Look what I found today!

Even in Phnom Penh, there are a couple of places that I kind of enjoy shopping. Today I visited one, looking for a way to organise my resources for our math program, and also to possibly replace something I broke earlier in the day.  Well, I didn't find either in the first place I looked, but look what I did find.

Front view

Back view with beads flipped over.

When I spotted the first one, I thought about it for a minute and then checked the price. They were just $2 each. They only had five, so I decided to buy all their stock. I was glad I did, because a couple of them were either missing a bead or had an extra one. It was an easy process to move the beads so that I end up with four complete ones and then I also moved the columns with missing beads to the 10,000,000 and 100,000,000 places (which I may just remove anyway as we don't go past 1,000,000 in 4th grade) so even the fifth one is usable. I've got 4 tables in my classroom, so that's one per table and one to spare!

Now why am I so excited about this. Well, one of the tools that is used in our math program to help students understand larger numbers is the abacus. There's a printed version and students practice reading and writing four and five digit numbers using the abacus.

The next step from simply reading the number is telling what the number would be if a single bead is added to a particular place. Some of my students in the past have really struggled with this, especially when it comes to adding that tenth bead to a column which requires regrouping. When I spotted these little treasures, I thought, "That's just what I need for those students who need hands on practice".

Now if you look closely you'll notice there's a lot of writing on the front side. Some of it is Chinese characters (like the ones you can still see at the base of each column) and there was also a "Multiplication Table". Since I do occasionally get students who can read Chinese, and also the Multiplication Table would be distracting, I found a piece of coloured "contact" and covered it up. It was a bit fiddly, but all the loops come out and I managed to do it without losing any beads.

I'm still working out what to do with the base, but I know I've got some sticky spots somewhere that I can write the English letters on for represent each of the places that we will use. Now I'm looking forward to using them with my kids when school goes back.

Background writing covered with "contact".

My sweet kids

I'm sure I've mentioned before just how much I love my kids, but just in case I haven't, well I do! I love them when they're good, and I love them when they're naughty. Fortunately they are much more often good than naughty! :)

Today, some of my kids just blew me away. During the year they have earned Kindness Cash by doing kind things, either to me or to their classmates. For example, a kid who is on-time every day, and pulls no "Go For Green" cards for a whole month is being kind to me! As a result they are awarded Kindness Cash. There are other rewards for not pulling cards as well, but this is a bonus. Kindness Cash is a school-wide program encouraging both kids and teachers to catch kids being kind.

Today the Kindness Store, where they can exchange their cash for various goodies, opened for the last time (well, there will actually be a catchup opening tomorrow for those kids missed out today when recess wasn't long enough). Four of my kiddos decided that, instead of getting something for themselves, they would put their "cash" together and buy gifts for the teacher! They came back after recess and presented me with two sets of flashcards (dinosaurs and world flags), a teaching clock, and a puzzle book. What precious, amazing kids we have at EWIS.

Now yesterday I debated whether I should keep up my tradition of giving every student in my class a book for the summer. The reason I debated was the shop I used to get my good quality second hand books from is no longer operating. :( After this morning's surprise from those sweet kids, I'm so glad I bit the bullet yesterday afternoon and went book shopping for them (and found suitable books for just $1 each). Every student in my class will get a book, and a small bag of sweets. Yep, they'll get lollies! But not until the end of the day, and only a few. Today I found Natural Confectionery Company jelly snakes and dinosaurs, and topped it up with a few milko type lollies. Each kid will get the sum total of 2 dinosaurs, 1 snake, and 4 other candies. I hardly think that will give them a huge sugar overload. They will also receive a letter from me and an individualised class photo.

I will miss these kids, but look forward to seeing them, like my previous classes, grow and mature as they progress through the school. I thank God for the opportunity to love and serve these precious children as they learn at East-West International School.

Maintaining Momentum

With just 13 days left in the school year, and report cards already submitted, it can be a little hard to keep the momentum of learning going in the classroom. To make sure my students continue learning, while having fun as the school year draws to a close, we are working on two major projects.

