|
The program and school are fantastic. The school is small; about 160 kids
on average, preschool through grade 9. We're like a family. I set up the
current preschool program replacing a very traditional academic "teacher
driven" program. The program now uses much of the criteria by NAEYC combined
with my own knowledge of the brain development and learning. I also work
to meet the needs of the very diverse population. I am able to put into
practice 99% of what I believe should be in a program. I've reached a
point where I can do this without any hassle. The school program is built
from the bottom up with the program not being time-based but follows the
flow of the kids.
I've given a lot of community presentations
here in the Vientiane community and around Southeast Asia. One of my topics
for other educators is "Breaking the Cycle" which compares what
we now know about learning to the traditional scheduled teaching based
approach. I give workshops here on the brain development and learning,
emotional intelligence, multiple intelligence, guidance not discipline,
guiding high-energy children, why teens act the way they do, guiding teens
in learning, and memory. I have a class a week with grades 6,7,9 in a
project that I designed called "Community." This grew out of a course
that I had with five to six middle school students for two previous years
called "Exploratory" in which we explored all kinds of things ranging
from multiple intelligence, baking cookies, positive attitude projects
for the school to working with various community groups. The overall goal
has been to get involved with the middle school staff in order that the
program might benefit from my knowledge in human development.
From Swaziland and around the world
I started in Early Childhood Education in 1971 after working in grade
1, grade 6 and two years in the Peace Corps in Swaziland teaching grade
9-10 Math-Science. After my experiences with 38 first graders in a rural
Catholic school in Michigan and then 46 sixth graders in a Los Angeles
suburb I decided that education wasn't what I wanted. I went into the
Peace Corps, the first time in Somalia, to work in agriculture. I quit
the program after almost a year because I saw that the way things were
set up, I would do more damage than good to subsistence level agriculture
by creating a dependency on outside aid.
I then switched to Swaziland where I saw
that I could make a contribution in education and curriculum development.
It was during this time that I realized that I was a good educator but
that I didn't know what was going on in the kids' heads in learning.
I went back to school for a Master of Arts
in Human Development and Learning. It was here that I discovered Piaget
and others who gave credence to my belief that education could be fun,
exciting and meaningful. I wound up working on Piaget grants, learning
experience projects and setting up a day care program for the university,
Western Michigan. The rest is history.
My life has never been the same. I've gone
in and out of the field working at various administrative jobs in human
services at the county and state level. I also set up a school in Iran
1974-78 but that's another story.
|
Our school currently has an excellent staff
who is willing to explore higher levels of education. Our director, John
Ritter is no exception. He and I had contact back in the 70s when I was
an ISS school director in Iran and he had become a director in Nepal.
Our relationship is more of an equal to equal rather than administrator
to teacher. I left Iran in June of 78, returned to the US to get involved
in my own community and put into practice a lot of what I had learned
outside of the country. I worked as a volunteer in many organizations
and was on the board of several including two national groups which took
me to Washington DC six times a year. After three years I was lined up
to replace John in Katmandu when I received an appointment from the governor's
office because of my work in community issues. I decided to stay and work
"at home" and declined the Nepal position.
Working for state government
The appointment was regional director of the Governor's Ombudsman Program
for the Aging and Disabled. I was in charge of everything in Wisconsin
outside of Milwaukee. I had just gotten the program re-established and
moving when the Reagan chopper came along. I then decided to stay in Madison
to go back to the university. I picked up graduate degrees in Sociology
of Economic Change, and Latin American Studies and continued studies in
Adult Education. I then went into the Peace Corps again for five years,
this time in Belize and Guatemala. I've been a catalyst or developer most
of my life. I reached a point where I wanted to develop something and
stay with it, to see it maintain, grow and deepen. That led to me eventually
coming to Laos and finding the right situation. I work with grades 6,7,
and 9 in a one period a week class called Community that I designed. The
grade seven class was very answer focused at the beginning of the year.
They were resistant to my approach moving to a more reflective and conceptual
level. One day some of the group asked me why a preschool teacher was
working with a middle school class. I knew many of the kids from other
activities and I also knew their parents quite well. I was taken back
a bit by the challenge posed by their question but talked about my background
a bit and related some of my experience in community service to the work
that many of their parents were doing. Well, they still didn't seem to
really believe that I had the professional qualifications to work with
them in the area of community. The next week I gave each of them (there
are eleven) a copy of my transcript for the last five years of my university
work in Madison. It really opened up discussion. Many carried the discussion
home and were impressed that someone of my background was working solely
with them. They felt that I should be working at a much higher level than
most of their parents. We talked a lot about choices in life and job satisfaction.
Meeting their challenge at a level that was meaningful to them gave a
solid base to work from. Now the kids are in the preschool after school
and during lunchtime. They also come to me for assistance in things. One
of the favorite activities in our class is to go into the preschool and
PLAY. It is amazing to see some of these kids show how much they missed
out on, many because they were pushed through the narrow confines of traditional
academic schooling. One of the biggest developments to come out of the
situation is for the group to begin to understand why I feel so strongly
about Early Childhood Education and the foundation that can be built for
life not just education.
David V. Zakem Vientiane International School PO Box
3180 Sapanthong Tai Road Vientiane LAOS
davezak@laotel.com
Read
about other male teachers
|
