Friday, March 20, 2015

Liger Laughs and the Case for Another Year

So, without much ado, we have signed on for a fourth year. This place has charmed us, our jobs continue to fulfill us every single day, and the future is looking bright. It wasn't too difficult a decision to make, and it continues to feel like the right one as we approach the end of year three.

Recruitment for our second cohort (between 50-60 students ages 11 and 12) began in December, and thousands of students have already been tested. Our goal is to have our top 90-100 by May, and begin working more closely with them to identify the ones who will be accepted. With the impending arrival of new little humans, our operations team has purchased new land and is busy planning new dorms, new classroom spaces and all the other details that will allow for a seamless introduction. Meanwhile, our education team is prepping for the hiring of additional staff members (both overseas and Khmer) to teach these kids. The new kids won't actually move onto campus until the middle of next school year (Jan.), but even so, there's a lot left to do.

Our current kids continue to shock and amaze (sort of joking, sort of not) us with their ambition, increasing self-awareness, maturing humor, and breadth of knowledge. Our youngest is turning 11 in a few weeks and our oldest is 13 (could be 14, birth certificates here are suspect), so its a totally different ball game from when we first arrived. I have my doubts about my own ability to teach middle schoolers, both from a behavioral (sassy, hormonal) point of view and a curriculum point of view, but they are still very much within elementary reading and writing parameters, so I think I'll be okay.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few anecdotes that I've kept track of over the past couple of months, simply because they made me happy, which is a big part of the reason why I love living here and working with these kids.
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-Sreynith, one of our most diligent students, was researching some unknown vocabulary in one of her guided reading books, a book about a witch named Winnie. She kept getting up, checking the dictionary, using her computer, and getting continually more frustrated, which almost never happens. When she finally came over for her reading group, she told me that she had found all the meanings for her new words, except one, but she really tried her best to no avail. The word? Pongberry. A made up witch fruit.

-I stayed home one day because I wasn't feeling well, and sent a quick email to the staff letting them know I was "home sick" for the day. Apparently this was unclear, because I got a response soon after from our Khmer social worker. She told me that she understood how I could be homesick, since I live so far away from my friends and family, but that everyone at Liger loves me and wants to help me feel better. She asked me if there was anything she could do to make me feel less alone...

-I was playing a game called Spot It with the kids, which involves circular cards with lots of little pictures on it. The goal is to "spot" a picture on the master card that matches one from your own card and yell the name faster than your opponents. There are probably 20 images in all: a spider web, a piece of cheese, an anchor, a four-leaf clover, a bull's eye, a question mark, etc. The English Language Learner part of the kids really came out during this game, as the spider web became "spider net," the bull's eye was reduced to "shooting," the light bulb was called "the thinking sign," and the cheese was repeatedly labeled "cookie thing."


-We had a visiting snake expert come and talk to the kids for one of our weekly "Inspirations." Afterwards, I was asking the kids how it went and if he gave an interesting presentation. When I asked what his name was, the kids all started giggling and told me "Leo." I was confused, and asked why they were laughing. Turns out "leo" is the pronunciation for the Khmer word for underwear...

-Some of our kids got the chicken pox earlier this year when they were home in their provinces. When we all came back together after the time off, Dom was talking about the chicken pox and how therefore, some of the kids were still at home. One of our students, Rathanak, turned to me with a seriously confused look on his face. His interpretation was that a chicken had PECKED them all, individually, and he was nervous about the ramifications of Cambodia's chickens turning violent.

-I was sitting in my classroom after school one day, and in walked one of our most garrulous and social girls. She was doing her work job, which is an assigned job related to cleaning/maintenance that the kids participate in weekly to bolster appreciation for this opportunity. She poked her head in and asked: "Can I broom your room?"

-During one of our Sharations, during which we invite community members, friends and other students to campus so our kids can present what they have been working on in their Explorations, I got a few minutes with one of our youngest students, Hongly. We were reflecting on the first year, and he told me that when he first started swimming lessons with JoJo, she would often say "Good Job!" while he swam. However, to his untrained ear, it sounded like "chobp," which is the Khmer word for wait or stop. Therefore, he would be swimming, would hear her say that, would stop mid-stroke, only to have her tell him to start going again.
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Here is the link to an article from The Guardian that we were featured in back in February: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/feb/11/schools-students-traditional-teaching

On a less prestigious, but more thrilling for the kids note, here is a link to the Facebook page of a famous Khmer-American singer, Laura Mam, who met some of our kids at the first-ever Cambodian Science Fair last weekend (no, our students aren't orphans): https://www.facebook.com/LauraMamMusic/photos/pb.384964581591952.-2207520000.1426778473./824589390962800/?type=1&theater

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