The first is a follow-up on an activity we did early in the year. I didn't blog about it this year, but you can read about our Book Butterflies here. To finish the year I'm having students use a different poster, but with the same idea. This time it's called a Reading Response Web, and all the features of the book report are linked to the central box with strands of rope. I managed to add lines to my master copy to help the children work neatly, and have had A3 enlargements made from the mini-poster. The A3 size works well, giving adequate space, without being too big to manage in the classroom. It also displays well. This morning I actually chose books I wanted the children to read, as I wanted them to explore at least one different book to those they've been choosing for themselves. I've noticed recently that most students tend to get stuck on one series and stay with it until they're bored. That's OK! I did it myself (and still do sometimes) but I wanted them to explore some other choices as well. My choices were based on reading ability and interests, and I'm very much hoping they will enjoy their books.

Our other fun project is our final Social Studies theme for the year. We're studying Ancient Egypt, with a focus on pyramids and hieroglyphics. I'm taking a couple of approaches to this topic. First I'm using something called "History Pockets" which I've modified to meet limited resources etc. There's lots of colouring and construction involved and a little reading and writing. The photo above shows last year's finished products. All these bits and pieces are stored in a modified manila folder (fold up the bottom 2 inches of a foolscap folder and staple in place to make two pockets to keep all the papers and activities in). I'm also using two books from Reading A-Z. The first is actually a little easy for most of my students, but it was great for beginning to build vocabulary. The second is going to be challenging for all of my students, but I hope that by exploring it together they will learn more. I really enjoy being able to work a topic across both Science/Social Studies and English Language Arts. We also put a little bit of time into learning the Khmer vocabulary for the topic, so hopefully they can share their learning more easily with their families.

Next week is another short week, and we have our annual concert on Wednesday evening, so there will be much excitement. The grade four classes are combining to sing a couple of Colin Buchanan songs from his Egyptian trilogy, which they are really enjoying. More about that later.

19 days to go ...

I'm having a hard time believing there are just 19 days left of the 2012-2013 school year. It seems like yesterday I came back from Australia full of a head cold, with lots of plans for the year and excited to have a new group of students. In just 4 weeks another year will be done!

So what's going to happen in the next 19 days?

• Grades for report cards to be finalised and submitted by Friday 7th June
• End of year concert - Wednesday 19th June
• Ancient Egypt unit to teach
• 5 Mathematics units to teach (think we might only get 3 and a bit done though)
• Some Language Arts activities to finish up
• Lots of fun and laughter
• Making memory pages for my students
• One last public holiday
• Report cards to go home

What else? Who knows? God does, and He'll provide me with the strength to finish the year well and start preparing for next year.

Something I've noticed a number of times in recent days ...

During the last few weeks I've seen something on a number of occasions that I hadn't seen before, or at least it hasn't registered. It reminds me of the deep sadness of death in a country where so many do not know Jesus.


Taken from the 4th floor of EWIS looking south.

In Cambodia, when someone dies, everyone in the surrounding neighbourhood knows about it. Funerals are very loud, and often block the whole street, for anything up to seven days. Back in March there was just down the road from the school. This is what it looked like. You'll see here that only half the street is blocked. Fortunately in this area we have fairly wide frontage outside houses, so half of this funeral was there, effectively shutting down two small businesses in the adjacent houses.



Street level.
Notice the white "flag" which is
another significant part of the funeral.

You can imagine the traffic chaos during peak hour when you've got lots of traffic trying to get past, as well as that being the time when many people come to pay their respects and so are trying to park as close as possible.
This I've seen quite often, so that wasn't what was attracting my attention today.

Today I saw the Khmer version of a funeral procession. Only I heard it long before I saw it. The mournful music and regular drum beats which seemed to be getting louder and louder had me wondering what was going on, so I wandered out of my classroom and down to the end of the building. One of the benefits of being on the 4th floor is the bird's eye view that you get of the street. Here's what I saw when I looked down. The all white clothes or white shirts with black pants/skirts are traditional mourning attire.




This open sided truck is a Khmer "hearse".
Along with the casket there will usually be several monks and mourners.

By waiting a little while I was able to capture
more of the scene. This was then followed
by mourners in cars, and also on motos.

I'm not sure why I haven't seen or noticed these before, but I am fairly confident they are heading to Wat Toul Tom Pong which is at the end of our street.

I share this, so that those who have never been to Cambodia might have a glimpse of daily life here in Phnom Penh. Jesus came so that we might have life, life in all its fullness. He also gave us the assurance of know His children will spend eternity with Him. I thank God that He has allowed me to know that life, and the certainty of heaven, and I pray that I might share both with those around me, that they too might know Him. Death is always sad, no matter where it is, but with Christ it is not without hope!

