School Projects with Wonderful Memories

A curriculum can be more rewarding when projects are created for the students to go out and find answers, become more creative and venture into social studies. I worked on a major project in Thailand where students were asked to create an environmentally model, friendly city with new rules. Almost like Singapore was created over the years the students had to create a clean, safe city for the citizens to live in. The cities had to be named and built using materials from home and around the school. Classes in the school were separated in two sections in each year, an A class for the stronger students and a B class for other students. This worked really well with my students as they were always aware they needed to achieve higher grades to be promoted into the higher class. The project was a true reflection of how the students in each class could achieve.

Materials were collect over a few weeks and the students began their assignment to build a new city. Groups were formed for the project and a time limit was announced on the first day of the project. I allowed the students around three weeks to complete the course. I learnt over the weeks that a project needs to have a carefully considered time scale otherwise the students begin to lose interest. The time scale was a little long but I wanted to get some good photography in for the principal to use on open days for parents to view the conclusion. I managed to take hundreds of photographs that reflected the student’s feelings during the project. The photographs will be available on this blog when I get the gallery up and running.

The students from the lower B class seemed confused at times and the groups argued about who was to be group captain. I chose group captains from the beginning but some students said the captains weren’t assigning them to do group activities needed to build the city. Some students in Group B became upset with occasional tears. It became obvious that the upset students were upset and the high achievements from the higher class A. If I had to implement the project again students would be mixed from both classes to give the project a more balanced theme.

The final outcome of the project however was not far from amazing and the school principal was delighted with the model cities on display in the schools corridors. Parents were allowed to view the projects and leave comments. Each model city had a neatly written set of rules implemented on the cities finalisation. The rules were to reflect on how the city was to be run, who was in charge and how the cities people were to live. The girls constructed an incredible city with rules that demonstrated how a real modern city is controlled and run today. The building scales were accurate and roads had painted lines for traffic separation. Hospitals were constructed with clean and tidy playgrounds. Some groups were mixed with both boys and girls working together but several groups were of the same sex. Girls were more accurate but boys had more variation within the city, more buildings, and better improved rules. The winner of the project went to an all girl group from class A, who had demonstrated the project’s outlines with perfection.

The environmental project was a treasured memory in my teaching days in Thailand and I miss the students dearly. I had taught some of the students for four years because parents wanted me to follow them up a grade each year. From grade three I moved up to grade four bilingual, then to grade five and eventually grade six. The two years I taught grade three were also treasured moments with a fantastic Thai teacher assistant who loved the children so much. The assistant was a good friend who warmed to the children in beautiful way.

Students in the lower class, grade 5 one day became upset with their position in the lower class and complained they felt inferior to the higher class A. They were unusually quiet when I walked into the room and I wondered why. I explained to the students that they were capable of achieving higher grades even when in a lower class. The students complained that they had never been told they were doing well at school. My speech to them was warm and affectionate. I asked the students to think back about other projects about the Greek empire, the Egyptian pyramids and the Aztecs and Inkers and how well they had answered comprehensive questions. Some of the students were almost in tears but from that day on they began to achieve higher grades in some cases higher than the A class. The higher A class were also aware of this and began to over achieve making the whole year a race to improve for promotion the following year.

It was a wonderful year that ended with a student thanking me at the school gates for helping him become the second highest grade winner in the class. I remember the student very well; he invited me to stay at his father’s beautiful hotel on the island Koh Phi Phi. The parents often expected too much from the students but never once bothered me during parent’s evenings about their grades or position in class. The parents trusted me to help the students gain confidence and motivation in the English language. The funny thing about the parents was that their children spoke much better English than they did by the time they had reached grade six.