Teaching English in a Rural School

Project Overview

English has been become the most common language in the world for a long time.

Therefore, learning is incredibly important and cannot be irreplaceable in elementary school.

Many rural elementary schools may not be able to teach English at a high level, due to lack of textbooks, teaching materials and the low salaries of teachers.

The goal of this project is teaming up with those Filipino teachers here in order to give students the best chance of studying subjects in English.

And things we did on 25th June 2015…..

We were with a few people who work at the Regional Rehabilitation Center on the jeepney, then when we reached Tanauan, we got off and prepared for the new working day.

Five minutes walking from the main road, there is a small school on our left hand side. Its name is Mohon Elementary School.

When I walked into the school, I met some of the school’s teachers and staff to introduce myself.

I said that I was here that day as VFV’s media intern in order to take some pictures of students for my article.

I received their friendly smiles and I was really ready for my work.

The students were saluting the flag, singing the Philippines national anthem. Then we moved to first class, which there were around 30 students.

“Hello, mom”

“Hello, sir”

“Good morning, mom”

“Good morning, sir”

“Good morning, mom”

“Good morning, sir”

– the whole class was greeting us.

I introduced myself to all of the students who were sitting in the classroom. They asked me a few questions, where I am from, how I studied to speak English, what my favourite colors, sports, songs are. I felt i was getting very close to all of them even though it was my first time standing there.

Anna and Kelly organized a small game to make the students be stretched out before the morning lessons. Then Anna taught them a few sentences which they can use to introduce themselves. After that, they wrote a short paragraph on the board but it has a few mistakes in grammar, and they asked their students to correct those sentences.

They are very dynamic, self-motivated, aggressive and energetic to express their ideas. I was so impressed about what they did in the English lesson. In the next stage,

Anna taught them how to pronounce silent letters correctly. I can remember that I did not learn that much when I was same at their age.

They were given two columns of words, the left one includes all the words which have silent letters, and the right one includes all the silent letters. They have to find out and match the letters which are pronounced silently in those words on the left. They did a very good job and seems like they did not find it difficult.

Mathematics lessons are what Kelly taught them after the English lessons. She reviewed them the lesson on the day before, negative and positive numbers.

And then she gave them a few examples and questions on this stage. Calculation of big numbers is also mentioned on that morning.

The thing that I found very interesting is the way how they can calculate and finish those questions in such a short time. They are quite smart and intelligent.

Anna and Kelly organized a mathematics competition later on. They divided class into two groups, and each group will pick one person to go on the board and do some calculations. People who firstly get the answer correctly will be the winner. The class was very eventful at that time.

Students who were writing the calculations on the board keep asking their group. And all students who were standing behind were cheering and encouraging them, helping them as well to get the answer.

The school bell signals the break time. In break time, we played UNO with them and I am pretty sure we had a good time together. I can feel a friendly and closely atmosphere which I may not get it again in the rest of my life.

After the break time, we moved to another class. On the new class, they were taught the same thing, did the same thing as the previous class did.

We also had an unforgettable moment together.

There were 2 little kids get into our classroom. Anna sent them a few stickers and pasted them on their clothes; I can see the happiness on their face. I realized that such a small thing in life can bring happiness to another person, as long as the way how you give it to them.

We were leaving and they waved their hand to say goodbye. Four hours were too short for me, time flies. Honestly, I did not want to get back, I really wanted to stay and have a chance to talk and play with them.

On the way back we were walking to the main road, Kelly told me some students asked if I would come the day after. It makes me really want to get back there; I cannot come the day after because I have to get through all my placements before I re-visit any placements.

But I would not wait too long, I will get all my placements as soon as possible, and hopefully I will get back there one day next week.

I love their intelligent, their innocence, and the way they show me through their smiles. Those things leave them free to enjoy themselves as few adults can.

I wish all the best to them, hope they all would have bright future!

Written by: Tan Hoang Bao Nguyen – Media Intern