As I am about to head to my In-Service Training in Phnom Penh with the other volunteers, I wanted to share some small anecdotes from my time so far at the primary school which has made me laugh. I’m honestly super sad to be going to Phnom Penh because it means I won’t be seeing my students for a month! So here are some stories that I hope make you laugh too and they will remind me of my awesome students and teachers when I’m gone.
there is this kid who speaks pretty good English in my 4D class, and now he speaks to me in Spanish (he sometimes says “Hola señor”). He always asks me what am I doing while at school and asks me super random questions. His younger brother in grade 3, who speaks English just not as well, always comes running across the field screaming “ALEX” and usually is always holding food in his hand, so I get a nice sticky high five from him
the same student in 4D asked me before my 7am class “Mrs. Alex, does the US have Target and Walmart?” This first gave me some flashbacks of having some Target hauls and it made me smile that he even knew what Target and Walmart was. I told him we had both of those and he goes “That’s not fair, I want that in Cambodia”
(also separately he just came to my window and asked “Mrs. Alex why are your eyes a different color from ours?” To which I responded “well we are all born different”)
there is a girl in my 6C class who speaks English very well and she always asks me “can I rizz you?” (For those who don’t understand-rizz is short for charisma meaning that someone has a good pick up game). I usually say yes and she tells me a “rizz”/ pick up line and no matter if I understand it or not I always laugh and say “that was a good one”
every time the teachers have an exam grading session, I am usually there, however, I don't help grade the papers (because I can barely read some Khmer) but instead I usually sit on the ground and set up a coloring station for the kids of the teachers
I have helped proctor the grade 1 exams twice. Trying to explain math to kids in another language can be tough...especially when the numbers look different (I can read the numbers and can proudly say I would ace the grade 1 math exam, but trying to help them was hard)
there is this one kid in grade 3 who comes to my desk a lot and appears to not know English because he cannot write his ABCs nor his name, but then he dove into a 30 minute conversation with me about the Mr. Beast YouTube channel and also this scary cartoon YouTube channel he watches
while I was teaching the teachers English, I taught the word “salon” and then “nail salon” and one of my co-teachers said “quito gel” -quoting that Bon Qui Qui/Anjelah Johnson comedy line from like 15 years ago. This made me laugh so much and really reminded me that we are all the same and that my coteacher also quoted and liked the video that my mom showed me 15 years ago
one time, the teachers at the school said, "Alex we will have a teacher lunch today"... turns out I misheard them and instead we ended up at a 100 Days After Death party hosted by one of the teachers who lives next to the school
as a teacher, I hold so much power over if the kids do their homework or not: that’s because I say “if you don’t do your homework, we won’t play a game”… let’s just say the next class almost all kids did their homework
my 6C class is filled with jokesters who honestly make it fun to teach, as long as they don’t joke too much
I taught the YMCA and the Chicken Dances to all my kids (which they love and now go around the school dancing to) and when I taught the Chicken Dance to 6A, one of the kids tried to do a cool guy walk/dance during the part where you walk in the Chicken Dance… I could not keep a straight face, it honestly made me smile
also with the YMCA and Chicken Dance, almost all of my teachers have tried to follow the dance and do it with me too… that includes two of my coteacher who are probably in their 60s/70s, seeing them do the chicken dance was memorable
the kindness of the teachers and my school director at the school is incredible. They got me a cake and a new thermos for coffee for Valentine’s Day and for International Women’s Day they got me a huge fruit basket and a krama (a traditional Cambodian scarf). They always share their food and snacks with me, especially the head of the office who always is giving me Khmer snacks (shout out to her)
I have gathered enough drawings, notes, stickers, notebooks, necklaces, and random trinkets as gifts from the students to cover a whole wall and fill a whole desk. I have had to tell them to stop giving me stickers
“Alex som sticker muey” (Alex please one sticker) will haunt me forever. I have a sticker drawer and the kids love coming to the window asking for them. It’s my fault for having them and they get so happy when I give it to them but they love the stickers TOO much
now I see how bad of liars kids can be sometimes (and how when I was a kid the adults always knew the truth). I went around to check a classroom’s homework and 15 kids told me “at ban mao te” (I wasn’t here that day) and I said “well I would have noticed if 15 kids were missing from class that day”….. they were all there they just didn’t do their homework
usually when I say “homework!” The kids cheer (I think because they were told they have to) but earlier this week, I said “homework!” to one of my classes and they started booing and said “no!” Once again, I felt so in charge (because I am) and said “well that’s too bad you get homework anyways”. No one understood what I said, but I did and so it made myself laugh and the kids still got homework anyways
there is a group of first graders who hang out outside the library after their extra class and when I walk to go teach the teachers in the library they always say “Hello Teacher Alex !” And they always come running towards me to give me a high five, fist bump, and a heart
there is also a 3rd grader who loves to take a running start to give me a high five and although he is tiny, they are some powerful high fives
one time my coteacher forgot to give me the photos I drew to teach another class, and so I had to wing it and draw some animals on the spot. They were not the prettiest, but I think the students understood it
to reiterate again: my school director is the nicest man on earth and although he is busy he always talks to me, always says hello, and sometimes will talk to me for an hour about the most random things (but also they are serious things such as the school system in Cambodia and also how our school is different from others)
today I was teaching my 5C class and all of a sudden I hear music coming from the desk. Some kid brought a toy piano to class….
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