Day Four - A Quick Post

I'm reaching the critical period on my own graduate school work, which has very definitely taken a backseat to what I'm doing here, but my day yesterday was amazing and I'll have super-awesome posts later to compensate!

Mr. Saveth and I continue to have dialogues about how to improve the school and extricate it from its current situation. The good news is that fabric came from the border for the vocational sewing program, so today I got to KNGO to hear the women happily working in the adjoining room. Also, KNGO has raised over $5000 thanks to its generous donors. I fear that people will think me a shill for donations, but the fact is that many people are too busy to find causes to donate to, so why not donate to something that a friend is supporting?

My day teaching was amazing and I received my first gifts from the students. The note reads, "I love teacher!" I also got a beautiful paper flower, proof that you can make something wonderful even from something as silly as flimsy Cambodian napkins.

I also got the advanced students to start writing creatively. This was a breakthrough much like the first English book reading from Tuesday, because many English learners in Asia do not get enough chances to write on their own. We wrote from a prompt, but I hope to encourage them to write and to continue to write. I am supposed to collect their work today, so we'll see how they do!

It's funny how many things are common to schools the world over. The teachers here are as serious about teaching as our own teachers, my former colleagues, in the schools in my hometown. They have varying strengths and weaknesses, too. But to see them in a meeting, even when I can't understand a word, discussing curricula and student performance, was to see the faces of the teachers in meetings around the world--a bit weary, a bit stony, a bit passionate, a bit intense.