Perhaps it's the perfect volunteer jig. Most weekday mornings in America find me at Noble Academy, a Hmong Charter school, doing accelerated reading with small groups of fifth and sixth graders. They love to read but because of their family's recent arrival in America and inexperience with English their vocabulary is small. Reading together is an opportunity to learn new words and gives me the opportunity to teach a variety of subjects, e.g., history.
For several years I've volunteered at Noble. Neal Thou, the founder and director of Noble, has been fascinated by my volunteer work in Thailand. On one of his trips to Asia he visited the "my" school and talked to some of the teachers. This year he sent gifts from Noble to Samakee Pakaran, i.e., "my" School. Today I presented those gifts to the school. (See pictures below.)
It was a very nice gesture from Neal. An immediate result was a helpful conversation with the principal of Samakee Pakaran. In addition to a Noble School uniform sweater and shirt he included several Noble yearbooks. Phousee, the principal examined the yearbooks in detail. She is personally progressive but she had never heard of classroom intervention specialists; i.e., persons whose job is to take students requiring remedial help out of the classroom to work one on one. Here the academically challenged sink or swim in the classroom and mostly sink.
We spent my entire half hour break discussing educational philosophy and the English Language. As she perused the yearbooks she'd check pronunciations and meanings. She is intent on improving her English.
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| Holding the Noble sweater. |
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| Principal Phosee opening the gifts. |
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| Looking at the gifts while teacher, Aaonsee, is explaining to the students. |
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| Students listen in more or less rapt attention. |
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