"Training" at Ban Chamkho School

So, finally the blog is up and running, and I can't think of where to start. Well part of the idea is to change my habit of writing rare epics rather than regular updates, so I'll try not to think too much.

If you'd like to know some background about our project, sorry but you'll have to catch up later - that's an epic that needs to be written when I'm in the mood for it. For now I'll just tell you about what's happening this month.

First, we have teachers from several schools in the area coming to Ban Chamkho School for "training". Training is in quotes because I don't plan to do much formal training. I'm hoping that by coming here and sharing in what we're doing here, it will make it easier to set up something similar in their own schools.

Last term, I think we made great progress at BCK, and ironically, that made it more frustrating for me trying to explain Team English, Synthetic Phonics, Lexical Approach and so on to teachers from other schools. So rather than waste my breath and their time, I invited them to come and see for themselves.

That being said, I did sit down today and map out a rough schedule, so we should have a good mix of observing the BCK teachers, traditional training sessions, teaching practice sessions and workshops.

What's the difference between a training session and a workshop? Call me old-fashioned, but I really dislike confusing these terms. My idea of a workshop is where we get together and physically make something - in this case, teaching materials. Perhaps "sweatshop" is closer to my intention, but then that's not very PC is it?

Anyway, the first group of teachers is scheduled to come Tuesday to Thursday of next week (20 to 22 November). I'll post some details and photos after that.