My Teacher Portfolio: Alexandra O'Brien: Teaching In Cambodia 2013

For three months in 2013 I worked as a volunteer English teacher in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. My experiences in Cambodia, teaching and having the opportunity to edit and co-write some of the curriculum was the driving force behind entering into this profession. I realised first hand the power of education to drive social change.

I worked for a not for profit organisation called Conversations With Foreigners (CWF) who work in partnership with their sister organisation the Cambodian Rural Development Team (CRDT) to educate rural Cambodians about sustainable agriculture and development.

As I am passionate about sustainability and social development, this was my way of applying my English and leadership skills to make a positive contribution to the lives of others, namely my students, their families and the struggling Cambodians working with CRDT to make ends meet in this changing environmental and social climate.

I taught four classes of approximately twelve students each day (Monday to Friday) and totalled 184 hours in the classroom over three months.

During my time in Cambodia I learned the foundations of good pedagogy. I realised early on that I needed to understand my students in order to teach them. I began to take Khmer lessons and dedicated myself to learning Cambodian history and culture. Luckily, the curriculum I was teaching was written especially by our Education Coordinator and was based around Cambodian life. Therefore while I was teaching my students to learn English I was also learning a great deal about Cambodia as well. Here I discovered that quality teaching involves an information exchange.

I built rapport's quickly with my students. I learned that teenagers are inquisitive, curious people looking for guidance to further their abilities. Without knowing any of the theoretical pedagogical approaches, I began to realise what it took for a classroom to run smoothly. I learned to implement warm ups to engage my class, I utilised group work to generate discussion and peer learning, and often I constructed artistic activities to tap into their creativity and to transform their knowledge into something more meaningful for them. I also gave my class a lot of freedom to choose how they wanted to present work to me which I felt was greatly appreciated. I engaged my students on an individual level and learned their unique interests which helped me plan for differentiation. There were times when my classes hummed along smoothly and many times when it didn't, however I reflected on what went wrong and strived to do better next time.

I learned that planning needs an element of flexibility. One day I had a lesson plan full of high energy games, however upon entering my classroom I found the mood quiet and serene. I quickly threw that part of the lesson plan out the window and instead implemented different activities that were fitting to the mood of the room.

Here are some photos of my time in Cambodia both with my students and also with the other CWF volunteers.

Our end of term class party

A dip in the Mekong: The CWF volunteers on our first week in Cambodia. We went on a trip to Koh Preah right up near the Laos border where we met with the Cambodian Rural Development Team to see some of their fantastic work.