Luke Does the Impossible

Welcome To English Class
(now we begin!)

     Most Vietnamese schools seem to start classes in early-to-mid August. Part of the reason we had such a rushed start-up was the fact that the Board of Administrators and Stakeholders wanted to see the school up and running by the usual date. We postponed the opening several times, finally opening our doors on Wednesday, August 22nd. The school has two programs: the Vietnamese Ministry of Education program, and the English program. We waited an extra week with the English program, opening up on August 29th.

Our Current Primary And Secondary Staff
(English and Vietnamese team)

     The school's mission and vision are not clearly defined, but the general understanding is that we're trying to create a school for Vietnamese nationals. The stakeholders have invested in this unheard of project in this school in this tiny little province as a way of giving back to their community. They want students from their community to be equipped to succeed in life, give back to their families and province, and build towards a brighter future. Many of the stakeholders and their parents lived through the revolutionary wars- including the American War- and have seen drastic changes in their country. They want to continue moving forward, and they realize education is the only way.

Students Arriving (first day of school)

     The school is having an incredibly difficult time starting up. The administration is a hazy mess of who's who and no discernible individual is in charge. Because the culture is so different from anything we're used to, we are struggling to navigate through it to find the answers we need to do our jobs. The language barrier only intensifies the challenge.

Staff In Staff Room

     Our English team is composed of five volunteers and myself. Birdy is one of those volunteers. None of them have any prior experience teaching English or anything else. We've all gone through a TESOL course training, but that only really serves as a paper-qualification. As of now, nobody has the experience to be considered a  trained or experienced teacher. Even most of the Vietnamese staff has done little more than tutor. This means we have a young, mold-able staff, but it also means nobody knows what they're doing. I love living on the edge!

Luke Teaching

     This summer (July/August) we hastily trained our staff and volunteers in as much English and teaching methodology as possible. Unfortunately, it was not enough time to really get all the information across. Even if we had more time, I doubt we could begin implementing new research-based methods without classroom experience. We're going in blind, that hasn't changed.

First Grade Lunch In Cafeteria

 



     I've been told (and subsequently noticed) that it is extremely important to "keep face" in Vietnam. Vietnamese people may pee on the sidewalk and wear see-through shirts, but they have a Confucian tinge to their moral and ethical code. You must always be seen as honorable and respectable and you must not shame your family. One of the side-effects of this is that people here are extremely unlikely to take risks. Why do something that is unproven and untested if you might mess up?

First Grade Classroom

     This makes for a sticky mess at our school. Our university-trained Vietnamese teachers are not taught how to teach. They simply lecture, test, and scold. That's how they were taught, that's how they're teachers were taught, and that's just how things are done. As students they disliked it. As teachers, it's all they know. It has to change, but how can they try something new when it might not work?

     For English we are using a program called AIM- the Accelerated Integrated Method. It is a Canadian-based program developed to facilitate French-English language education in Canada's bilingual system. It is intensely multisensory and highly recommended. I'm not an ESL teacher, and I'm not particularly excited about teaching English, but I am curious to see how effective this program is. We have a long way to go!

The School (our building is on the right, high school is on the left)