I walked to Campie School with 3 students. It was a nice walk for 15 minutes on the sunny morning in East Lothian’s autumn. Fresh sea air has helped me a lot to quickly adjust the weather, and it is quite different from my usual morning in Mae Sot.
The school is quite magnificant with calm look, and strong, grey colour building appeals to me in many ways. Previously, I had a different view on UK. I have translated a short novel for my education magazine. The title was ‘Two world’ by Helen Everett Camplin. It is story about 3 struggling youths from other countries in London, and in it there is an expression of boring looks of the buildings in UK, even the grey colour birds are not any match to the the youths’ mother country’s landscape, flora and fauna.
But what surprised me was the movement and liveliness inside this old, normal building. What a lively place to be! And I am quite surprised to see the creativity and intuitive minds the Campie’s teachers and students possess. Within the first few weeks in the academic year, there are full of interesting pictures, postings, decoractive designs all made by East Lothian young minds and hands.
The first class Naw Say Hei and I taught was Ms. Kat’s P1/2. We had a post card session. The CDC school students have answered to the Campie’s student’s queries about lives on Burma borders and at CDC. Then we provided the students with some Burmese traditional and cultural pictures. I have chosen the picture with a young man rowing a boat in Inle Lake in Shan State in eastern Burma. The students were quite surprised to learn the boy in the picture uses his feet to handle the oar. We also played a guessing game. We did similar lessons with P2/3 class wit Ms. Louise.
In P7a class, after briefly observing Mr.Craig’s lesson on different Parliaments and political roles, I decided to follow on the interesting lesson by linking the Campie’s older students’ knowledge to Burma and our strugle for democracy and peace.
The students eagerly participatd in the discussion session and generated many question on Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for democracy, refugees, CDC studets’ learning and many other questions on human rights movement.
We had another two lesson for P6c and P6b, and Say Hei drew a picture of a bananar leaves to demonstrate the structre and shape. Some cultural understanding activities.
All the students in every class are ready t0 ask questions or provide comments. And that was quite cheerful for me. and I was thinking about living curriculum and active participation.
After school, we met Mr. Don Ledingham, our Executive Director of Education & Children’s Services at East Lothian Council. I am honored to meet the senior Scottish educator who cares a lot. We had a discussion on how the education activities for refugees and displaced communities on Thai Burma borders can be further developed. I am very much excitied for our underpriviledge children’s opportunities in education.
Cheers
Thein Naing
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