Balik Kampong / Going Back Home To Pattani

My educational odyssey has taken me back to the beginning. It's not in a circle, like a dog chasing his tail. It's more like the spiralling string connected to a wau bulan (traditional kite) as it climbs sky high. It was time to balik kampong, to CRW Islamic School in Pattani. The friendly confines of Kersik, Thailand where my teaching career was launched. As I rolled back into the village accompanied by old friend, Hj Wae-daoh, he said, "Welcome back home!"

Wau Bulan

To add too the spiralling effect, my former student, Hasan, is now an English teacher at CRW. It was the 23rd and 24th of May. On Saturday, we gathered bright an early, early enough to enjoy the sea breeze. The eager group was made up of 9 teachers on the first day. We had a power packed 2 days ahead of us. Day 1 was a workshop for teachers only while Day 2 was an English event with the 9 teachers an 150 plus Form 1 secondary students.  The name of the game for the workshop was...phonics.

The workshop began with a warm-up activity. We broke the ice and exploded with good counsel from Kid President, With a Message to Teachers & Students.  After a brief discussion on the teachers' personal backgrounds with phonics, we briefly refreshed and rebooted a common working understanding of phonics. Generally speaking, many of the teachers were exposed to phonics in teachers college, but were not applying it in the classroom. Yet it had no bearing on their enthusiasm, they plan to use a phonics based methodology this year in lower primary. 

It was time to introduce them to their new gang of friends, Alphablocks. We watched the first episode of Alphablocks on the sound of the alphabet. This led to us learning the actions associated to the letters and sounds. After a quick fun assessment of sounds and actions, we introduced the indispensable component of teaching phonics- sight words. We did a sight words activity and assessment then it was on to diphthongs. We had a few other pleasant educational tangents throughout the day. I proposed we do a 3 station of activities somewhat like what was done recently with Lincoln Corner.

We continued to collaborate on the rest of the content for the day besides the stations. Team Work, Makes the Dream Work! We managed to organise a solid program for the students that went off without a hitch. On Sunday, curious parents looked on as their children packed the dewan. As always, the event began ceremoniously. We played a toon on some valuable points of the upcoming school year. We got the students to chant the school's initials. There was chant off between the boys vs the girls. We sang some songs, we learn some phrases and discussed the expected creative attitude the upcoming school year.

The teachers did a fantastic job creating an English environment under the blazing April South China Sea sun. Students really had a kick with the day's activities. Hasan sparkled like I knew he would with engaging his students. It was the first phase of a monthly yearlong project to lend support to the teachers as they make a leap to a phonics friendly approach this year.

Masjid Kersik