I. Structure of the OBT Education Program

Organization for Basic Training

Teaching at OBT Guidelines

These guidelines have been created to help volunteers understand the structure of the OBT Education Program. They also provide information and tips around the actual teaching. Lastly, they explain in practical terms how volunteers can support the OBT Education Program. Please, treat this information as a guide only. Any new ideas and suggestions are always welcome at OBT!

Regular curricular English classes run from Monday to Friday, between 3:30 pm and 6:30pm. The children usually go to the state school in the morning and to OBT is the afternoon. There are over ten classes in total attended by over 400 students – each student attends one, 1 hour class per day. Curricular classes are taught by Khmer teacher hired by OBT. They are 5 for the moment.

Traditional Khmer Music and Dance classes are taught by a local Khmer teacher. There are 38 students who are involved with the music and dance and during the tourist season they take the performance to the cruise ship for the tourists. All donations from these performances form the only regular source of income for OBT, so these music and dance classes are very important for the school.

Study groups run from Monday to Friday. This is where the students gather together and provide additional practice and knowledge exchange of English and Khmer languages. There are 2 classes per day.

Conversation classes run twice a week, between 6pm and 7pm on Tuesdays and Fridays. There are two classes (lower level and more advanced) consisting of the music students. The purpose of the class is to improve the students spoken English, for general use and so that they can better interact with the tourists that they perform for. The classes are taught by volunteers.

Teaching the teachers class now runs for approximately three hours every Sunday and is taught my Mr. Thy and long term volunteers with teaching experience. The first hour consists

1 of a meeting between the Khmer teachers where they will discuss the previous and the upcoming week, any issues they may have faced, and the curriculum they will be covering in their classes. The purpose of the remainder of this class is to help the local teachers improve their English and teaching skills, so this is usually taught by the volunteer.

Extra classes and activities are additional classes created by volunteers using their skills and interests. Examples of classes organized in the past include: English Games Sessions, Chess game sessions, Reading Club, Football Training and Art class.

II. Helping with curricular English classes

The philosophy of the OBT Education Program goes beyond teaching English. OBT strives to create a place of sharing knowledge and respecting one another. Students learn and play in a safe and fair environment. Additionally, the framework of OBT prepares students for future employment.

Scores Students are marked on their attendance, homework and exam results so that we have can give them a score that reflects their knowledge, understanding, and commitment. They are assessed every month by their teachers.

Typical curricular class lasts 50 minutes and starts with students greeting the teacher. At the beginning of each class the teacher checks attendance and reviews homework from the previous class. At the end of the class the teacher gives students new homework. Students then say goodbye to the teacher.

Preparing and recording classes Teachers should prepare each class beforehand and write a lesson plan in their notebooks. Teachers record attendance, homework and punctuality using Attendance Forms provided to them every month by Sophal. All forms are saved on Sophal’s laptop. Soney also checks the attendance of the students and follows up on any unauthorized absences.

Role of volunteers  Assisting local teachers Most volunteer teachers will be paired with a local teacher, and will teach alongside that teacher for all of their classes. This is typically 3 classes per day. It is fine if you simply observe the classes for the first day or two. After this time, if you’re comfortable, you will be planning and teaching the classes yourself, with the local teacher there to assist 2 with translations and to keep progress of the class. By having volunteers control the lessons, the students can get accustomed to hearing a fluent English speaker and improve their pronunciation. Furthermore, the local teachers are able to observe and learn different methods of teaching.

 Replacing local teachers In the instances when the local teacher is unavailable, volunteers might be asked to replace the teacher. In this case the volunteer becomes fully responsible for all aspects of teaching: lesson preparation, discipline, delivering the class, checking attendance and other aspects of scoring and recording as described above. Long term volunteers may also be asked to take on a class without assistance, in order to relieve Sophal or Mr. Thy from their teaching duties and allow them to focus on other aspects of the project.

What to teach When you are assigned your classes you will also be given a textbook and sheets of questions that correspond with the learning level of your class. It is important that you teach your lessons from this book, as it ensures all content is being taught to all students from a common source and it is much easier to keep track of what the students have and haven’t been taught. This also ensures that we are not rotating through volunteers that continuously teach the same content (we’re pretty sure fruits and colors have been thoroughly taught in all but the youngest classes). For every class there will be a book where past volunteers and the local teachers have written the content previously taught. It is vital that you continue to add all lessons taught to this book, so that future volunteers can get an idea of what the students know. Of course, whilst it’s important to stick to the content, it’s also a great idea to incorporate different learning methods, activities, songs and games to the classes so that the children enjoy coming to learn and the local teachers can gather new ideas.

