So first off, let me tell you about what the week has been like. We arrived on Sunday night, and on Monday morning, we started the day at 7:30 with an education staff meeting, where we met the rest of the teachers. We spent the rest of the morning finding our way around the school and talking with the other teachers about our curriculum and other logistical things for the school day. We had our first class on Monday afternoon, and it went really well. We gave them an introduction to how computers think and the types of things that you can do with computer science, and then we played a fun game called BizzBuzz and coded it up as a class. We were pleasantly surprised by how much the kids already knew about computers. Many of them had done work with robotics before, others had put together a computer before during a previous project, and all of them had used tools like wordpress, google drive, and other software, and a couple of them had done basic coding before. But I think that the biggest thing that pleased us about the kids was how well behaved and motivated to learn they are. All of them are extremely engaged for the full two hours of class, and when presented with a challenging task, they push through it with great determination. Also, they are very good about helping each other, which makes our jobs much easier. After class on Monday, we went running with a group of kids and teachers that are training for a 10K race, and by the end of the day, we were pretty wiped from the jet lag and the full day. On Tuesday morning, we planned the curriculum for class that afternoon and Wednesday morning and took a nap to catch up on some sleep before class. The kids were definitely challenged during Tuesday's class when we introduced Boolean algebra and went over conditional logic in python, but they again continued to persevere through the worksheets and coding activities we gave them. We played a little bit of frisbee and football (soccer) with the kids after class, and then we went on an adventure to buy food to cook for dinner. We rode the school's bikes to the local market, which consists of run down shacks on the side of the road, and we bought some unknown meat and veggies from a woman that spoke no English. It ended up working out well, and the meat (we are pretty sure it was pork) was very good, so we were proud of ourselves for our little adventure.
Wednesday morning's class went really well, and the additional practice that we did with truth tables and conditional statements seemed to help the kids grasp the concept a lot better. We coded up a little exercise for them to practice conditional statements where we gave them a story and they had to keep themselves from getting lost in the forest by changing the conditional statements in the code, and they seemed to have a lot of fun with it. We had a teacher's meeting after class, and then in the afternoon, we did fun team building activities with a larger group of kids. That evening, we went ice skating with the kids, and it was an absolute blast. Of all the things to do in Cambodia, I would not have thought that ice skating would've been one of them! The rink was just installed a couple years ago in the largest mall in Cambodia in Phnom Penh, and it's hilarious to see because no one knows how to skate because it is so new. There are people that line the sides just watching people skate, and the kids and the Cambodian teachers had never skated before or only skated once before, so it was really fun helping them learn and seeing them wipe out and laugh it off because everybody was wiping out. We ended up grabbing dinner at the mall after skating and heading back with the kids on the bus. The kids were laughing and singing on the bus, and a couple that we were sitting next to were asking us questions about America, like what type of music we listened to, what jobs our parents have, what cars people drove, etc. The kids listen to pop music like Maroon 5, One Republic, One Direction, and Taylor Swift, which is pretty funny to hear.
We slept late on Thursday morning and made ourselves eggs and toast for breakfast. During class, we did more coding activities where the kids coded up a simple game called Guess the Number and also rock paper scissors, which they seemed to really enjoy. Some of the kids who are catching on quicker than the others do a great job of challenging themselves to learn more, and they ask us about more advanced topics, which is really great for us to see, and just shows how motivated they are to learn. On Thursday afternoon, we went back to the local market and bought some more eggs for breakfast, and some bananas and mangoes as well. It's crazy how cheap everything is! This morning, we slept in again and made breakfast, and class today went well. We introduced loops and gave the kids some coding exercises to practice, and we'll go over it more in detail on Monday. After class today, we saw the Avengers in 4D with the kids at the movie theater in the mall, which was pretty fun, and then we went shopping for some more kitchen supplies afterwards. Tomorrow, we are going on a bike ride on Silk Island with some of the kids! They've been talking about it all week, so we're pretty excited for it!
The people at this school are some of the friendliest, most welcoming people I have ever encountered before. They are constantly smiling and saying hello to us and have made the adjustment much easier. The other teachers have made runs in to town to get food for us, gotten us everything we've needed, given us restaurant recommendations and tips (like the best tuk tuk drivers to get into the city), and have kept us informed of things going on at the school, and we've definitely been pleased with how helpful they've been to us.
It has been such a treat getting to know the kids, and I've greatly enjoyed the time I've spent with them during our class and outside of class as well. They are just so cute and sweet that they make me feel like what we are doing is making a huge impact on them, which is a really great feeling.
Well that's all for now! Stay tuned for more updates to come.
Corey
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