Announcing Our Partners

We could not be more pleased with our final set of six working partners. Each of these organizations will send between 2 and 12 teachers to our July Curriculum Development Workshop at which we will help them create GNH-infused units for their students. Through this initiative, we would like to see more connected, actively-involved, life-long learners grounded in Bhutan’s ancient wisdom traditions, principles, values, and practices. To that end, we have developed the framework for a comprehensive curriculum that can be adapted and delivered in units individually or sequentially. The units within this framework help students develop the values, knowledge, competencies, and practical life skills that will enable them to live full and satisfying lives and to become contributing members of society. Khyentse Rinpoche said that true freedom only comes when one is no longer enslaved on an inner level by the emotion and desire and on an external level by ignorance. LME would like to help guide students to this level of freedom.

The partners are, in brief: 

· Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs, an organization that empowers Bhutanese women through the promotion of knowledge and business skills, is revamping their domestic helpers program curriculum using the LME Framework for implementation in 2012.

The Bhutan Nuns Foundation is committed to using the LME framework and trainings to develop a secular education program for nuns in East Bhutan. Many girls and women in Bhutan enter nunneries to gain an education and escape poverty and abuse. These women dedicate their lives to serving society. They are very involved in local communities, often helping needy families and serving as role models for other girls and women.

Chokyi Gyatso Institute (CGI), a monastery in Dewathang, Samdrup Jongkhar, East Bhutan is scheduling implementation of a secular curriculum for monks based on the LME framework in January, 2013 to help the monks become more integrated members of society, active in supporting the health and wellbeing of surrounding communities.

The Non-Formal Education Programme, a basic functional literacy programme supported by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF, will develop units to extend their existing curricula into areas of math, science, technology, social sciences and mindfulness.

The Royal Education Council, an education think tank of Bhutan, will work with LME to develop a sample of integrated curriculum as part of the innovative research and experimentation they are conducting in a select group government run public schools.

 The Tarayana Foundation was established in 2003 by Her Majesty the Queen Mother, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, to help bridge local needs of disadvantaged remote communities with larger national initiatives. The Foundation will send one Field Officer and one Programme Officer to LME's Curriculum Design Workshop to develop units for their work in rural communities.

 

Show Us Your Money Maker

Washington D.C. has a new teacher evaluation system that gives master teachers merit-based pay increases. It's the logical thing to do, but because of protests from powerful teachers unions, most districts are unable to make the leap. “We want to make great teachers rich,” says Jason Kamras, the district’s chief of human capital. Music to our ears! Read the New York Times article about this great breakthrough.

'Under the system, known as Impact Plus, teachers rated “highly effective” earn bonuses ranging from $2,400 to $25,000. Teachers who get that rating two years in a row are eligible for a large permanent pay increase to make their salary equivalent to that of a colleague with five more years of experience and a more advanced degree.'

Most teachers in Bhutan have a starting pay of about 12,000 nu per month (equivalent to about $240 US) with a cap of about 17,000 ($320). More on Bhutanese salaries here, but suffice to say when civil servants received their last pay raise, the increase for teachers was the most slight. It's the most noble of professions and yet the systems seems designed to discouraging the noble form applying.

Allowing Learning to Happen

During the teacher training this week (which I am continuing to love), Mrs. Das told an interesting tale about a man who thought he could be helpful by assisting a butterfly out of its chrysalis. Why let it struggle. So he slit it open and the butterfly tumbled out. But then what?

Many parents and teachers try to help children and students through obstacles by doing the work for them. Their knowledge and skill is second nature and they want to transfer it to their children, so they can get frustrated when a child struggles to own this knowledge independently. Impatient, or maybe just out of a wish to be helpful, they finish the problem or give the answer before the student has time to do the work. "This is why masters are not always good teachers," said Mrs. Das.

Her classroom strategy? "Wait time," she says. "Give the students time to think before filling in the answers." She also reminds teachers that it isn't what the teacher teaches but what the student learns.

