Aiming to enhance the quality of teaching, ‘Bringing Maths to Life’ workshops are our first initiative. The workshops concentrate on Maths teaching methods and include specially designed teacher resource kits. The workshops last for four days and in January run consecutively in Battambang and Siem Reap.
In January 2010, a total of 127 Khmer teachers attended the workshops with 100 rural schools represented. The groups within each workshop had around 16-20 Khmer teachers, two volunteer Australian teachers and two translators.
In January 2011, word had spread about the efficacy of the SeeBeyondBorders Teach the Teacher programme and we were delighted when 200 teachers attended our ‘Bringing Maths to Life’ workshops. We also included workshops that looked at maths through PE and Art this year which were a welcome variation.
Our most recent Teach the Teachers workshops in January 2012 were again held in Battambang and Siem Reap and covered Levels One and Two as well as a Mentor training workshop.
The workshop costs involve transport, accommodation, meals and excursion fees for the Khmer teachers as well as provision of locally produced whole-class Maths resource kits for each school represented at the workshop. Each kit costs $60 and contains sufficient resources for 40 children to be able to take part in every activity covered in the workshops, in a rural school context. Our volunteer Australian teachers are entirely self-funded and also contribute to the project costs.

Teach the Teacher workshop participants