Home again

On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 11:53 PM, Aria wrote:

I miss getting emails from you and Cambodia every day.

 How ya holdin' up?

From: Corbin
Date: Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: Day....
To: Aria

Haha! I miss it too! There are days when I think "Oh no! I didn't write Aria yet!" and then I look around and remember I'm not in Cambodia anymore :(

Well I think my my stomach is finally used to eating processed American foods again. I decided to move back out here to La'ie just for the summer, but I haven't found housing or a job yet. Fingers crossed.

Corbin did find a job, teaching a Student Development class for brand new international students.  He loves it. 

Talk Story

It's something we do all the time in Hawaii, and something we so rarely get to actually do as teachers. 

"Chakrya came by herself today and neither of us were in a learning/teaching mood so I spent the time just talking with her; it's nice to just talk 1-on-1 because the student (sometimes) feels more at ease for asking questions (or it can be the exact opposite where they're really nervous). Fortunately Chakrya wasn't nervous at all, the time allowed me to just get her to talk, practice that really everyone needs. In our conversing she told me that because Khmer New Year is coming up (Apr. 13) some of the children are starting to leave for their homelands. At least one child has already left so I plan on going to the orphanage tomorrow to take pictures with as many of them as I can because more will leave over the weekend."

 

--Corbin

A day and it's issues

Today's lesson started off on a bad note. [The little kid] was over-the-top annoying and Socheat thought it would be funny to say "sh*t" repeatedly so I was pretty sour. Everyone was very talkative when all they had to do was write some example sentences I had given them on the board. Pattica thought I was picking on him a lot today and Sophanuth and Phanith were laughing at everything for no apparent reason. I was pretty silent and they all knew I wasn't very happy so they'd quiet down but then they'd forget themselves and start up again. GAH! I was so close to just yelling at all of them today but this is like the first time they've ever been so restless so I took the "scary, silent" route and they eventually wised up and just listened to me. By the end of the lesson everything felt back to normal and afterwards I just took Socheat to the side and asked him not to say that anymore and he apologized and made up excuses like that he didn't know it was bad and while I don't believe him I just said ok and to stop saying that.

-- Corbin

Patterns for group 2

Corbin, who has had some interesting experiences with the American visitors to CICFO the past few weeks, has made a lot of progress and is continuing his work with the students whenever he can.
 "Today was pretty good. The majority of group 2 came and we were able to work on some crosswords as well as watch a Mr. Bean video on Youtube. I can't completely say they love Mr. Bean (although honestly, who doesn't?) but I think they really enjoy anything that isn't actual work."
We do Mr Bean videos because they are wordless, but it is simple to ask questions and have them correctly answered.  They're funny, simple, short...it's a great accidental teaching tool. 

Cambodian Visas

I feel like this information is hard to find, or just plain unknown.

Foreigners must have visas to enter Cambodia.  You may purchase an e-visa while you are outside of Cambodia.  You can purchase a visa for 1 month, 3 months, or 1 year.  However, we've been told at Cambodian Passport Agencies that tourist visas are only valid for 1 month, regardless of what your e-visa says.  There are other visa options available.
While you are in Cambodia, you can only purchase a visa for a period of 1 month.
While you are in Cambodia, you may apply for a visa renewal only once.
ONE TIME.
There is a $5 fee for every day that you have stayed in Cambodia past the date of your visa expiration. This fee must be paid at your port of exit, be it a border or the airport. 
If you need to extend your stay in Cambodia, you must exit the country.  You may do this by traveling to Poi Pet, which is on the border of Cambodia and Thailand.  There you will exit Cambodia, enter Thailand, and re-enter Cambodia at which time you will be able to purchase a valid visa.
You can also leave the country through the Vietnam/Cambodia border.  It really is up to you. I don't know about Vietnam, but for individuals with US Passports, there is no entrance fee for Thailand.

