We started our day off by visiting our dear friends at Bao Nhai Secondary School. The administration there is amazing! And I must say the administration at the school is like a second family for us. It was great to sit around and sip tea and catch up over the last year and introduce our new teammates.
We were quite surprised our visit to the school . It was amazing to see how far the school had progressed in a year! The computer lab we put in was in wonderful condition and the lab is heavily used for math, english teaching, astronomy, Pascal, and MS Office. We then went into the schools new English lab. The lab had stations for 40 students, including headsets with microphones. We met the english teacher at the school. It was so nice to speak without a translator and directly hear about the school and her job. She was sharing her concern for the minority students needing to help at home so they cannot make it to school everyday. When they are there she works with them extra to help them stay caught up. She like all teachers at the school goes above and beyond.
We also saw a room that was being transformed into a physics and chemistry lab. The school has changed so much in a the past years from being a school with just wood desk and chairs to providing so much for their students. There is also much hype about the National Standard Award Ceremony on Tuesday. Bao Nhai is the place to send your middle schooler!
We were able to look a the water filters we installed last year. They had moved them into another room together and were using them to fill a big plastic trash can to distribute the water to the students in the the classrooms. We noticed they needed to replace the filters more often. We were so glad to see they are using them!
Next we went to the Primary School to prep for teaching, went to lunch, and were able end our lunch hours by going to go to the Primary A Headmaster's house for coffee. It was actually her house and a coffee shop. We sat in the back near a relaxing fountain and talked to her. She was a joy to be around. One thing she said that touched us was that we were all like brothers and sisters sitting around talking. I am just so amazed at the relationships that form so quickly here. She even delayed our training by 5 minutes so we could continue our time together. I later thanked her for the Vietnamese coffee she gave to us, it really helped in our second hour of training today!
Today was our second day of teaching Bao Nhai Primary School A. Both days we had 90 students in each class. Today went very smooth as far as the projector working, smooth flow of the curriculum, and attentive students. A highlight of today was when during introductions Brian said he liked music and the kids asked him if he could sing them a song, and he ended up signing "When You Wish Upon a Star" (copyright Disney...thanks Disney) to the group. The end of the day ended with our group handing out what felt like hundreds of stickers to kids. We were all surrounded! The kids are so eager to interact and learn.
Tomorrow we are off to start our 2 day teaching at Primary School B. Can't wait!
November 11, 2010 at 12:07 PM
Good to hear from you guys!
Please post lots of pictures and just say NO to Snake wine!
The Marshall's