Turning 60 in Cambodia

This week I turned 60.  I write that and don't quite know what to do with that number.  So, I thought I'd just throw it out there at the beginning of this blog entry and see where it leads.  Like the placement I have in Cambodia, there is a bright side, and a, how to say in English? A not so bright, or rather, a challenging side.  Yes, a challenging side.

 I want to report that at last I have some routines, some semblance of a schedule, some actual teaching, some actual teacher training to conduct and curriculum development to do. This didn't come easy:  I have had to fight and scramble for everything I do here.  I know some of my colleagues that I have communicated with, English Language Fellows in Vietnam, Thailand and other parts of Cambodia, are overly busy, and would gladly take my adhoc schedule, but here in the provinces, it has been a "create work" sort of structure.  I feel a bit like a salesman with one product to sell, that product being me as an English language fellow, someone who has experience with teaching English, and having to "cold call" clients based on some list provided by the US Embassy, with the idea that they would be interested in my services.  My theatre friends will know it's like the David Mamet play: "Glengarry Glenn Ross", a vicious work about salesmen trying to make a living, based on some unclear leads.  Well the sales pitch is finally working.   This is the bright side of the placement.  I have managed to get some work out in the provinces: last week I was invited to a small rural high school in Kampot Province, about 5 hours south of my home in Kampong Cham.  There I went, at the request of a Peace Corps volunteer, to conduct a workshop for English Teachers at her school, on how I use drama to teach English.  After observing classes in the morning and hearing one 7th grade English teacher ask: "how do I get kids to remember the vocabulary I teach them?”  I decided to focus on using physical techniques to learn and reinforce vocabulary. In the photo below we can see Khmer teachers, creating a 3-person tableau, or frozen picture, representing their interpretation of the word "Haunted":

The teachers were engaged, had fun, and I hope were inspired to add this type of activity to their repertoire of vocabulary teaching strategies.  Next week I am, after multiple emails, going to show up at a school in Ratanakiri province, a corner of rural North Eastern Cambodia, and will do something similar.  After that it is a full week of conduction training for 1st year Peace Corps Volunteers in Phnom Penh.

Like I said these experiences are the bright side--I am meeting teachers very interested in some alternative approaches to teaching English.  Oh, the sixty thing. The bright side: here in Cambodia it is definitely to my advantage.  In the US, it seems, young teachers look at older teachers with a bit of an attitude that implies, " We do things differently now, old-timer, step out of the way".  Plus age is a bit hidden there, no one comes right out and asks: how old are you?  Here it's the third question you get when meeting a Cambodian.  First, What's your name?  Then, How do you like Cambodia?  Then, How old are you?  My understanding is in Khmer culture, how they refer to you, what pronoun to use, what to call you, is based on age.  So they need to know.  And when asked how many years I have been teaching, after I say 35 years, the reaction here, unlike the "get outta my way old timer", reaction in the US, is, "wow you have lots of experience, tell me what you know".  So, if you gotta turn 60 somewhere, Cambodia is a good place to do it.

But let's talk a bit about the dark side.  Not of turning 60.  I don't know it yet; it's only been a few days. I'm sure it will rear it's ugly head soon enough.   No, of the placement.   The things that follow are not intended to be a commentary but a reporting, in the spirit of moving to understanding. The most general way of saying it is I have no regular teaching duties or co-teaching duties here, except what I have managed to fight for.  No one from the institution has communicated any need or even more discouraging, they have communicated no want.  At times it is as if they don't know what to do with the  ELF program. The US Embassy suggested I find a teacher to co-teach with.  So, I did, but the teacher never shows up to class.  I am told by Peace Corp Volunteers that this is, unfortunately a regular pattern here at the Regional Teacher Training Center, where some teachers will never, or rarely, make an appearance in the class.  And, because of the communication style, it is all underplayed and not spoken of.  So, I have taken on this methodology class, which was missing a teacher, teaching the students, who will be English teachers in Cambodian grades 7-9 next year, the methodology necessary to being an English teacher specifically, but also a good teacher in general.  Here is the bright side:  these young people are hungry for interesting,  more student centered, methodology.  And it has been one of the great pleasures of my teaching career to share what I know with them.  They have little experience with it as students themselves.  I have spent the past month visiting classes in local secondary schools and I have never witnessed as much teacher centered teaching in my life.  No open ended questions, no group work, task based learning, partner talk-- none of the TESOL techniques we all know and swear by.  No formative assessments, no student is held accountable for his or her learning except through monthly exams. No scaffolding for less proficient students, no gradual release of responsibility, nothing that tells students their learning is important and I as a teacher will do whatever it takes to help you understand.  All of the instruction I have witnessed has been of rote learning--teacher speaks, class repeats, individuals repeat, next phrase.  In classrooms with 40-60 students, no air-conditioning in 95 degree heat, this seems like a deadly mix that leads Cambodia to be the 69th out of 70 countries (only Libya was lower) on English language proficiency http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/english-skills-lagging-behind-global-trend.

Bright side?  The young people who will be the next generation of teachers are hungry for information.  The difficulty?  Finding ways within the restrictions of the placement to provide it.  Rather than despair and think I have done little in my 2 1/2 months here I will make a list of what have I done.   

1. Started an English through Drama club--27 students came to an inaugural meeting last Thursday evening.

2.  Teaching a methodology class in place of a teacher who regularly is absent

3.  Teaching a practicum for a class that also had no teacher (a note the teacher showed up today, and she was by far the most communicative, and most experienced teacher I have met here--but she will be going on maternity leave at the end of January--but hopefully we can do some real co-teaching until then!)

4.  Developing workshops for teachers in distant provinces

5.  Doing periodic presentations at the local American Corners run by the US Embassy

6.  Outreach to local public schools--to visit and discuss English Teaching

7.  Played my bass with some local high school and college student for a performance they did in a fundraiser organized by local Peace Corp Volunteers

8.  Giving my business card to everyone that might have some need of an English language fellow with the hopes of developing a relationship that can turn into a project.

9.  Read everything I could about Cambodian education system and politics to help me see everything in a context of political/historical and economic reality.
10.  Collaborating with Phnom Penh based ELF, Kim, to conduct trainings for first year Peace Corps Volunteers in February.

11.  Scoured my own teaching library/materials and internet and the COP of the fellowship for techniques, strategies and theory I can share with my students.

When I look at this, I feel a bit better knowing I have done some things here.  In a nutshell, the lack of clarity from my host institution is turning out positive for me, as it is forcing me to recognize what I can offer and seek out ways of making things happen.  Instead of being given a schedule of classes and a curriculum, this is much, much more what a sabbatical from Middle School teaching in the US should like like.  Hopefully, turning 60, while posing it's challenges, will also be an age of possibilities and opportunities as well.