Word puzzles

Another day another lesson. Group 2 was a little more rowdy than yesterday, but they enjoyed the activities I had for them today. I did another crossword puzzle (I have found these to be much more thought-provoking than word searches) and for the first 10 minutes they were very confused but no one wanted to ask me so I had no idea. Eventually they all got it and it was great! Their faces just lit up when they understood and it looked like they really had fun completing the puzzle.

Week in a nutshell

day 53- This may be a surprise but group 2 has become much less difficult to teach! Today's main activities were a crossword puzzle and watching a Mr. Bean vid on youtube and then discussing it. They really seemed to enjoy the video (although they became a lot more silent once the video was over and I asked them a few questions about it).

day 52- Women's day celebration, so class was early.  


To reward the kids who had been coming to class consistently, the plan for day 51 was to watch Megamind.  Almost the entire class showed up, which is both good and unfortunate.  We try so hard to reward hard work, and not those who regularly neglect the English class.


Corbin got sick early in the week and has been trying to catch up since then.  It gets a little stir-crazy when you're ill, but he pulled through like a champ.  

Happy little things

"We were only missing Sophanuth today, so overall it was pretty good. I think they are all very accustomed to how our weekly routines now; because I generally teach group 3 the same things I teach Botevy and Yaya in the mornings, by the time I'm downstairs with group 3 they almost have everything on the whiteboard recorded in their notebooks. I really like this because it gives me less "sit-and-wait-while-they-write time" and more time to give explanations and examples of the words we learn. Pattica was telling me that last week he was talking to some tourists and that they needed paper for something, so when he took out his notebook they happened to see the notes he takes from our lessons and were very impressed that he was learning "university words." Experiences like this make me happy."

typing improvements

Our very first semester working with these kids, we taught them proper typing hand positions and spent a lot of time working on keyboard orientation.  When the first semester was over, most of group 3 kids could type at about 10 wpm with at least 96% accuracy.

 I had the majority of group 2, as well as Pattica and Chakrya, take a typing test twice (the first as a warmup) and the results are as follows:

Theary - 8wpm

Nana - 4wpm

Kanha - 15wpm (she's awesome!)

Theara - 5wpm

Chanty - 16wpm

Ama - 8wpm

Kasy - 4pm

Wichet - 16wpm

Pidor - 8wpm

Heang - 4wpm

sreymean - 5wpm

samol - 12wpm

Chakrya - 14wpm

Pattica - 12 wpm

Day 39 in Corbin-time

"Whew!  I started off by having those who did come practice typing; most of them could which I found very surprising. Afterwards we played a game where everyone made up a fake identity: name, job, whatever. 
One by one everyone we stood up and introduced ourselves and everyone had to ask the standing person a question. 
As fun as it could have been, the girls were a bit unimaginative (they all picked Khmer names and typical jobs like a doctor, a teacher, a student). 
They weren't really grasping the whole "made up" part of the game, sometimes we asked their age and they would give their real ages and I'd be like "You're 15 and a teacher?!" and then they would kind of catch on. 
When it was my time, I told them I was a ninja. Kannha said, "But on tv, ninjas are slim and tall." :/ It was a good attempt but I can see that their minds need to be much more open. I understand that creativity isn't fostered here like it is in the states so I knew it would be a bit difficult for them."

Power's in the plug.

"Today started off very much like yesterday.
(most of the students came in late)
I was going to have the the first three do a more "fun" activity looking up pictures of this week's words (as opposed to the boring "create a sentence for each" activity) but right after I had the words divvied up to everyone the power went out! In the end they had to just make up sentences, which is still educational but not nearly as fun. Depending on who comes tomorrow, some of them will probably suffer during my quiz (which they were surprised to hear I will still give considering all the absences this week).

They keep bothering me to watch a movie like how you did with them and I am considering it, but I told them IF I do it, I won't tell them when because I wouldn't want them to show up only because of the movie. Also, I plan on giving them a small assignment with it because why not? I'm so dastardly."

The longer I do this, the more I understand my elementary school teachers.

