This week was my first full week at the orphanage. Teaching here has been an interesting adventure. There aren’t as many resources available here as there were in South Korea. The place has some school supplies (such as markers, pencils, paper, and some books) and has an area dedicated to being the classroom. But as for photocopy or printing, it’s lacking.
Few of the bigger kids don’t seem to care to learn any more than what they learn in school. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don’t. The younger kids, however, I’ve found to be very eager to learn. They love colouring, and that can easily take up 30 minutes if I let it. They also love when I read them books. We have a few of those books where the kids have to look at the picture and say the word. My antics seem to go over very well. Lesson plans are pretty basic, and I don’t really have any specific topic I try to teach them since their school text books and/or teachers seem to be doing a pretty good job. As a result, I read to them, play some games, give them worksheets, and get them talking about whatever.
I’m supposed to teach for about 2 hours in the morning and afternoon but I’m not. Cambodia has a weird school system where the little kids go in the morning and the older kids go in the afternoon. Then they switch every month. The little kids can bear with for an hour, but then they make it known that they want to go. They’re smart kids, love to participate and they are obedient. The girls seem to enjoy talking in a conversational style more than the boys, while the boys are much more eager to play games, especially sports. Outside of “class time”, I spend time talking to the kids, but much more time fighting the boys. I told them I do Khmer boxing and so they took the opportunity to test my skills. The boys are pretty good at boxing. There are two or three of them that I can see being quite strong when they grow up. There’s also one kid who loves break dancing. He’s okay right now, but if he keeps it up he’ll be able to pull any chick in the bar when he’s older. Good luck my man!
I think this will be one of my last teaching stints. Although I’m enjoying my time as a teacher, it’s not something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I would do it again especially if I needed the money, but I think the next challenge lies in finding a different type of job for a while.
This last week was my first full week at the orphanage. Teaching here has been an interesting adventure. There aren’t as many resources available here as there were in South Korea. The place has some school supplies (such as markers, pencils, paper, and some books) and has an area dedicated to being the classroom. But as for photocopy or printing, it’s lacking.
Few of the bigger kids don’t seem to care to learn any more than what they learn in school. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don’t. The younger kids, however, I’ve found to be very eager to learn. They love colouring, and that can easily take up 30 minutes if I let it. They also love when I read them books. We have a few of those books where the kids have to look at the picture and say the word. My antics seem to go over very well. Lesson plans are pretty basic, and I don’t really have any specific topic I try to teach them since their school text books and/or teachers seem to be doing a pretty good job. As a result, I read to them, play some games, give them worksheets, and get them talking about whatever.
I’m supposed to teach for about 2 hours in the morning and afternoon but I’m not. Cambodia has a weird school system where the little kids go in the morning and the older kids go in the afternoon. Then they switch every month. The little kids can bear with for an hour, but then they make it known that they want to go. They’re smart kids, love to participate and they are obedient. The girls seem to enjoy talking in a conversational style more than the boys, while the boys are much more eager to play games, especially sports. Outside of “class time”, I spend time talking to the kids, but much more time fighting the boys. I told them I do Khmer boxing and so they took the opportunity to test my skills. The boys are pretty good at boxing. There are two or three of them that I can see being quite strong when they grow up. There’s also one kid who loves break dancing. He’s okay right now, but if he keeps it up he’ll be able to pull any chick in the bar when he’s older. Good luck my man!
I think this will be one of my last teaching stints. Although I’m enjoying my time as a teacher, it’s not something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I would do it again especially if I needed the money, but I think the next challenge lies in finding a different type of job for a while.
I’m in talks with the orphanage to sell some prints of their paintings. If you’re interested, let me know. I’ve commissioned a special larger painting of Angkor Wat which I will copy and sell. Majority of the proceeds will go to the orphanage while I’ll retain a part of the proceeds to cover my costs. Otherwise, you can email the orphanage directly and ask them about the paintings they have for sale. All original paintings sold contribute to the development of the orphanage.