A Day in the Life of a Teacher in P.P.

My son asked me send him an e-mail with what teaching here is like. So, to save time, I thought I'd blog it, then everyone can enjoy the read - LOL :)

Today, the 4th week of school was our first time that the electricity went out for the whole day. Well, actually it came back on 10 minutes before the school day ended. :) Which was grand, cuz I quickly sent out a few e-mails I'd been wanting to send out to some teachers! Yea!
The electricity has gone out a few times before, but only for a few minutes, 1/2 hr tops.
You just get used to it. Everyone kept saying it was good that it wasn't the dry hot season :)

Last year, shortly after they moved to this new building, the power went out a lot, so we are lucky. My TA says in the dry hot season, people use their aircons more, so they'll ration the city. They take turns turning off power around the city to try to save on the electricity, so they don't completely run out. Then it can get bad, the kids get very tired and don't want to work and the teachers get cranky. :)

The morning went well, all doors and all windows stayed open all day. It makes it a little noisier, but not too bad. There was a nice breeze all morning. After about 1:00 I felt the sweat dripping down my back...but it was bearable, not as bad as you'd imagine. :) I'm lucky, my room has the morning sun coming in the windows, so by the time the hot part of the day came, the sun was on the other side. Of course I wasn't outside playing at recess...the kids were hot. A couple students made paper fans to fan themselves and we kept enough water in our water bottles. Some students used their notebooks to fan themselves. :)

When the power goes out, you have to have back up plans if you're using any technology for your lesson/instruction. You can't make copies, you can't print out anything.

Even with the power on, sometimes the toner runs out in the library printer or the staff room printer. So, you put your item on to your flashdrive (always have one handy), and you take it down to the office (or to another teacher's room if you know that they have a printer), and you get them to print it out for you. There are 2 copy machines for the whole school. If the one up in the staff room needs to be fixed, you always have the office one you can use. I'm one of the lucky elementary teachers - grades PreK - 5th have TAs, Teacher Assistants who do copying, bulletin boards, can do some teaching, and other assorted duties for you, like recess, taking your kids to lunch, etc. It is WONDERFUL and very helpful!! Especially for surviving in this heat and humidity. Life is just more difficult here all in all, so any little help is great! Everyone runs about 80% capacity, hardly ever 90%.

I love my schedule! I have my students all day, for 5 days. But they do have specials when they are out of the room. Music is Mon afternoon and Fri morning, I grade papers when they are out. Wed and Fridays are fabulous! I have from 1:40 - 3:00 to plan lessons, grade, write notes home, write my Friday newsletter, get reading logs ready for the next week, type up and print out the weekly memory verse, and other various duties. :) The kids are various places such as Khmer Language class, Art, or Swim. Thursdays they have library and computer.

We get up at 5:30 and leave the house by 6:30 a.m. We have to be at school at the latest by 7:30 a.m. for daily staff devotions. Monday afternoon is staff meeting at 3:30, after school. Tim and I are usually at school by 6:50 and try to leave no later than 5 p.m. Sometimes it's 4 p.m., sometimes 4:30 and at times 5 p.m. We have been as late as 5:30, but then we're walking home in the dark when we go out to eat and the roads are crazy here when crossing at night! I try to be in bed by 9:00 or 9:30 on school nights but some nights it's 10:00. It is so noisy here at the apt and we've talked to the landlords. We don't know if they can do anything about it. They said they'll talk to the store below us (music is booming usually by 5 a.m.) and the Karoake bar stays up late playing LOUD music! That they can't control :)

My students are great. A lively bunch of kids. They are quite artistic and dramatic :) There is one boy who reminds so much of Joshua when he was that age. Sweet, but dramatic and loves to talk and get people laughing at him or just laughing. :) Many of my students are ESL sudents, students who have English as their second language. It presents some challenges, but they are all so respectful and want to do well and please. Our routines are smoother now and we're all getting used to what to do and what to bring home/back to school, etc. They love to write and draw - it's wonderful! So Writing time is not liking pulling teeth like it is sometimes in the States. I teach the 6 + 1 Writing Traits and grade using that rubric. It makes so easy and great for the kids. Instead of just grading for grammar and marking up the paper, cuz here you will see poor grammar and wierd usage of words, due to ESL issues. You are also grading their Ideas, their Voice (expression, emotion), their Organization, etc which can be encouraging for them if they are good in these areas. It will help them to want to write more and not hate writing cuz all they get are red marks about their spelling, etc. I used the Six Traits Writing program in the States at the public school so I'm familiar with it.

So, after we get home, we drop our bags and either walk to a restaurant nearby, head to the market to get some fruit and veggies, or cook something on our 2 burner propane stove. Usually it's to the restaurant, unless it looks dark and cloudy. We're tired of getting stuck in the heavy rain! :) Then we come home after eating, work on lesson plans or grade papers and maybe get online to blog or check Facebook, so we feel connected to our family and friends.
BTW, if you are reading this blog, make sure to comment or e-m or send us a message on FB to let us know you're reading it or just to say hi. We get lonely here and it's nice to know that our friends and family are actually reading what we're writing for them and it helps us to feel connected. :)

Well, I think that's enough for now. It's only 8 p.m.,but this girl is very tired and I may just go to bed shortly! :) See what I mean? Crazy...this early!