Day 51: Monday 7 December 2009 – Counting down and Princes Bitch Face

Time is literally flying by now, with this being my last week of teaching at New Hope.  In all honesty, I won’t be sorry to give up the daily lesson plans, which have begun to seriously challenge me.  The constant stress of coming up with something interesting that covers a range of ages and abilities in each of the four classes is beginning to stretch my teaching ability.  Obvious things like finger painting and other forms of craft are completely impossible with the little ones, purely due to the lack of facilities.  (How do you wash the hands of 30 under five kids when there is one tiny sink?).  As for the other end of the range, how does one cater for a class of 30 teenagers, a quarter of whom can barely speak English?  I manage, of course, but I think two months of this is my creative limit!

Anyway, the count down was literal today as we taught the little ones a new song about a rocket launching into space, (supported by my hideous drawing of a rocket on the whiteboard which embarrassingly, they later copied).  What’s more important however is that they did master the countdown from ten. 

The last class today produced the ugly side of teenagers, a case of the leader of a pack, bullying one of the really gorgeous girls.  The victim sat, face down at her desk for the entire class, sobbing silently.  No one was able to break through, the Khmer teacher, her friends or me.  Even gentle hugs and back rubbing failed to produce the slightest reaction.  After class, she sat there for another five minutes, refusing to raise her head.  I was so frustrated and completely powerless.