Helping a butterfly out of the chrysalis actually impairs the butterfly, she won't acquire the wing strength she needs to fly, her wings might be misshapen, and she might even die. Though a student will survive heavy handed teaching, something still might die: their own critical thinking, their enthusiasm to learn. Students need to have freedom and guidance to make necessary connections in their brains if they are going to be life long learners. As hard as it is to stand back, sometimes it's better to watch them struggle to find answers on their own.

This article in Psychology Today sheds light on the phenomenon.

I look forward to seeing how we can apply this understanding in the classrooms of all our pilot projects.

REC's Master Teacher Training

Much has been happening in the world of Lho Mon Education, so much that I haven't had time to write up any reports. In short, I couldn't be more pleased with our final line up of LME partners. I will share details about the final two soon. 

Meanwhile, I am spending this week and next at Paro's Khangkhu Resort observing the Royal Education Council's master teacher training for a select group of educators from the REC Beacon Schools, which are testing out the latest innovations in education. Six of Paro's Beacon Schools, or Seed Schools, are participating in the master teacher training (from a total of 15 Beacon Schools in Paro and Thimphu). This week's course is the fourth in the series with a special focus on brain based learning, classbuilding, and teambuilding, critical thinking and active learning. I'm soaking up every word like a very thirsty sponge.

The instructors are from Singapore's Educare and they are, in a word, fabulous. Mrs. Jaya Das keeps all of the teachers completely engaged and animated from the beginning of class until our final tea. We have so much fun. At one point today the whole room was literally in tears from laughter.

The reason for the laughter was the result of an exercise in communication. About twelve of us lined up against the wall facing in one direction. Mrs. Das turned the person at one end (which happened to be me) around and showed a series of hand movements. Nothing elaborate, but I was immediately flustered. I was to turn and tap the next person on the shoulder, and as soon as she turned around, show her the movement, and so on down the line. What started out as a simple touch of the shoulder, ribs and hip, turned into the most hilarious wing flapping movement. As the final teacher did his goose dance, all of us grown adults were in stitches like little kids.

Mrs. Das gave us a minute to let us quell the giggles, compose ourselves, and wipe our tears. Then she asked: What would have generated more accurate information transfer?

The answer? When teachers demonstrate something once and expect students to grasp it entirely, there is sure to be a problem. But if a teacher demonstrates something, lets the student try it out, guides them, revises and then lets them work on their own, the chances are the student will truly absorb the information.

In turn, her own method of having us interact, be active in the room, have fun, helped us absorb that information. So it was a lesson within a lesson. And there were many more lessons throughout the day.

I am deeply grateful to the REC for letting me sit in on these important sessions. Twelve of these master teachers will participate in our July Curriculum Development Workshop so it's been great to meet them, learn about their experiences as teachers in Bhutan and as participants in this groundbreaking program, and to play! At lunchtime, Aum Tashi told me that she applies what she has learned from these trainings and the students have transformed. There is a new sense of security and belonging that has increased student self esteem, reduced discipline problems, and created a learning environment that allows her to be a better teacher and the students to be better students.

Anyway, I could gush on and I probably will!

Crises in Bhutanese Education

This article in Kuensel, sheds light on a crises in Bhutanese education. Despite a skyrocketing unemployment rate, new graduates don't want to accept posts as teachers. Only 44 people applied for 155 slots. Meanwhile, 200 contract teachers who taught for at least a year or two in remote areas have been pleading with the education ministry to give them a chance to join the teacher training program in Bhutan's two teacher training institutes. These issues are both bound up in the issue of the civil service. I'm sure there are hard working officials who are trying to rectify the situation but who are bound by endless laws and bylaws. It's a shame. And such a contrast to the Finnish model, where teaching is the noblest of professions, as explained in this New York Times article.

