IB Asia Pacific Newsletter

Quarter One, 2008

Projects

General Update

A Happy New Year to All! May we all have a great year ahead!

The past year saw the success of our teacher training projects

in both Banda Aceh and Sri Lanka. We are certain that this year

ahead will prove to be a great step forward towards our project

developments!

Our Teacher Training Projects      

Schools to Schools has conducted a number of teacher training

projects in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.  Our recent Jan

2008 workshop in Banda Aceh on “Grades 1 and 2” was

delivered by Dadan from Bandung International School, Ratih

Saraswati from Sekolah Ciputra and Kartika Desy from Al-Jabr

Islamic School.

The Feb 2008 Schools to Schools Early Childhood Care and

Development (ECCD) workshops in Moratuwa on “Delivering an

Integrated Experience”, was delivered by Sarah Nash and

Gareth Jacobson from Overseas School of Colombo. The

workshop in Hambantota on “Practices in Inclusive Education"

was delivered by Victory Walden Paul from Doyle Park

Elementary School and Amy Gritters from St Mary and All

Angels.

We would like to thank all efforts and continued support from

our volunteers and future trainers for being part of our project. 

Should you have any interest in contributing to this part of the

IB, please do not hesitate to contact us at projects@ibo.org

Glynn Richards, Projects Manager
Han Nguyen, School Liaison Officer

Suryanie Ismail, Projects Services Officer

Roy Wee, Web and Media Officer
Email: projects@ibo.org

Cambodia

Cambodia Teacher Training Project

The IBO Cambodia  Teacher Training Project in Kandal Province was to culminate in August 2006 after three successful years. At the end of the third year (2006), extensive internal and external evaluations were conducted.

As a result of these positive evaluations, it was decided to extend the Project one more year until August 2007 to ensure that all teachers in the Project schools had at least received an introductory training workshop and that the second cohort of student teachers could complete the full cycle of their training.

However, along with the encouraging results of the Project, there was an increasing awareness that this was just the beginning of a change process that will take years to complete before it is truly sustainable – clearly three, even four years, is not enough. The IBO-IBAP wanted to continue supporting the Project Schools by providing ongoing teacher training and continuing to employ local Project Staff to ensure sustainability.

Subsequently, in March 2007, a further five year Project Agreement was signed (2007 – 2012) by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) and the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS).

In addition, five IBAP schools have now partnered with the Project: Victoria Shanghai Academy, Hong Kong; International School of Phnom Penh; Ivanhoe Grammar School, Melbourne; Queenwood School for Girls, Sydney; and Renaissance College, Hong Kong. These schools have made a long term commitment to provide both financial and human resource support for renovating classrooms and teaching demonstration lessons, as well as donating classroom materials and supplies. This development has broadened the scope of the Project and allows for sustainable change to occur.

In December 2007, Queenwood School for Girls, Sydney, sent 21 girls and teachers, under the leadership of Nick Mavrogordato, to visit the Project. The girls provided excellent activities in Language, Art and Music to grade 4 – 6  Khmer students. They were also able to see the classrooms that had been renovated using money that Queenwood had raised.

In early February 2008, five educators from Victoria Shanghai Academy, Hong Kong volunteered their New Year holiday week to work with the Project in Kandal-  two teachers to provide primary Math Demonstration Lessons to grades 1-2 and three teachers to help renovate a classroom using funds that had been raised by their school. (See articles below)

Throughout February, Annie Auckland, Project Lead Teacher, taught junior Math/Art  Demonstration Lessons to grades 4-6.

Ron Auckland

Cambodia Project Coordinator

Email: rona@ibo.org

Victoria Shanghai Academy’s Commitment to the Schools to Schools Project in Cambodia

Since March 2005, Victoria Shanghai Academy has been sending

teachers from the Primary school to assist the Cambodian

Teacher-Training Project by conducting Demonstration Lessons

for the student teachers studying at the Kandal Teaching

Training College (TTC).  Since 2007, a group of teachers has

also embarked on a “work team” session.  This year, over

Chinese New Year, five teachers travelled to Phnom Phen: Tania

Mansfield, Trevor Rehel, Deidre Burke, Gail James and

Benedicte Benoit.

Tania Mansfield and Trevor Rehel taught each 7 Demonstration

Lessons in Grade 1 classrooms in the four Project Schools. The

lessons were focused on Mathematics and Art, and shapes and

patterning were the central themes.  Both Tania and Trevor

designed interactive lessons including engaging and fun

manipulative station activities for the kids. Every lesson was

observed by the classroom teacher and first or second year

student teachers and followed by a de-briefing session.

As for Deirdre Burke, Gail James and I, we were busy scraping,

sanding, washing and painting doors and shutters. To this day 'Emerald Green' paint can still be found on our hair! It was a very valuable experience to be part of the renovation process, witnessing the before and after. It was also extremely satisfying to see the many wonderful improvements accomplished within the four Project Schools.

