It's the end of my first year at St. Paul American School Hanoi. I've had the great honor to teach a total of ~95 students over the course of the year. Quite a few students have moved on to other schools or returned back to their home countries; I ended the year with 83 students. It doesn't get easier over time to lose students. Teaching abroad is so different to teaching in the States. With English being many students' second or third language, I've found myself teaching just as much vocabulary and English as I do math content. Explanations must be adjusted and reworded 17 different ways depending on the student. Talk slower. Draw more pictures (#notanartist). But the students are genuine ... or at least really good at faking that they care about math. They at least care about the grade enough to put on a good show. When you do get the occasional student who just does not give a rat's ass about their grade, you have the time to dedicate to making them pull it up anyways. Didn't turn in your homework today --> lunch in my room. Failed your quiz --> I'll see you last period for Beyond. It doesn't take long before the student changes their attitude and surprisingly learns to love you for it. Some of my best students this year started out not great at math. Some of them are average (Asian average not American average... the stereotype holds for most students) until they're caught cheating. They then see that, indeed, I am smarter than them and they will be caught. They learn to love me for my sass and actually try to understand the concepts moving forward. We're still working on the independent creative thinking as that's more of a Western educational concept than an Asian one. I hope next year can make some real progress in that direction now that I know what to expect from my students. A couple pictures from the school's STEAM day. Students worked for weeks/months on projects in a variety of classes. The photo on the left is from students who analyzed various brands of bottled water available in Hanoi to see what was in them. What we learned is that LaVie has the most particulates (could be minerals, not necessarily bad) and Aquafina/TH are basically just straight water (no minerals, no bacteria, etc). The photo on the right is a GIANT vat of obleck (cornstarch and water mixture). It was large enough for students to run across. It was a huge mess by the end of the day but super fun. Another part of the STEAM day exhibits were these amazing artworks by students in the Art Beyond Class. Phenomenal work!
1 Comment
anh le
18/6/2019 05:36:06 am
I like when you said you have to speak slowly, don t scream they are not deaf, just use simpler words and go straight to the point.
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ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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