BEP Mobile Teaching Unit: First Day of a New Job

Despite two weeks of training with the teachers in April, meeting the teachers in camp again last Friday, this being my third time round for BEP, and feeling very settled in Mae Sot, today really felt like my first day at work in a new job, because today was our first day in the schools.

To begin with, the route to camp looked different from any other time I have been – the ongoing heavy rain had brought flooding, landslides, replacing tarmac with gaping holes, and the road was barely passable. Then, there was all the other stuff: 3 zones, 3 clusters, 25 schools, 35 teachers, in the region of 1200 grade 1 students and 4 team members. What could I say but ‘Good luck’ and a mild ‘See you later’ (trying not to let it turn into a question) as I watched Caroline, Laura and Sam exit the truck towards Zones A and B, holding an umbrella in one hand, and in the other, their list of schools to visit and a rough map - well, a photocopy of a photograph of a painting of a map of the vague position of the schools …good luck indeed!

Our aim this week is to visit each of the grade 1 English teachers in our individual clusters at their schools. Where possible, we will begin to sit in on classes and get an idea of how things are going with the new grade 1 text books, in preparation to start partner teaching next week. The schools have been running since June, so we will need to get up to speed with how the teachers have been finding the book, and how we can use the next six months to provide the most useful support. With this in mind, I ventured into Zone C in search of the schools where I will be working.

Bad start! I willingly accepted one of the camp education staff’s kind offer to accompany me to the first school, thinking ‘Great! He’ll know where he’s going’, only he didn’t, quite, and unfortunately the aforementioned map only served to enhance his confusion. He was convinced that the map was back-to-front, hence we set off in the opposite direction to the school. But, we (he) had a laugh as he nimbly skipped and I nervously skidded across greasy bamboo poles, back and forth, and eventually to Primary 9, where he left me to start my day in cluster 3.

And there they were – grade 1, giggling at the sight of me and my every, ever-so-slightly-awkward, move, and how glad I was to see them. But wait, where’s the teacher I met on Friday? And where are the text books? I was then introduced to Joy – the new grade 1 English teacher who had just swapped with the other teacher who attended the training and Friday’s meeting – now who’s confused! It’s certainly going to be more of a challenge for teachers who did not attend the two-week training, but I can’t say we didn’t expect the odd surprise, so Joy and I shook hands, she agreed to attend this Friday’s teacher development session, and I agreed to return next week to start partner teaching.

And it was all uphill from there, both figuratively and literally. From Middle 4, up over the precarious bridge that was just about hanging in there above the swollen, raging river, to Primary 1, up further to Primary 12 – delighted to see the grade 1 supplementary materials up in the classroom, down a bit, head-butted by a piglet, up a giant hill where I was surprised to find High 7 in the grounds of a colourful temple, and up an even steeper hill to Primary 10, unfortunately closed due to the quantity of water flowing through the classrooms!

By the end, I had visited 6 schools, 4 grade 1 classes, met 5 new teachers, hadn’t fallen over, but had fallen in love with and almost adopted a small-holding’s worth of animals! But now, I wanted to hear how the others had got on. As the truck pulled up to Zone B, I could see that it had been a good day. Hair was slightly out of place, and footwear had changed colour, but satisfaction was evident. Mary, the Resident Teacher Trainer had helped Caroline with directions, and she had managed to get around all her schools, while Laura and Sam had managed to get to four schools, even observing come classes.

Whilst we’d been up to all that, the road had become impassable, so it was a cross-country route home, but we were unlikely to be phased by the bumping and tilting of the truck after our day. Back for more tomorrow, and can’t wait!

Katharine May
13th September 2011

The Burma Education Partnership,  (BEP) is a UK-based voluntary organisation which provides professional educational support for schools in communities on the Thai/Burma border displaced by war, oppression and economic hardship. BEP is involved in both materials development and teacher training. It also operates a Mobile Teacher Unit working in partnership with Burmese teachers in the classroom offering  training, planning sessions and English language upgrading leading to formal accreditation.

With the financial and professional support of TEFL.com we are working to raise the profile of the Burma Education Partnership and in so doing helping some of the most disadvantaged and insecure communities in South East Asia.