English Program Begins January 2012: New Video

We will soon be announcing a few exciting new names to our growing list of partners who will be using the LME framework to create their own units. But our first project has always been Chokyi Gyatso Institute (CGI) where we will begin implementing the secular curriculum for monks in January, 2013. To prepare the monks to study in English, we are starting an intensive English language program next month. Debbie Miller from Canada is generously donating her time and energy for the first six months and will be arriving shortly. She'll be teaching in one of the temple classrooms while we wait for the new classrooms to be built. Then we get to plaster the walls with maps of the world, build bookshelves and line them with dictionaries, atlases, resource texts. We'll be getting a few computers and other materials. We've put together a new video about CGI. If you'd like to make a small donation, it will go a long way.


Either way, please watch the video.

Good People

Building a solid team of advisors and partners is the key to the success of Lho Mon Education and it's also the activity that makes this job most fulfilling. There are so many great people out there. If it wasn't for Katherine Riley volunteering her time during her sabbatical from teaching high school in Vermont, we wouldn't have the LME Framework document that is the basis for all the curriculum development we are now doing. She was so easy to work with, bright, experienced, supportive, creative, and ready to collaborate. And funny! I miss our daily work sessions.

It is encouraging to see the caliber of people that this project is attracting. Lately I have been seeking the advice and guidance of Professor Alex Lautensach, assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Canada. He is providing invaluable feedback related to our teacher training program. It means the world to me whenever someone really takes the time to read through all of the documents that Katherine and I originally developed. Professor Lautensach's research expertise is broad: environmental ethics and human behaviour, determinants of human security in the areas of health and environmental support structures, science education and affective learning outcomes, teaching and learning for sustainability, and bioethics education and cultural safety. It's the perfect fit.

And now that Lho Mon Education is forming an alliance with the Bhutan Nuns Foundation, I have the honor and privilege to work with their founder and executive director Dr. Tashi Zangmo. To have a Bhutanese counterpart with such devotion to her work and with such an open mind is really a blessing. I've really enjoyed our brainstorming sessions and also finding out that we both attended schools in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. She's such an asset to the country and we are really lucky to be working with her. The hope is that we will train one teacher who will be dedicated to teaching the nuns and together we will create a curriculum specifically for them but based on the LME Framework. The curriculum will be implemented in at least one nunnery as a pilot, in tandem with the CGI pilot. She is also developing a resource center for nuns in Thimphu where we could conduct classes. Our first course of action is coming up with ways to teach teachers how to teach Life Skills and we are open to suggestion.

Some of you may notice one major change here: We are no longer SJI Education. Rinpoche has long said that "education is the key" to his vision of creating an enlightened society in east Bhutan. With that in mind and considering the broadening scope of the curriculum development we have been working on, he suggesting moving the education component out from under SJI to its own independent project that will stand side by side SJI under the Lho Mon Society umbrella.  Lho Mon Society is the civil society organization, Bhutan's version of an NGO, that looks after both of these initiatives. I am pleased therefore to introduce the all new Lho Mon Education and am excited about the change. I'll soon post the URL of our new web site and other information as we grow into our own.

English Starts Now

It was wonderful to finally meet the monks in Dewathang who will be participating in the pilot project. And especially wonderful to have our founder Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche there with us. We held several key meetings with the top khenpos who run the monastery to hammer out the details of our project and select the class who will be our inaugural group. We chose the young ones, the most recent additions to the monastery, most of whom just completed the second grade. I sat behind them during the 10 day puja and was impressed by their diligence, camaraderie, good humor, and good behavior (even when naughtily tickling the ear of a dozing monk).

Rinpoche spent hours of is precious time discussing his vision of what we can do and how. He was full of enthusiasm and amazing ideas. I am very grateful and encouraged and inspired at the moment.

One thing became very clear: CGI is ready for the English program to begin immediately. The monks are very eager for it and since we are teaching the LME curriculum in English, it's key that they have a head start. So in just a few days I managed to find a willing and very capable volunteer to come to Dewathang for six months of intensive English Language instruction  beginning in January 2012. That's soon! Our volunteer, Debbie Miller has spent many years teaching English in Korea but many of you have met when she was volunteering at SSRC near Whistler. There is much to prepare in advance of her arrival and I will soon be announcing an online campaign where people can help support this important first step of the initiative.