Rethinking Permaculture

To farm, or not to farm?

A family can earn a significant amount of money by sending their young teens to Thailand to work. Because of that, attrition from primary to secondary school is over 50%. Of course, this impacts education development dramatically. I have a small amount of experience in permaculture, mostly as a hobby, and have been asked to come up with a proposal for my current employer.

I just got back from one of my thinking walks where I saw fish ponds, chicken coops, pig pens, small plots of cash crops, essentially all of the techniques agricultural NGO's boast that they bring to rural communities. Well, the techniques are here, the wealth definitely is not.

Maybe it's time to switch the cart and horse. Maybe the question isn't "how can we teach these poor farmers how to do it right?" but instead "Why aren't they doing it already?" I mean, isn't it naive of us to think that a bunch of farmers don't know how to farm? That all they need is a training and a pat on the back before they're on the road to development?

So, I'm shifting gears. Not "What do they need?" but "What barriers do they need removed?"

Perhaps this will finally save the world.

Where are all the teachers?

Today I met with a gentleman who will be working with another education NGO in southern Cambodia. He has some background in language education, but no real experience teaching young learners.

Again, I wonder, where are all the teachers? Why aren't excellent, trained teachers coming to the developing world, rolling up their sleeves, and helping out? Many school districts have programs that allow teachers to take a year (or sometimes more) off without jeopardizing their tenure or benefits, so why aren't more coming over?

Perhaps it's a simple matter of advertising, maybe teachers don't know just how much impact they could have working in the developing world. Maybe NGO's, like many politicians, think teaching is just something that happens if you give a somewhat intelligent person a textbook and put them in front of a room full of kids.

I just find it hard to believe that in a profession where people are here for their passion and not their paychecks that so few of them are willing to come to the developing world.

2011

What an amazing year 2010 was. I moved to Cambodia and began a new job, which looks like it’s shaping up to be a whole new career. I have really enjoyed working with PEPY and it looks like I’ll be doing so for quite a while, albeit with different hats on.

There are so many organizations in the world working to improve education in developing nations, and so few resources at their disposal. Internet searches simply do not turn up curricula, school designs, organizational structures, teaching methodologies, etc. for the developing world. It’s difficult for an organization working with government schools to reconcile the simple fact that an inexpensive and simple lesson in a country like America is cost prohibitive and complicated in a country like Cambodia.

I hope to do as much as I can to change that unfortunate truth in 2011 and beyond.

Some Pictures

3 days out of every week I live in Chanleas Dai with some amazing Cambodian teachers and Pepy employees. Below are the first of many pictures to come of Chanleas Dai.

This shows about 1/5 of the entire village:

Here is one of my new gecko friends (There are at least 4 in the house):

This is the lotus pond right next to our house and the school:

And here is the house I live in!

Developing an Evaluation System

What an amazing two weeks. Sorry for the long delay in posting, but it has been a whirlwind. My big project for the past two weeks has been developing an evaluation system for the schools and teachers that we work with. My goal was to create a system that led to specific and helpful critical comments as well as allowing us to set concrete criteria for incentives and dismissal from the program.

The old system involved a list of behaviors (planning, clear instructions, etc.) with the option of getting a happy face, medium face, or sad face along with some written comments. This was problematic for several reasons. Primarily, one of our observers is, perhaps, the nicest man on earth and would avoid giving sad faces at all costs.

Also, it was incredibly general and subjective (no set criteria for what makes planning a “happy face”) and it didn’t give us a concrete way to compare teachers with one another, or even themselves from past lessons. My goal, then, was to create a system that not only addressed these problems, but included long range comparisons of lessons as well as evaluation for inclusion in the program directly in the forms.

The new format is basically divided into three sections: classroom observation , monthly performance discussions, and year-long school evaluation.

Classroom observation is based on clear, observable behaviors. How do we know if instructions are clear? If students can follow them the first time. How do we know if the lesson is well-planned? If transitions flow smoothly, materials for each activity are at the ready, and the teacher doesn’t make mistakes in how they present the language (spelling, pronunciation, etc.). How do we know if the lesson was effective? If the teacher calls on a variety of students and they can all answer confidently and correctly.

