Teacher Conference in Nepal!

 

NAMASKAR!

...were you expecting "namaste"? Did I throw you off? I suppose I'm feeling exceptionally formal, so I greeted you accordingly. {Or really, I just wanted to use that word.}

 

This is the second installment of my Nepal adventure series! This post focuses on the TEACHING CONFERENCE that we led-- the whole REASON we traveled to Nepal! 

This banner hung in our conference facility :)

BUT FIRST! Let me introduce you to the area that we traveled to in order to give the conference. The region, Kailali, is in "far-west" Nepal. If you read my previous post about Kathmandu, you'll know that Kathmandu is the most "developed" city in Nepal, according to Western standards. And by Western standards I mean: Western toilet. A/C. A tad of electricity...and wifi please. And maybe a hot shower. Those comforts make our world go 'round in the US!! Those things were lacking in Kailali -- Except at our hotel!

 I had mixed feelings about staying at our hotel. Not that there was much of an alternative. On one hand, I was very thankful for all the Western amenities that we enjoyed! The hotel was about a La Quinta level, if you compared it to US hotels -- although the view of the river and mountains was beautiful! The part that made me feel uncomfortable was the stark comparison between the standard of living we experienced at the hotel, compared to the standard of living of people who ACTUALLY live in the town. The people lived in shack-like homes constructed out of a variety of materials -- metal, brick, wood, etc. Goats, pigs, chickens, and dogs ran rampant :) Actually, the animals were very chill, compared to my dog, who looses his mind when he sees something alive that is not human. (I wonder if he would adjust in Nepal..) Anyway, we were at least glad that we could support an excellent business in a country where the economy is suffering. For what it's worth!

The town surrounding our hotel.

 

Walking down the street behind our hotel made us the center of attention. We were stared at by people young and old -- and the young ones would shout "hello!" repeatedly and follow us down the street :P At one point, a tourist from India even stopped us to take our picture. Seriously, my photo is on SO many Nepali or Indian cell phones. -_- The number of times our pictures were taken at the teaching conference itself was ENDLESS! We saw a few children on their patios completing their homework -- a sight to warm any teacher's heart!

Walking down the road behind our hotel. Need an umbrella? No really, it's monsoon season. Get an umbrella.

View of the road on the way to our teaching conference.

AND SO we dove right into our long-anticipated teaching conference. Only two of us on our team had been to Nepal before (not me). We honestly had no idea what to expect from the country itself, much less the teachers, classrooms, or state of education in the country. AKA We were NOT EXPERTS! Any of those things would have been SUPER to know beforehand, but it didn't work out that way. However, the conference topics that we chose came directly from what the teachers requested in previous months. The Children's Director of the girls & boys homes I mentioned in my previous post was able to ask the teachers what they wanted to learn about, and also spread the word for the conference. If it wasn't for him, we would have had only the ducks and resident dog in attendance.

Selfie at one of our presentations!

I relied on the little information that we got from the teachers about what they wanted to learn -- and hoped, prayed that I was planning appropriately for the topic: "how to prepare teaching-wise and subject-wise," and the session I was collaborating with a team-mate on, "Montessori methods." {I am not experienced in Montessori, but my team mate is! Luckily I am capable of using Google to find resources, however.} Since I felt like my topic was vague enough to cover a huge variety of points, I focused on -- 1. Teaching to different learning styles  2.  Setting up a lesson/block structure  3. Daily 5 Stations! My team mates had topics like classroom management, psychology of children, stuff related to being a principal, etc. :P

 The posters and handouts that I made paid off when it was confirmed that there was no wifi, projector, or white/black boards available! Wahoo! The venue for our convention was called Moon Boon Villa, and it was a bar/restaurant/pool facility. We ate the traditional Nepali Thali for lunch each day- it's good! Clearly they have a sense of humor, if not perfect command of English spelling.

Inspiration.

"As you can see..."

 

There I am, giving my presentation in the half-constructed building! Missing a few walls was actually a PLUS when there is no A/C in the buildings with all of their walls!! When we first arrived, we listened to several prominent speakers (local politicians and school leaders) speak to the audience. As they spoke, (in Nepali -- did I mention Nepali is not my first language?) we sat at the front of the room, on display, and sweating like crazy. We then took questions from the audience and answered them briefly, in order to get an updated understanding of what the teachers expected from our conference topics. Yay for on-the-spot impromptu questioning with a large audience!!

Before starting my session, I was NERVOUS! What if the audience hates my presentation and begins a rebellion? What if they think my American suggestions aren't applicable in Nepal? OR what if all my points are old news to them? SNORE. Plus, I had 55 participants in the audience!
Thankfully none of those fears became a reality! The participants seemed to both understand my points and find them valuable. I spoke through an interpreter to ensure understanding! I used a lot of "turn & talks" and "think, pair, shares" to model to them a simple way of getting kids talking. When I asked them, "who uses group work in your classroom?" ONE PERSON out of 55 raised their hand. So I felt very justified in my discussion of stations!! But... I do know that ONE session on stations doesn't mean that they will be implemented or embraced. Luckily the teacher training trip will be an annual event. :)

CHEESE!!

 After we presented, we were invited by the teachers of Kailali Public School to visit their campus! I was very grateful to finally visit a Nepali school and get a better idea of what resources they have available! (I made a point in my sessions to make sure everything was applicable no matter what resources they have!) The teachers were very kind and enthusiastic. Some of the children from Servlife homes attend this school, so they actually tagged along with us! That's them in the picture!

A student in her classroom!

 Isn't she adorable?? The kids were excited to show us their classrooms! Coming from big classrooms that are full of materials, seeing the Nepali classrooms was a bit of a shock to us. The classroom where the little girl is standing is about 10'x10,' and their class sizes are between 20-30. There was a medium sized white board on the wall for the teacher, and wooden benches. The size of the classrooms really gave us questions about how to do stations effectively! The school building itself wasn't that small, so we wondered why they made the classrooms so small. One possible answer was explained to us by someone later. She said that sometimes since principals are using their own money to start the school, they construct the school building dimensions with the thought that they can rent out the rooms if the school goes bankrupt.

Kindergarten classroom.

The school above is another school that we were lucky enough to visit. This is a kindergarten classroom, but all of the classrooms looked the same. I'm not sure if it's helpful or hurtful to compare these classrooms with United States classrooms. I really don't know. I shared this picture on the Encouraging Teachers Facebook page, and I had someone asking to donate posters. If that happens, I hope that they can go to good use in a classroom like this. Personally, I'd like to get in there with a bucket of paint. No matter what, I was thankful that I was able to see a little bit of what teachers and students experience everyday in rural Nepal, and meet the people that give these students the opportunity to be educated!