Lately

Hrmm.. what has been going on lately. We got back from a very long 11 days in Phnom Penh last week. We had some in-service training – basically some time for all of the PCVs to meet and discuss and plan and inspire ideas for some projects that we can prepare for the summer. Overall it went well; but meetings are meetings and sometimes they last longer than necessary. Maybe it was just the fact that we had meetings everyday for 6.5 days in a row straight. Anyway.

After that, all our counterparts came down to the big city for a co-teaching follow up and training session as well as received education on HIV/AIDS and how we can bring that knowledge back to our communities.

After that, we all attended the national CAM-TESOL conference. Speakers from Cambodia and all over the world gave workshops and presentations to about 1200 attendees regarding teaching English as a Second or Other Language. It went pretty well, although I think the general consensus for a lot of the PCVs’ counterparts was that many of the presenters spoke too fast for the comprehension of our fellow English teachers and many of the topics covered are difficult to incorporate into our classrooms simply because of lack of time and the large classroom sizes/multi-level comprehension that we have. Nonetheless, we were able to pull a few ideas from some of the sessions that we hope to implement throughout the rest of the school year.

The hot season is here again, and I’m told it will be that way until about May. We’ll have a full month of teaching in March, and in April there will be an extended school break for the Khmer New Year.

Gosh- not too much really for the moment. We’re doing our best to beat the heat and the ants and I think that’s about all for now!

Until something more interesting happens….. I’m signing out.