Before you leave please update your notebooks with notes on what you feel the students have struggled with and what they have found easy. It’s would also be great if you could describe any games that the students have particularly enjoyed and that you think are useful learning tools.

III. Other ways to support OBT Education program

Create your own class

3 Volunteers are encouraged to create their own classes and activities using their skills and interests. OBT welcomes initiatives that could expand the curriculum and help the students further their knowledge, skills and hobbies.

When planning a new class or activity it is important to consider the maximum/minimum number of students and the time, learning space and materials that will be required. As OBT’s resources are limited, volunteers are welcome to provide their own materials. If you do introduce any new activities please record them for future reference as it can be very useful for the volunteers that will follow.

Any additional activities that you wish to start need to be discussed with Sophal.

Teach the teachers The ethos of OBT is for the project to be self-sustainable and to operate regardless of volunteers’ presence. Therefore, any form of teachers training is very important. The teacher classes are taught by Mr. Thy, however OBT encourages all volunteers to get involved in teaching the teachers. Most importantly, we need volunteers that are qualified teachers or have experience teaching to give lessons on how to teach and different teaching methods. Non- experienced volunteers are also welcome to take over these classes and teach more advanced language and grammar to the teachers.

Create Materials

Volunteers are welcome to create any type of materials that can be used to complement the OBT Education Program. These include: flashcards, posters, memory cards, etc. We now have a printer, scanner and laminator at the school which can be used to help make resources.

IV. Discipline

Teachers, volunteers and staff at OBT are role models for the students, therefore it is expected that they reinforce and behave according to the following rules:

4 General OBT rules are:  always respect one another  look after OBT property  keep the classrooms and school ground tidy  do not disturb classes in progress

OBT classroom rules are:  be punctual  do not eat or drink in class  do not hit or in any other way harm one another  bring books and other necessary materials  ask for permission before leaving the class

It is the responsibility of teachers, volunteers and staff at OBT to resolve any discipline issues in a sensible and fair manner. Separating disruptive students and in extreme cases, after several warnings, sending students home, are examples of acceptable forms of keeping discipline at OBT. Under no circumstances should any student be harmed and all staff should always follow the OBT Child Protection Policy. Any concerns around discipline matters should be discussed with Sophal.

V. Available resources

There is a collection of English books available at the OBT library. Amongst others, there are: children’s picture books, grammar books, text books and English course books. A teaching handbook created specifically for volunteers is also available. Wifi access is available at OBT however it is not the best connection, so if you wish to use the internet for any research or downloading materials, please discuss it with Sophal. Alternatively there is also high speed internet access in Kampong Cham if you would like to use a stronger connection. Free Worksheets and other valuable resources are available on www.busyteacher.org

VI. Useful tips!

If you are not a teacher, teaching can be somewhat overwhelming. Knowing what to plan, what to do and how to help students understand and learn new words, sentences or concepts is tough. Sometimes teaching English can be difficult and frustrating. PATIENCE IS KEY. Take things

5 slowly. It’s a lot harder for Khmer children to learn English than you will probably think at first.

Lesson planning guidelines:

These are just loose guidelines, as you get to know your class you can adapt as appropriate.

 10 minute warm up/recap (a game using something the students know or something they have recently learnt. Try not to use anything that they have not grasped yet; starting the class with a group that has low confidence in their ability makes for a very unhappy hour).  20 minutes of learning new information. Hearing/listening, speaking, writing and reading.  20 minutes repetition of new information in the form of a student activity. How you do this is up to you. Think about the key aspects of reading, writing, speaking and listening to English and use these in this part of the class. E.g; gap fills for writing and spelling, ‘what’s wrong with this sentence?’ for reading, getting everyone to say the sentence/ask a question around the class for speaking.  5-10 minutes warm down game and setting homework.

Setting dictation/spelling tests over the weekend is a good idea as it gives them time to get to grips with new information. And testing allows you to see how well they are learning.

If an activity is not working or seems too difficult for your class, don’t pursue it. Change the way you are teaching them.

Often the students are taught a lot of new vocabulary without knowing how to use it. Try to think about how what you are teaching them from the book might be relevant to everyday life. This is important, as it means we are teaching the students how to ACTUALLY speak English rather than teaching them how to repeat a long list of words which hold no meaning.

Remember, children are particularly perceptive. If you go into a class feeling beaten, or frustrated they will be able to pick up on these negative feelings. Keep up beat and encouraging! All of the students at OBT are eager to learn and if you are eager to teach and take it slow, they will.

Good luck!

6 Please, update this document regularly and incorporate any changes

Enjoy your time at OBT! Thank you!