Thursday, 1 November 2012

Athenians and telling the time...

So after observing the teaching of English to adults at SPO, I spent the next couple of days observing in schools and staying with very generous employers of SPO. This was quite fun as it meant that I got to hang out with children and dogs without fearing rabies, and I appear to have gained a whole load of offers of places to stay/people to pick me up from the airport etc in New Zealand, which can only be a good thing...

The first day was spent in one of the international schools in Brunei. An eye opener in many ways, as most of it was spent in the primary section. Watching primary kids learn Maths was not only useful (they were learning to tell the time, something I failed to teach some of my year nines who did not yet know...) but also a big insight into how proactively some kids learn at primary. It gave me a whole load of ideas and was a big contrast to the secondary Maths lesson I observed that was somewhat... dry. Unlike the kids I'd met in Vietnam, Maths did not appear 'cool' in this international school, presumably the result of a higher proportion of NZ/Aus/UK kids, as opposed to South Korea/Vietnam/China. It also reminded me that the GCSE syllabus I'd got accustomed to teaching is a lot easier than some!

The British curriculum was not overly popular with NZ teachers in the international school, as they felt it was pretty proscriptive, although I'm pretty sure this was the school's interpretation of it. It was quite strange watching a play on Athens and Sparta performed by Bruneian eight year olds. Favourite (unscripted) line 'Democracy, what does democracy include then?' 'Votes' 'Government' 'Taxes!!' Unlike Brunei, incidentally...

The second day was spent in the Temburong region visiting the SPO teachers in their primary schools. Temburong is the untouched rainforest part of Brunei and is extremely green and beautiful. The schools  were very small but really quite impressive. Lots of children keen to shout 'good morning' at you and practice their English, as well as lots of displays celebrating the ASEAN culture, not just Brunei. The head teachers (or BG's as they're called...) were clearly pretty keen on SPO teachers as well.

MOST importantly though, on the way to Temburong, you have to get a boat and on the way I saw two crocodiles, one absolutely ginormous, cooling down with its mouth open. Then I saw another one next to one of the schools (!) which was much bigger, and a fourth swimming when we were on the boat back. Suffice to say I played it very cool but I may have shuddered slightly...


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