Plumbing fun

Last night I went to have a shower before bed, to wash some of the humid, sticky, griminess away before heading for a cool night's sleep, but it was not quite that simple. So I turned on the water, and then pressed the button on the hot water system that starts the water flowing. That's when the fun started. Water was flowing all right, but not quite where it should have been.

The old

If you look carefully at the photo on the let you'll spot a silver butten, just below the body of the heater. There was nothing wrong with the button, it worked fine. Unfortunately the casing around it had split and so water was going everywhere. Equally unfortunately, I didn't have the connections to by-pass the system last night, so I took the easy way out and found another bathroom to have my shower!

Fortunately when the unit was installed I had made sure there was an extra safety net in case something like this happened, so I was easily able to turn the water off and not have to turn all the bathroom water supply off. The guy installing it thought I was crazy at the time, but now I'm glad I insisted.



The new

So I managed to disconnect the offending part and tuck it in a corner of my backpack. This afternoon when after school swimming was over I headed home, collected my helmet and headed out on my trusty moto. None of the first shops I tried was able to help me so I headed to an area where I know they had various bathroom fittings. First place said they'd have to order one in for me. Nope, that wasn't going to work. I kind of like my own bathroom! Next place was very helpful. I showed them the part, and what did they do? Did they have a spare? Well, not really, but that wasn't going to stop them making a sale. They did have a new water heater, so they pulled one of those down, found the necessary part, and sold it to me, along with the plumbing tape that seems an essential part of plumbing here in Cambodia!

Now, I'll bet that wouldn't happen in Australia! It's not exactly the same as the old one, but it's installed and works perfectly. In fact, I like this one better that the old one because it has a tap you turn on instead of a button to press. I'm thinking less pieces to go wrong is good!

Short weeks

May is a month of short weeks here in Cambodia. That can be a good thing, and it can also be not so good.

So what's good about it? Well, all those public holidays scattered through the month give me a great chance to catch up on stuff. For example, last Wednesday I was temporarily completely up to date with all my marking. Yep, everything my students had done for me had been reviewed! Didn't last long, as they handed more papers in on Thursday and we did an English test on Thursday and Friday, but it does feel good when it happens. It also allows me to strategically take some specific time out without feeling guilty. That's important. It's well known that if we keep on and on working a full pace we'll eventually buckle under the strain. If we think back to creation, God planned our week so we would work for 6 days and rest on the 7th. Now, anyone who is a classroom teacher, especially at the primary school level, will know that it's not always easy to take that seventh day every week, but it's definitely God's plan. The trouble is, sometimes my Sunday seems like anything but a day of rest, even if I don't do any school work. If I happen to be involved in leading or playing for a worship service, well that can be stressful, especially if there are songs I don't know so well. It also takes time preparing for it, time that I might otherwise spend on school stuff. Then there's interaction with people, which is part of being part of a church family. It's good, but for introverts like myself it's not exactly restful! And then, sometimes I get to Saturday, and that's when I need my "sabbath" rest. I've worked hard all week, and I'm just ready for a break, so sometimes that's what I'll do. Have a "slow" day on Saturday and then get my planning and prep done before or after church on Sunday. Public holidays make it much easier to take a "sabbath".

OK, so that seems like there are a lot of good things going for the public holidays I get in May. What's the flip side? Again, it's a teacher thing, but I'll bet parents can relate to this one too. Most kids actually thrive on routine. My students learn much more effectively when we are in a routine than when we have days off at odd times. The first holiday this month was on a Wednesday, and that's even worse than one attached to the weekends. You just get moving on things, and then you have a day off and you have to start all over again. Hmmm. Should we move all the holidays to Mondays or Fridays? No, I like my mid-week breather.

The end of the year is fast approaching. We've got just 6 weeks to go, and of those six weeks, two have public holidays, so altogether I have 28 days of school! Eek. We've got report cards to write, a whole Social Studies unit to complete, the end of year concert, and probably somewhere in there we'll also have a major assembly. I also need to plan some fun things for my students, and restock my "Go For Green" shop.

So this weekend is a Saturday down day. Tomorrow's going to be busy, with church, picking up my old keyboard from the repair shop (so we can use it to practice for the concert), grocery shopping, and lesson planning for the coming week. Life's like that!