Clear instructions

It took a lot of time for me to find a way to give clear instructions.  Things I thought were clear soon appeared to be the opposite.

Corbin ran into the same thing with his folded-book project.

 "Today I had planned to help translate group2's Khmer story books into English; however I hadn't been clear with my instructions! Yes they did what I told them to, write a story in Khmer for all 6 pages of the book. But each page had like 8-10 sentences written on it! I thought "ok, we can still do this" but then as I started with the first student I realized that he had no idea what the English words were for the Khmer ones. I'm having them redo the assignment now; shorter stories and look up English words in a dictionary so that when they come back next week I can help them write the sentences correctly in English."

"When they came and I looked at their books "oh my goodness!" and they all laughed.Yeah I had set up the computers with the online dictionary but for some reason the Khmer keyboard wasn't working on any of them (because they don't know how to spell the Khmer words with English letters). I'll have it set up right for this week with the shortened versions of their stories."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Corbin:

"My day was not too eventful, although I did get to spend a lot of quality time with my current love: my laptop (actually it was just about the same as any day). Today's lesson with group 3 was alright; I quizzed them on a couple of different words and then they started asking me grammar questions so I spent the majority of the time explaining those. It's moments like these that me thankful I learned about how to explain things like the differences between the past, present, past perfect, and present perfect aspects. Only Socheat, Chakrya, and Phanith showed up today so it was a lot more quiet than usual. I had the three of them write you a little about whatever they wanted, so you can read that in the attachment!"


I had offered myself as a pen-pal for the kids so that their writing would have more meaning.  I found that it was a better product if the kids were sharing with someone, and I was missing them.  It was a wonderful present to get 3 letters. 

Dear: Aria

Hello! My name’s is socheat and I’m grade that I have opportunity to write a message to u. How are you and how about your study going on???

I would like to thank you for your coming and thought us what we can do or can understand all about English book and computer by the way I’m appreciate for you, I love you so much and I really so sorry for u that before I had a mistakes.

However I know that you don’t mind about what I did on you.

For the end I want to say I like u and love u so much because you’re a good person who I know and I think the god will be bless you all the thing that you want.

I wish you have a good health study hard successfully in your studying at BYU and your family too… form me :socheat

Dear: Aria

Hello! Aria, how are you? How about your school now? I miss you so much and all the children in the orphanage also. You know I’m so great full that I know you and you are very best teacher. I miss your teaching because you had tough how to type and write the present. I always remember when we had play card and watch movie together about Nemo. Thand you very much Aria for coming in Canbodia and teaching me and your kindness. You know my new teacher is very good he teach me and explant me very well. He is a good teacher like you.

                                                               From chakrya

Dear: Aria

Hello Aria, I’m Phanith. How are you? I miss you so much, I’m glad to send this letter to you. How was your studying? Did you graduate from university? Do you have job?

We are thanks you so much for your kind to tough us in Cambodia, that can make us know a lot about English and how to type on computers. I know that you are very best teacher. Now I had studying with Corbin. He tough us about TOEFL words. He is a one teacher that best like you.

I’ll try to study hard…..

Thanks so much Aria. I hope we will meet again on someday….

Good bye…take care…………

It is far from perfect, but it is legible and communicated effectively, which is an incredible step.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Another Holiday

It's hard to work around Holidays when they aren't your own and we're not an established school.  The schedules of the students change on a dime.  Sometimes we get to participate, others not as much.  But it always leads to getting better acquainted with the students.  

"It was Chinese new year weekend over here but honestly it was pretty uneventful for me. Botevy them don't celebrate Chinese new year (anymore) because what everyone does is go to Chinese restaurants and spend as much money as they can (or cook as much Chinese food as they can and invite everyone over). Apparently they believe that the more money they spend on Chinese new year, the more they will prosper financially the during the year (or something along those lines). 

I think my relationship with group 3 is improving. I decided to do over yesterday's lesson today and that's when Pattica told me that he was having a very difficult time understanding all the vocabulary words I've been teaching them. He thought I'd be mad but I was actually very happy that he was being honest with me! I'll be working on improving my lessons and giving more clear explanations and examples from now on."


