Thursday 28 February 2013

COMPLETION OF OUR FIRST TERM


Reflections from a Chair - First Semester Review


I write this as we draw breath in our one week, inter-semester break, which is a good time to take stock. I would have been more cautious in some areas, bolder in others.

I would have been more accommodating to Lao norms and not demanded so much of the staff team and students. We would still have demanded more than any other educational employer in Laos, but maybe not as much as I have. I underestimated how hard it is to change attitudes and expectations. We have shifted them a bit, but not as much as we might have hoped. I write this at 10:40am; at my insistence staff came in at 9:00am, but so far no work has been done. They have instead all been contributing to my travel arrangements for the weekend; very kind, but not especially useful. But here the boss is not expected to do anything useful, or for himself. That’s what staff are for.

We opened our doors with not the faintest idea of how many students might apply. We now know that our Centre is hugely popular (as it ought to be, with no fees and superb facilities) and with hindsight I would have taken more students. It is very sad to have to turn away so many eager young people. On hearing that we might take one or 2 extras for the new semester, I have been inundated with applications, most of who cannot be accommodated within our existing timetable, and I am reluctant to make a major change half way through the year.

We thought our business was teaching English, but the reality is that English has just become a means to an end. The end being higher hopes and wider expectations, a more rational approach to work and study, and the development of professional standards. The trendy phrase is ‘capacity building’.

At least one other English language school has collapsed since we started and I hear of 2 more that are struggling. We have no interest in putting other organisations out of business. Instead I hope what we can do is make them raise their game if they want to stay in business. If we can contribute to a general raising of standards of English language teaching and student experience, then that in itself will have been a major and worthwhile achievement.

Maybe I might have been a little less willing to grab the first volunteers and staff who came within reach; but of course we did not know how selective we could be. We had to let one staff member go, and one volunteer, who is a good teacher, is a difficult colleague. But then, don’t we all have some of those? For all that I might grumble from time to time about our staff, the fact is that they are fantastically proud of what they have helped us achieve here. They are aware of how good we are; that is not arrogance, just a statement of fact. They enjoy a high status in their social settings through being a member of our team. Getting them to want, and demand, that we become even better is the next big challenge. But for now, they have experienced something better than they have previously known, and been introduced to strange falang attitudes like reflection, ambition, and drive for excellence.

Our initial use of volunteers was haphazard and not very rewarding I guess. But now we have proper schemes and systems in place and I think we can offer volunteers a clear and satisfying role which is something much more than just doing the teaching for lazy staff, which seems to be the role they fulfill in some other schools and centres.

It looks as though we got our costings about right and we are even coming in under our initial estimates. Building issues, the landfill question apart, have been minor and most problems swiftly dealt with. There are improvements that could be made. I think that today I may get a quote for anti mosquito netting. (Hope springs eternal!) In fact, again with hindsight we might have had shutters that open inwards; the screens will have to be hinged in some way (and therefore more expensive) to enable the shutters to be fastened.

The lighting in the teaching rooms is not great, and some visiting lighting experts suggested that a single uplighter in each room would provide a better light source than an additional ceiling light. There is also an echo when the shutters have to be closed. The mosquito screens should reduce the amount of times we need to have them closed, but maybe some wall hangings and rugs on the floor, or even some sound-absorbent notice boards might help. I am going to experiment with having one simple projector screen made. That is principally to reduce the blue glare from the white boards, but may affect the acoustics marginally. Outside, the water removal arrangements remain less than perfect but I have no simple or economical solutions beyond the ‘Heath Robinson” ones we have already employed.

The comments about the building are a bit like the more general comments further up. It is a fabulous building and receives admiration from all visitors, but there will always be ways to make further improvements as and when opportunities present themselves.

The students continue to ask for more ‘secure’ parking for their motorbikes, a request supported by the staff but opposed by me for the reasons we have debated before.

The ‘management’ of the Centre continues to be handled almost solely by me, with advice from UK colleagues from time to time. This is a less than perfect arrangement. However for the moment it seems to work and although we must look for a better way of operating I don’t think we should undertake a major change until we are sure that we have a better model to hand. 
I have hardly mentioned the students so far. They are lovely. Mostly hardworking and eager and we are asking a lot of them. The oral exams caused much anxiety but they coped and I think they were useful for us and for the students too. To my surprise we had very few absentees and to my further surprise the oral marks mostly just reflected the course work marks, with very few exceptions. I had thought that the orals would reveal different strengths and performances.

One can, of course read anything you like into mere statistics. But for the most part the student grades over the year have shown a pleasingly significant upward movement. This supports the somewhat impressionistic view that students are more confident and more willing to engage you in conversation in English. The Novices and Monks and the Hmong students all continue to punch above their weight. The latter are almost universally excellent, the former represent some of the strongest but also some of the weakest students. My impression is that overall the girls have done as well as the boys, but again with quite a range at top and bottom ends of the spectrum. 
There are things we might have done differently, but hindsight, as we know, is a wonderful thing.