From the money fundraised last year by the Victoria students, five libraries have been renovated and ten TTC classrooms have been upgraded with new furniture. The remaining fund was used over Chinese New Year for an additional classroom transformation and the left-over will be spent on library books. Soeun, the local Project Coordinator, is very meticulous at keeping track of all the expenses and it is with great pride that we came back to Hong Kong with all the receipts and hundreds of pictures to show everyone at school.

Some fundraising events have already been conducted since the beginning of the year, such as a Pizza Lunch, a Bake Sale and a Read-A-Thon and there is more to come: Easter Basket Raffle, Quiz Night, etc. The money which is being raised this year will be used for more classrooms to be renovated (painting, skylights, new desks and stools, whiteboards, shelving, etc). A new objective is to significantly improve the sanitary conditions by upgrading/building toilets and installing sinks and taps. In some of the schools there are only four toilets for hundreds of children... and these are not always working properly.

Victoria Shanghai Academy students and teachers will continue

to be actively involved in this meaningful project through raising

money, supporting the teacher visits and planning ongoing ways

to assist the schools in Cambodia.

Benedicte Benoit

A day in Cambodia

This morning was our first morning teaching and both Trevor

and I went with Annie to Krapeuha School. We loaded our bags

on our Tuk Tuk driven by Mr. Van Dett and headed off at

7.15am. At this time in the morning Phnom Phen is already busy

as most of the businesses start at 7.30am.

On the roads were many tuk tuks and hundred of motorcycles.

Some of them going them wrong way, some of them with whole

families on them and hardly any of them with helmets on!

The traffic and amount of bikes was amazing….but it all seems

to work and flows well. The dust on the road is heavy though

and as well as sun glasses a lot of the people also wear masks.

After a couple of maintenance stops on our Tuk Tuk, we arrived

at Krapeuha. The gates were opened for us by some young

students who were on duty and we were immediately received

with smiles and “hello!” from more than 100 children!

The children were especially taken with little Angus as a lot of

them had never seen a child with white skin and blue eyes –

and a lot could not believe he was only 4 – he was as tall if not

taller than some of the 7 year olds!

After a quick tour of the school where we visited the cafeteria –

where the children buy snacks and breakfast, and we met the

Director of the school.

We were also very proud to see their beautiful library. The

library was full of Khmer and English books and had tatami mats

for the children to sit on – as well as display boards and a lovely

big table for the children to sit at and share stories.

The reason we were so proud to se this library was because on

the front door was a lovely plaque stating that this library had

been built by the money donated by a partner school – Victoria

Shanghai Academy!  It was amazing to look around this school

and know that we had made a difference here and because we

had held a Pizza lunch and a bake sale – that it was then

possible for this beautiful library to be built.

So – our lessons. As we walked in with our bags full of goodies

all the children stood up with a Khmer greeting for the teacher.

Our first class had 35 children in it – which was small as some of

the children were away for the Chinese New Year.

So we started with patterning and taught the children 2 patterns,

3 patterns and 4 patterns. The children were used to just sitting

and copying from the board or from a book – and it was a real

treat for them to be able to get out of their seats and

participate.

I am sure they thought I was mad as I sent them all outside to collect stones and sticks and leaves – but they did so with enthusiasm and this gave us time to brief our student teachers.

 Our afternoon lesson was at the same school but with the afternoon class and here we introduced them to shapes. They loved playing with all the pinboards and toothpicks and our final activity, making puppets as gifts for their P1 friends in Hong Kong. They were over the moon when we then presented them with an identical puppet that had been prepared by the Victoria P1 students!

It was a wonderful experience and incredible time. The community is very positive and there is now being a future paved for these children and thank to YOU – the VSA students they now have some decent facilities and some great resources.

Tania Mansfield

Student Teachers

Another aspect of our work was teacher training.  Four different

student teachers observed each our lessons.  Together Tania

and I mentored a total of 56 student teachers.  Apart from

preparing inquiry based student-centred activities for them to

watch, we focused on how to set up daily routines and what

activities to use to group the students.  We also concentrated on

how to structure activities to maximize the number of active

learners in a lesson.  Where possible, we tried to include the

student teachers in the activities to give them some hands on

experience.

At the break and end of each lesson, we sat with the student

teachers to answer questions about our lessons and other

general teaching questions.  The student teachers were shy at

first but with some leading questions began asking questions of

their own.  They were very impressed with Tania’s use of

recycled materials to create completely hands on student-

managed activities.   In my lesson, the student teachers liked

the use of the grouping activities, the roles given to students

within their group, the attention grabbing routines as well as

realizing the worth of teamwork and cooperative learning

created while doing these activities.  

Trevor Rehel

Victoria Shanghai Academy