--Corbin

Story Time!

This goes back to something we had learned with the first semester of interns.  It's hard for the students to create their own thoughts and sentences in English.  Aria worked with the little kids, re-telling the children's stories that they know.  Corbin did much the same here.  

"We did another word search (I think they like it) this time the words were all verbs. Afterwards we compiled a list of verbs and I had them create sentences using them. I gave them an assignment for the week: write a short story! I taught them to fold a piece of paper up and form a little 6-page booklet; they will write a short story in Khmer first then next week I will work with them individually to translate and write them in correct English."

Group 2, attempt 2

Group two is our mid-teenager group, ages about 14-16.  They meet with Corbin twice a week, on Saturday and Sunday, because their school schedules are all very different it's hard to make a time when they can all have a class.  It's hard to keep their attention in a class because they're so busy with their other schooling.

"Today with group 2 went a lot better than the previous weeks. Not only did they pay more attention to me, but I was able to incorporate a lot of speaking practice with them today as we played several different speaking games. I was not as nervous as usual so hopefully tomorrow goes the same for me!"

"I started with two primary songs, after which I drew a body on the board and had the kids tell me the body parts and how to spell them."

We divided teams, which is always hard in a group like this. 

 "With the teams divided I had them write down sentences about what they can do with their body parts. When I was finally able to get them to write a few sentences down I told them they were going to act out their sentences (simple ones like "I can hear with my ears.") and everyone said they understood but no one did anything so I had to have Vichet explain to them in Khmer because he seems to be the only one in class who actually means it when he says that he understands."

 Corbin is a TESOL major, this experience working with different age groups has been really beneficial in giving him more of a direction for the people that he would like to work with later in his career.  

"My [former] classmates and they seem to think I'm on the right track with group 2: just having a looot of activities to keep their attention and teach them indirectly since their English skills are all over the place and it's too hard to control them for 2 hours. "

King Norodom Sihanouk

Today was the start of a 4-day holiday as the funeral/cremation of the King. We were supposed to go in the evening but after watching the procession on tv this morning Botevy saw that there weren't that many people in the day, so there would definitely be more people at night.

TOEFL clock-work

Mondays I introduce the new vocabulary (15 words from the TOEFL book Natalie gave me). 

Tuesdays I review the words and work on computer skills. 

Wednesdays we learn synonyms for the week's words as well as review the previous week's words.

Thursdays we review the words again and then we go over what's been read in The Joy Luck Club.

A couple of them had forgotten their books and so they didn't want to talk about the reading (go figure); we reviewed our TOEFL words and went over some of the words that those who HAD read didn't know and wrote down. 

Fridays I have them do one more exercise with the week's words and a writing project or another activity.

Music. It works

To: Aria
Ohmigosh! Working with group 2 is almost like a nightmare for me! These kids are incredibly hard to control and whenever they don't want to do something they just act like they don't understand! Incredibly frustrating! I know that group 2 is good and that they're trying to pay attention (at least some of them). 

I tried to keep them focused by doing team activities. The first one was fine, everyone had their heads together and they worked on getting the task done; the second one was disastrous! 

You should know how it is, what kind of things did you do with them in order to maintain order?

To:  Corbin

Honestly?  I sang.  Like all the time.  And they liked hearing me sing and so when I wanted them to write or read or something, I'd sing quietly in the classroom while I gave them time to work.  It helped me gauge time as well.  They at least quieted down enough so that the kids who wanted to do the work were able to get it done.  Start class with a song.  When they lose attention play a game or sing.  They've been in school for a good part of the day, so I felt like their brains were sludge by the time I got to work with them. 

Teach them their new favorite song and help them understand the words.  They know the words, but they don't always know what they mean.  Make that a type of reward. 

