my students and I made sure to go on and on about how much I loved the shirt. The students were beaming with their enthusiastic smiles, which put me in high spirits as well. We all took a class photo together, and I felt really proud of all of them! It’s been a challenging year, but my 11th grade class has probably been my favorite class that I’ve taught. We have a really good rapport and most of the students are very eager to learn English. I am really looking forward to working with many of them next year, as they will be in 12th grade.

My 11th graders and my school director

The shirt my students gave me

At the beginning of the school year, I did individual interviews with every student in my 10th, 11th and 12th grade classes. I used these interviews to collect baseline data and assess the varying levels of English at the beginning of the year, to be compared with interviews at the end of the year. I asked basic questions, such as: What is your name? How old are you? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Where do you live? Etc. For students who were a bit more advanced, I asked more introspective questions, like “Why do you study English?” and “What do you think is the biggest challenge Cambodia faces?” I was a bit beleaguered in the beginning, realizing that many students could not even answer “What is your name?” But a couple of weeks ago, I conducted exit interviews for my 11th and 12th graders (10th graders didn’t show up when I had planned to do interviews), which produced surprisingly encouraging results. Almost every student could answer at least the basic questions that were unanswerable in the beginning of the year! More importantly, students’ confidence had improved dramatically- gone were the nerves that produced shaking, sweating and even tears from students in the beginning of the year. I asked some of the more advanced students if they thought their English had improved, and if so, why. They all said they felt their English had improved because they could listen much more easily and weren’t afraid to speak with foreigners. This was exactly the inspiration I needed as I reflect on my first year teaching.

There are many times when I question what it is I am doing here and what effect I am actually having. The raging idealism I had before coming here has consistently been weathered and the stark realities have become very clear. Cambodia has a myriad of problems and the solutions for these problems- in order to propel itself into a more prosperous future- must come from within. Throwing money at Cambodia (as many NGO’s and aid organizations often do) is really not going to solve anything, nor am I going to bring about a revolutionary change in the education system here. But the little things that I am doing- improving students’ confidence, helping Kmai teachers improve their teaching strategies, sharing knowledge about the world outside of Cambodia- will hopefully impact the people I work with and inspire them to improve their country in the future. I truly hope that my students will aspire to create a future for themselves that brings them happiness, whatever that may be- farming, teaching, traveling. I will continue to try to encourage them on their path. I still maintain a milder degree of idealism, for if I didn’t, it’d be impossible to live here and be a Peace Corps volunteer.

On the less mushy side of things, I am enjoying my respite from teaching at the high school. I am teaching 4 days a week at the health department, and am really enjoying that. My students all have, at minimum, an intermediate level of English, so we can work on more of the nuances of the English language. Currently, I’m working on Tongue Twisters with them, to fix some of their common pronunciation errors (the “th” and “sh” sound are proving to be particularly difficult). I am working on my materials development project every day, which is driving me crazy. Basically, I am creating ready-made tests for the second English for Cambodia (EFC) book. There are 6 EFC books, the 1st book is used for 7th graders, the 2nd for 8th, and so forth. Creating tests for each of the 20 chapters, along with answer keys and review sheets, is a monotonous task that I am eagerly looking forward to finishing. After I finish the test portion of my materials development, I will move on to creating ready made lesson plans for half of book 2, something I fear that will be even more tedious than creating tests. However, when it’s all said and done, I think it will be very useful for future volunteers and their co-teachers. The group of us who are doing materials development will compile one book with our ready-made tests (books 1-6) and then our lesson plans (books 1-6), which will be distributed to all of the new volunteers (most likely in August or September) and possibly their co-teachers. So July will pretty much be devoted to materials development! Yipee.

The 4th of July is coming up and I will be heading to Phnom Penh to celebrate at the U.S. embassy with a bunch of other volunteers. I’ve been at site for over a month and am definitely ready to have a little R&R in the big city. Kealan and I are planning a pool (weather permitting) and spa day, so I can feel like the girly girl I once was in a distant life. I am counting down the days… Other than that, I am enjoying the cooler weather that rainy season has brought, sans the added mosquitoes. Only downside is I never know when I’ll be able to do laundry, as I have to factor in drying time. Still, I’d take rainy season over hell…uh, hot…season any day!

Hope all is well with everyone!