At the end of each observation, the teacher is given a score based on whether they exhibited more positive behaviors or negative behaviors. The score is concrete and, if we can achieve consistency in evaluations, empirical.

Monthly performance discussions involve calculating the teacher’s average score, classroom attendance (absenteeism among teachers is a huge problem in the developing world), and attendance in trainings and workshops. At this time they are either lauded (which may grow into an incentive program) or advised on the necessity for improvement. If teachers aren’t applying the methods from our workshops, or even bothering to attend, or not teaching their classes at all, the benefits of this program will be given to someone else.

Finally, this data is added into a spreadsheet for the school which can be used to keep track of progress for both individual teachers and the program at that school as a whole.

My First Full Week

I have had the most amazing week. I was sent along with two Cambodian staff members to observe a school in Preah Vihear. It being my fourth day in Cambodia, I didn't really know what that meant.

Essentially, two hours down a paved road followed by 1.5 hours down a dirt road to a very small village. The reason I was sent here was because this is where Elaine and Nicholas Negroponte, some of the principal developers of the one laptop per child project, personally support the elementary and middle schools to have computer and English classes.

It was very impressive. Children who may not have electricity in their homes are programming robots to pick up, carry, and drop small objects with minimal help from a trained teacher. The buzz is that Pepy will also be getting these robots next year and we will be able to incorporate them into our lesson plans which I'm very excited about.

One of the best parts about this week, however, was getting to spend time with Sarakk and Leda, two staff members that I will be working quite closely with this year. They are wonderful. Within a day we were good friends and I feel so happy to know how comfortable and easy working with them will be.

In working with them for a few hours each night after our days of observation, I got a much stronger handle on my role in the organization. One of my main jobs will be to help them develop curricula for a creative learning class (mostly Leda) and an English class (mostly Sarakk) for grades 7, 8, and 9.

What I've done so far is talk with them about making sure their lessons are developmentally appropriate and that they have an idea of what they want to teach before they start looking for lessons, rather than just finding cool lessons and saying "yeah, teaching all that stuff would be good."

I think one of the bigger hurdles will be developmental appropriateness. Pepy recently transitioned their classes from a Primary school to a Junior Highschool and all of their materials are, for the most part, aimed at students ages 5-8. Which means they have a bunch of lessons that are teaching at the right level but are made for little kids. So, we need to acknowledge that we can't expect a bunch of 15 year olds to be excited about standing in a circle and singing goofy songs about English...

Next week I begin my first regular work week. Monday and Friday in the office in Siem Reap and Tuesday - Thursday in Chanleas Dais with Sarakk, Leda, and hopefully a lot more new friends!

Fresh off the boat

I have arrived, safe and sound, in Siem Reap Cambodia. The border crossing was much less painful than I imagined. I had read stories of child pickpockets posing as beggars, touts who follow and cannot be dissuaded, demands for bribery, cons, tricksters, and ne'er-do-wells of all sorts.
My experience was painless. I walked through easily with (despite my best efforts) way more luggage than I needed or wanted. The whole trip took about 8 hours, but I bet I could cut it down to 6 now that I know the route.
My arrival was warm and wonderful. The house, office, and colleagues are wonderful, and my job is really cool.

Here is a basic shakedown of my objectives to start:
1. Staff development: English classes for Khmer (Cambodian) staff.

2. Evaluation planning: working with the "travelling co-teacher" to design better ways to evaluate teachers and schools for future participation.

3. Curriculum development: Helping the Creative Learning Center team develop lessons and materials.

4. Presentation: Helping the 2 main Khmer (Cambodian) staff members working on the travelling English program make a presentation on their program at a conference this year.

My week is split between a lovely office in Siem Reap and an amazing village called Chanleas Dai about an hour out of town. From what I've seen of the village so far, the school is the bulk of it. It will be a true immersion experience, a little electricity for a very short time (just lights in the evening) no hot water, A/C, or fans, and living in a staff house with several Khmer staff, all in the countryside of northeast Cambodia. Luckily, there is satellite internet that was donated by another NGO, so I'll be able to keep in touch all week long!

But, it's beautiful, the people are amazing, and I can handle a little heat...