Thursday 7 July 2011

Day One - Meeting the Pupils and Teachers at CDC.

Welcome Staff Meeting At CDC! on PhotoPeach



 
Wow - feels so amazing but also so surreal to be back at CDC...Miss Lendrum just feels overwhelmed. Went into last year's KG class (you remember 2 hours of maths every afternoon number to 5!) and they launched into 5 Little Ducks - brilliant. It made my year. They have all grown so much and still so gorgeous -yes Mum I've remembered I can't bring any children home.

We had a late start today - with Fried Egg Rice at Auntie's for me and some European cuisine for the others. We then collected our bikes and headed up to CDC for a meeting with the primary teachers where we explained this year's project in fuller depth for those who had not been previously involved. Was lovely to see faces old and new. The fabulous Myoe Nuant did a great job of translating for us.

Seeing as Campie children had asked questions for the CDC children we decided to get the CDC teachers to ask the Campie teachers questions. Some were very hard to answer.
e.g.
How do you teach different levels of the same children in the same class?
How will we carry on working together if the project is not allowed by the UK government?
How do you manage special education students in class?

On our way home we popped into the nursery for an unplanned visit to see the beautifully decorated room that some of the children learn and play in...Ku Paw was pleasantly surprised to see us even though she was heading for a shower!

Only one near miss whilst cycling through Mae Sot...poor Ms Laing hit a long rut in the road and did an amazing emergency stop and jump before hitting a concrete wall. Real 'Wonderwoman' action shot, no photos though as Miss Lendrum was too busy holding on to her handlebars and Miss MacNaughton is a speed demon on her red wheels! Ms Laing is fine and dandy by the way.

We are all very excited to get started tomorrow with an early morning 'I Wonder' assembly at 8:45 - better make sure we get up on time! Oh goodness me...a 6 am alarm call. Ahhhhh! Miss Macnaughton and Miss Lendrum

For me today was very moving. The partnerships are a lot of hard work, jumping through hoops to get the DfID funding and negotiating visas is such depressing hard work as our teachers apply and apply and get refused entry to UK.  Then today, I have the incredible privilege to stand up in front of 21 Burmese and Karen teachers and talk them through the project we have planned together.  We have SO MUCH, they have so little and yet we can come and they listen so attentively to us.  I hope the work we do together in this year helps them as much as their partnership helps us in Scotland.  I feel so humbled and so very lucky to be part of a partnership with the immensely inspiring Burmese people.  Sheila

7 comments:

  1. Amazing to see you all at CDC school - wish we could be there! But of to Italy today - will look forward to reading up on your adventures when we get back.

    Take care and lots of love to you all.
    Karen, Stan, Mac & Esme x

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  2. My class are on the wall! How amazing! Looks like everything is going well. Very jealous, would love to be there with you all. Keep up the good work. Loving following your blog posts . Trisha x

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  3. Such an amazing place and how wonderful are the people? Happy to hear that the meeting went well and you get to speak to everyone tomorrow, great way to kick things off. Relish your time!
    Alicia

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  4. Awwwh. How exciting,it all sounds so organised!! Brilliant to be starting tomorrow with an assembly - I bet all the students love the singing. Good luck for tomorrow - you'll be ace.
    Hannah x

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  5. Hannah, lovely to hear from you. Miss you here. Yes,this year has started very differently from last year. The partnership is strongly established now and we're off to a great start with all the children remembering us from last year. We're teaching all day tomorrow. I, ridiculously, can't sleep, even though we've to be up in 4hours! Tomorrow's going to be a long day. Loving the new posh DK rooms too. :) Sheila

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  6. Hope todays assembly went well, sounds brilliant - I'd love to start my day with an I wonder assembly.

    Ms L - I'm glad you are keeping up with your fitness regime! Martin took this mornings spin class, was pretty good, legs a bit wobbly on the run home though!
    Ms Laing - do be careful on your bike!
    Rory says you really should be careful on your bike Ms Laing- have you got helmets????

    Look forward to your next blog.

    The Banks Familyxxxx

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  7. Glad you all arrived safely - would loved to have seen photos of bike escapade! The photos are amazing and the children all look so happy- I'm sure you could manage to bring a few home.
    Your doing a great job, Kat and Gillian. Take care. Irene x

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