Good Morning, Teacher!

In mid-October and early November, I started working at two different Universities as a lecturer.  It’s been been a great experience, but it was a challenge to keep up with my lessons and my other activities, hence the massive delay in my update.  I don’t get a proper break for the Christian holidays because well, I’m in Cambodia and they don’t celebrate Christmas, but I did schedule a mid-term this week to give myself a break from lesson-prepping.  So let’s get into it, shall we?

One of the first foreigners I met in Cambodia was a lovable dude name Tom.  He was teaching macroeconomics at Royal University of Phnom Penh, and thought that I could jump into teaching.  He encouraged me to send him my CV so that he could forward it along. Not too long after, I was contacted the private institution Zaman University to teach a class, but by then I had just started working for CamboTicket and turned down the University.  Plus I thought I was happily going down a path of full-time, decently paid employment, so when things blew up in April/May, I regretted turning down the lecturing job.  I reached back out to Zaman but they said that the next semester wouldn’t start until Fall, so reach back out at the end of the Summer.  I promptly put it in my calendar to do exactly that.  Tenancious Mitsy kept reaching out to the Rector about this little job, and finally got a quick meeting with him to chat about teaching one class.  (It wasn’t until later I realized that I hadn’t been pestering HR or a department head, but the person who runs the whole school, because a Rector=University President.  Ignorance is bliss, ovaries are brass.)  With a quick handshake, I had locked one teaching gig, but would have to wait another 2.5 months before my first day of class (and 3.5 months before my first paycheck!)

For the other University gig, one of my favorite people in Phnom Penh David introduced me to his roomie Kerry (and like 7 other people at the same time because this dude is *networked*) who runs an international business school program at the public institution National University of Management.  I met her in April and similar to Zaman, classes wouldn’t start for another 6 months.  I figured there would be no way I could hold out that long, but I wanted to give it a shot.  Plus I enjoyed meeting her, so I kept in touch as the summer dragged on.  In September, she asked if I would be interested in teaching two different courses. With Zaman already in my back pocket, I thought to myself no way could I manage to teach 3 different courses at 2 different universities, but she and I chatted over coffee and assured me that it would be possible if I was organized, and that plenty of people teach multiple classes at multiple universities.  I said yes, and started prepping as much as I could ahead of time so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed my first few weeks.

HA. HA. HA. Preparation.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I totally prepped–I had a few lectures ready per class by the start of the semester–but I was prepping blindly to teach Khmer (Cambodian) students.  I had to deal with differences in English comprehension, education levels, and critical thinking skills, not to mention that I was dealing with two different universities with dramatically different levels of technological support.  At Zaman U, for example, they have their own custom classroom management website (think Blackboard).  I need to log into the system to turn on the projector and sound system in my classroom.  The classroom itself runs the aircon automatically based on what on the schedule of classes, so at 8:50am it kicks off.   I even have to request things as basic as an eraser through the system.  Comparatively, when I go to National University of Managment (NUM), I have to wait for a student to unlock the classroom, and when I get in, the aircon may or may not work depending on whether someone flipped the breaker-switch.  The projector works normally but there is no sound system, so I can’t show videos without plugging in speakers.  This description may seem like I’m complaining, but I’m only pointing out how dramatically different my experiences are going from one university to the other.  It definitely impacts how I teach–the Zaman students watch a brief documentary video almost every lecture, whereas I do more activities with the NUM students.

I am currently teaching “Post-Conflict Societies” at Zaman, and “Globalization” and “Research Methodology” at NUM.  It has been a full decade since I’ve been this academically knowledgeable.  I am painfully cognizant of my very modest authority to speak on these topics (I’m looking at you, Post-Conflict Societies) but I have done my best to put together a class that teaches my students something valuable.  In spite of it being my weakest area of expertise, PCS has been easier to teach because the students–fourth years–are very intelligent, engaged, and speak a high level of English.  I can assign them complex readings and they will tackle them without a complaint, and engage in good class discussions.  My NUM students on the other hand are far more diverse in their comprehension levels.  Some take the class very seriously and are active participants, and others will whisper or swap notes (yes, swapping notes in college) the whole class. I will provide instructions, and people will nod yes, then ask questions later that reveal they had no idea what I was talking about.  This is typical teacher stuff of course, but to experience this in a different language is a level of challenge I wasn’t expecting.

Most of all though, I feel bad that these students have been my guinea pigs for all of this teaching experience.  I have been winging it, but more than ever I realize how important pedagogy is.  As I got overwhelmed at the amount of work, I stopped doing lesson plans so sometimes I wouldn’t really hit home the key learning(s).  I just delivered (hopefully) interesting content and crossed my fingers that something would stick.  No bueño.  I am going to try to course-correct (pun intended!) in the second half the semester, but for classes like Research Methods, it may not be as easy.

All that said, I am largely relieved to finally put my academic training to work.  It feels great to put that experience on my CV!  It’s not easy or well-paid (I’m getting roughly $300/month per class) but I’m crossing my fingers that I will get assigned courses in the next semester that I will happily tackle with a little more experience and intention!

My Research Methods students post-activity