To: Aria

 Hey! Thanks for the tip on using music. Today we picked some primary hymns, I wrote the words on the board and we went over them, I explained what they didn't know and then we sang. I know I can't do this every lesson but it was a lot more controlled than my past lessons with group 2.

Lots of reading....and bread

Highlights from Corbin's daily correspondence to Aria:

-Group 3 has pretty much learned the first batch of TOEFL words, they went through today's lesson for them in half the time expected so I had to find something else for them to do.

-I've been to the ABC bakery, GREAT bread. Speaking of, Botevy told me the whole time you lived off bread and sandwich meat! And some of the girls said that you had  them hula. Funny stuff. 

Group 3 is becoming a little too comfortable around me, they rejoice when my lesson requires the computers and today one of them even tried to watch tv when he finished his test!  That's what happens when you teach a small group of students close to your age.

-Started group 3 on reading The Joy Luck Club; I don't really expect them to understand it, but I want them to get used to reading from non-children's books as well as get in the habit of reading written English regularly and learn more words.  Natalie gave me the books from Kahuku high school.

TOEFL horse racing

Aaaaaand the TOEFL horses are off!

Unfortunately, TOEFL racing is a lot more boring than a real horse derby. My new dilemma is trying to make learning TOEFL words fun but still within my daily allotted time. Other than that things are going just dandy.

---------------------

All is well. I feel that group 3 will progress very nicely over the coming months.

Nothing else to report. 

Starting week

Here are some highlights of what's been happening with Corbin this past week:  


- This is a little late, but I'm alive!!! Socheat asked me how long I will be staying and when I told him only 3 months I felt sad knowing that in 3 months, someone else will be here and they will have to start over with him/her (not so much learning wise [hopefully] but relationship wise). It's going to be challenging getting these kids up to snuff, so pray for me!

-I was able to lay some groundwork down with group 3 and we'll be starting TOEFL prep next week! 

-Ohmigosh!!!!!  Taught group 2 for the first time today, they are SO different from group 3!!! They were still respectful, but so much harder for me to handle!  They don't all understand me, and when I ask they all say they do. Fortunately Vichet pretty much repeated everything I said in Khmer so that everyone was on-task.

-Today's class session was MUCH less frustrating yesterday. It's funny because yesterday we were missing about 4 kids and they were unmanageable, but today I had all 13 of them and it was just fine! I think my game yesterday helped them like me more. Anyways, it's a bit of a shame I can only meet with group 2 on weekends (because of their school schedules) but I do like them and from today's session.

Corbin OUT!

Day 1 from Corbin

Corbin sends an email every day with updates on the kids and what they're working on.  Each week we'll post some of what he has been up to.  

Well, it's not really day 1, yesterday was day 1 but all I did was shop and meet the kids. I consider today day 1 because I started teaching. I am alive and I have no digestive/stomach problems. Today I started assessing group 3's English and I should be done with my assessments after tomorrow. I am a little concerned because I know that Natalie wants me to work on the TOEFL with this group, but so far it does not seem that they are anywhere near where they should be; I definitely have my work cut out for me.

New things for a new year

Aloha!  ជំរាបសួរ (jim briabp seur)!  Hello!

We've begun a new year and a new semester with a new intern!
His name is Corbin.  He is a TESOL major and his specific focus during his internship this semester is preparing the older kids to take the TOEFL exam. The TOEFL exam measures English skill level and is required for many post-secondary institutions.   He is also working with the 12-16 year old group in getting them familiar with computer and helping them get to the point where they'll be able to be prepared when it's time for them to get ready for the TOEFL. 

I see the hope of progress.

It's difficult going because the kids all have different government school schedules.  But he is getting to know all the kids and they're learning how to work with him.  We look forward to really great things in Cambodia this semester. 












We also have some exciting things coming for the 'home base' of ICHope.  We have published our facebook page and look forward to documenting our happenings through that medium as well.   ICHope has been selected as one of the projects that the Brigham Young University- Hawaii chapter of Enactus (SIFE) will be presenting on in their regional and national competitions.