By Tom Rosen | Co-Director/Project Manager
Firstly, we would like to wish you a happy new year! In the last report we promised to update you about the teacher training workshop due to be held at Koung Jor Shan Refugee Camp and as we like to keep to our promises - here we are!
Lauren Perkins, an experienced teacher trainer who has undertaken similar activities in this and other refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, carried out the workshop in October 2014. In total 10 local teachers from the community partook in the training including the headman of the camp himself. The workshop lasted 3 days and mainly focused on introducing participatory classroom activities in order to fully engage students and keep them energized.
At first, the camp teachers were quiet and lacked confidence in both their English skills and their own teaching. However, after a few ice-breaking interactive activities, they were speaking out and actively participating in training activities. By the end of the training, they had all practiced using some of the techniques in micro-teaching sessions (teaching each other), which clearly boosted their confidence in their own abilities.
Sai Nanta, one of the camp's English teachers had the following to say about the workshop:
"Every year there are some new teachers who haven’t attended teacher training therefore we need it regularly. The most important thing that I learnt from teacher training is lesson planning, because in our camp we don’t have a curriculum, so I need to find new ideas for my lesson to teach in class."
In the survey we took after the workshop, all that participated found it to be very useful and were keen to put what they learnt into practice. Based on their feedback, we plan to increase the amount of teacher training sessions in the future and also include more local teachers from the surrounding area.
It is only with the support from people like yourself that we are able to undertake such activities so we are very thankful and hope that you continue to help boost the educational standards in this vibrant refugee community.
With gratitude,
Tom Rosen and The Branch Foundation Team
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