Alan
 28 February 2013 

Friday 22 February 2013

Exam Results

On the whole they went very well. Only four students absented themselves, two of whom with 'good cause' ..we are checking the others.

Five students got very poor marks and we will check out if there are special reasons. 
But in no instance does poor performance seem to be related to poor attendance; 


I need to check the oral marks against other marks over the semester but it looks like we need to drop four students from Intermediate, and replace them with six from Beginners,. 
I am inclined to turn Beginners 3 into' Beginners 3 (Pre Intermediate)' as it  will comprise the very best of the beginners plus those 'relegated'.

The students were terrified and many clearly performed below their real ability. but they have never been subjected to this style of exam before, and when it was all over they admitted that they had kind of enjoyed it. I think it that in most cases it was a good learning experience. NO student arrived late and NO student failed to dress correctly.....progress?


Thursday 21 February 2013

A VOLUNTEERS STORY





Over  the past four years during February and March we (a couple of a certain age) have  worked for various volunteer projects around the world.  For the last two years we have supported English teaching in Luang Prabang.  Last year Ken was exploring the right bank of the Nam Khan river area when he saw the new LEOT school being built.  The builder showed him round and on his way out past the entrance he picked up a small leaflet on LEOT.  It sounded an interesting project so we filed the leaflet away in our travel documents but forgot all about it.  In Autumn 2012  as we planned our next project for 2013 the leaflet surfaced and having decided we would love to return to Laos we contacted the e-mail address on the leaflet to ask for an update on the project and whether LEOT might be interested in two British volunteers.  We had an immediate and encouraging response from Alan Shiel providing all the information we needed to make a decision about working with LEOT.

At the end of January having committed ourselves to six weeks in Luang Prabang Alan met us at the airport on arrival and took us to the school for our first visit.  We were welcomed warmly by the staff and were amazed at the quality of the building and the access to I.T.for the students.   We settled in to Cold River Guesthouse where we had stayed in the past.  We know the owners and were confident we would be well looked after.  Moreover we could walk to the school over the Nam Khan river in about 25 minutes.  The day of our arrival corresponded with Australia Day and we were invited to a barbecue where we met other volunteers and staff

During the first week we worked alongside the Lao teachers in order to understand procedures and routines. This led on naturally to our subsequent timetable of about eight classes a week.  We both taught Beginners and Intermediate groups and concentrated on pronunciation and conversation practice.  We were impressed to see four other English speaking volunteers working in a similar way, two from Australia, one from Canada and the other from the U.S.A. One morning an intrepid, lone English motorcyclist arrived at school and volunteered to stay a while to help students and staff service their motorcycles. For several days practical English lessons were conducted with greasy hands and amongst motorcycle parts.  This was a terrific addition to the curriculum.

Students are a delight to teach and their commitment to and enthusiasm for learning overwhelming.  There is an atmosphere of pleasurable learning that we have not encountered before in Laos.  The majority of students come to class from school or after work and attend classes every night of the week.  We think the staff are doing a great job in establishing the school as an important centre for learning English.  In this they are exceptionally well managed by Alan whose commitment is unquestionable.

In a short time LELC has become an established part of the Luang Prabang educational scene.  Ask students how they heard about the school and they invariably answer "from my friend".  The warm, friendly and fun approach to learning English by both staff and students is infectious.  We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and hope that other mature volunteers with relevant experience will come forward to help the school develop.  We will certainly be maintaining our contact and spreading the word wherever we can in the real hope that the project will continue to flourish.

Ken and Tricia Shooter-Bennett


PS
Many thanks from all at LEOT to Ken & Tricia for their fantastic help




Tuesday 12 February 2013

HELP FROM MOTOR CYCLE TOURS LAOS


Many thanks to our friend Chris from Motor Cycle Tours Laos

You can follow the story of his travels through Laos @

http://motorcycletourslaos.blogspot.co.uk/

Chris has made a return visit to the school not only bearing gifts but has started teaching basic bike maintenance to our students. 
Many of the LELC students own or share small basic motor bikes that are manufactured in China. Most are between 50cc and 75cc and are used for essential travel about town or from nearby villages as public transport is very limited.
                  


All our students are very short of money so none of them understand or can afford to pay for preventative maintenance

None have ever thought of servicing their bikes.

Chris's first students under instruction were Teacher Thong and LEOT scholarship student HP2.

  
The picture above is of the front wheel from Thong's bike. The wheel bearing has partly collapsed due to general wear and tear and a complete lack of maintenance.
It could so easily have failed at any moment causing a serious accident.
Thong is very lucky that Chris was in town and eager to help.

Chris is spending the rest of the week teaching basic maintenance to students so that they can pass it onto others and hopefully reduce the high number of accidents caused by mechanical failure.

MANY THANKS CHRIS FROM ALL AT LELC