The curriculum development workshop began on August 1st and will continue until August 26th. There are twenty one teachers attending, eleven from our own Xavier Jesuit School, six from Enfant de Mekong, and two from Kompong Cham Prefecture and two from Mother of Peace Kindergarten, Poipet.
The aim of the workshop is to provide professional development for teachers of Kindergarten to Grade 2. During the workshop we give teacher’s knowledge about the theories and principles of effective teaching and learning. The teachers are given an opportunity to explore and discuss these theories. The focus is very much on how to ensure effective teaching takes place in our classrooms. We have a practical approach with each teacher delivering lessons to her peers, trying out various methodologies, which is then critiqued. In this way, teachers learn from each other’s ideas.
Each week focuses on a specific subject area: Math, Social Studies and Science, Khmer Language and Visual Art and Music. At the end of the 4 weeks it is hoped that the teachers will have a schedule of topics and lessons for the first 3 months of the year, that they will have plenty of ideas about how to teach these topics in an active and child-centered way and that they will have the resources to do so.