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- Hey everybody, I'm Connor.
That's Doug. And this is the Bethel
School District Presents podcast.
And we have a huge show for you today.
And I know we say that every week,
but this week we actually mean it.
Joining us on the pod this week is Ava dui.
She's a guest teacher who's been at Clover Creek Elementary
for the past couple weeks, all the way from Namibia, Africa,
- Namibia home to the Skeleton Coast National Park.
And did you know that their national bird is the
African fish eagle?
- Well, of course you would know that.
Doug, I know you are a bit of a world traveler
and you've been to Africa.
You ever been to Namibia?
- I have not been to Namibia yet.
If you look at it on a map, it has a panhandle, kind
of like Oklahoma, just on the opposite side,
that Panhandle touches two countries.
I have been to Zambia and Zimbabwe,
but Namibia a lot more deserty,
but a lot of cool birds there I would like to go see.
So it is on my list.
- Well, first, Doug, stop bragging
about all the places you traveled. It's unbecoming,
- But you asked me, - Well that's neither here nor there,
but it does bring up an interesting topic of conversation.
You say Namibia's on your bucket list. Mine too, by the way.
But do you have a dream location for travel?
- I do. I won't have to go as far afield
as Southern Africa to get there.
It is in the continental United States,
but it does require some pre-planning.
One of my dreams is
to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade live and in person
and by live and in person.
I don't mean on the streets with a bazillion people,
I mean from a hotel room that overlooks the parade
so I can watch it out the window
and watch it on TV at the same time with some room service.
I think that is definitely top of my bucket list.
But I've heard the hotels you have
to book at least three years in advance.
What about you Connor? Where are you heading to?
- Oh man. I have so many places I wanna see,
but top of my bucket list has got to be Vietnam.
My mom actually lived in Saigon
for a few years when she was a kid.
And I've always wanted to visit. I love Vietnamese culture.
I love the food. I would eat fa morning, noon
and night if I was allowed to.
So hopefully one of these days I can wake up
and say Good morning Vietnam.
- Well Connor, I do hope you get there someday
and I'm gonna just let that Good morning Vietnam go.
'cause I have way too many Adrian Kro now impressions
that I just am dying to do
with a microphone in front of me, but I'm not.
We're gonna get back to our regularly scheduled programming
here and head to Clover Creek Elementary where you sat down
with a Namibian teacher
and one of Clover Creek's own teachers
and talked about this exciting exchange program.
- Joining us today is Bree Wells third grade teacher at
Clover Creek Elementary School.
Also joining us is Ava Duy.
She's a guest educator here teaching first grade
from Namibia.
So Bria, I'm gonna start with you.
This sounds like a really cool program.
Can you tell us a little bit about how it came to be
that Ava joined us here?
- Yeah, so when I went to PLU 12 years ago, one
of my professors started a student teaching program
where she got to bring student teachers from the US
to go student teach in Namibia.
Um, when I was there 12 years ago,
I student taught at a school in a area called Cura.
And so I got to go for free pretty much.
And just like Ava is here, she did not have to pay
to come either, so it's a, it's through PLU
and the Wong Center.
They do a lot of like, um, study abroad things.
They brought a group of six of us back
to Namibia who've all been at different times throughout our
years at PLU back for a second time.
And so I got paired with Ava
'cause she, it was an application process, like I had
to apply, she had to apply
and then there was like a panel
that went over our applications.
And so we were each selected
and then paired together for me to go to Namibian teach
with her and then for her to come here with me, um,
at Cober Creek and teach with me.
- And Ava, it sounds like you've got a bit of a history
with this program having hosted several teachers.
What initially interested you in the idea of coming over
to the United States and guest teaching here? Oh,
- Okay.
You know, it was like an idea.
So we didn't really think much of it or we didn't like dwell
and ponder too much on it.
Of course, we also wanna travel.
We also wanna see how the other teachers are doing their
stuff on the other side because we have been receiving many
of them, uh, on the other end.
So we also wanna see how it is the other side.
Yeah, so that's how it eventually started growing
and then eventually found ourselves where we are right now.
- And I'm sure having spoken with so many teachers,
American teachers over there, I would assume you had a
pretty good idea of what to expect,
but it is, it's so far away.
We were just talking about the flight
and how insane that was.
What's been your experience like,
and I know that's asking a lot to sum it up
'cause you're still probably processing a lot of it, but,
but just tell us a little bit about what it's like
to be here and be in the classroom. Oh
- Yes, it was really like, uh, um, back home when I speak
to the students, they would tell me about, uh,
their schools here and how it is their education system.
So, uh, it's kind of different when you hear it from them
and when you're experiencing it.
So now I get to experience and live it
and I see a lot of things how, how things are done here
and how things are done, uh, uh, back home.
And uh, we have a lot of, I see a lot of similarities.
For example, like children, , like I always say,
students are students wherever you are.
Like my Namibian students are the same as uh, uh,
uh, the American students.
Like they still have the same hearts.
Although things are done very differently here.
We also have different ways of doing things.
- What are some of the biggest similarities,
differences in just the way that classrooms operate?
Schools operate in the two cultures.
- So the differences will be obviously like, uh,
the class sizes because back home I have more students.
Like at the moment I'm sitting
with 44 students in my classroom
and Brie's sitting with 20 students.
So that is already like a big difference here.
You have a lot of support teachers, which uh,
is a big difference
because, uh, back home we don't really have that.
Like our staff is a little bit much smaller.
You have like your classroom,
like I'm a first grade teacher, so I sit
with my students from currently our school starts at uh,
10 past seven and then we dismiss at 10 past one.
So I sit with my students from 10 past seven up
until 10 past one.
When they go out for recess, which you call recess,
we call it break when they go at 10 o'clock I go with them
and I sit with them while they eat and stuff.
So I already see a lot of differences.
They, here you have like a lot of support teachers,
like if the student is struggling probably
or hasn't mastered yet a certain competency
or, uh, hasn't yet reached that area, you have teachers
who are assisting in that.
Like, uh, the students are sent to this class
for a certain time and then they get to sit
with the teacher, the teacher works with them.
Whereas back home, um, uh, we are not yet like at
that stage .
So if the student is probably having a difficulty
or is still struggling a little bit in reading you the
teacher, like I am the one who has to sit with that student
and work with that student throughout.
Uh, I really have a lot on my plate.
Like I have a lot of things to do with all my 44 students.
And even as I see the other subjects,
the physical education, you have music, your visual art, uh,
back home, I'm the one who have to sit
and do all of that with my students.
Whereas here you have different teachers,
uh, assigned for that.
- That's really interesting. It seems like there are a lot
of similarities in just the differences are
are slight, but they're important.
And Brie, you've now been on both sides of this
as a teacher in Namibia
and also as someone who's hosting a teacher.
What do you think not only the students
but the educators themselves get from this
type of cultural exchange?
- It's been pretty amazing.
Uh, um, we had another teacher, um, here with us, Ms.
El Sandra, and she is kind of like an instructional coach
and first grade teacher over in Namibia at the same
school as Eva's at.
So they've been taking lots of notes
and they were doing a lot of debriefing.
You know, when I'm teaching or they've observed a variety
of teachers, I've put them in first grade,
I put them in lap, I've put them in second grade
and we're gonna go walk around like the fourth
and fifth grade portables.
So I think one thing that really stood out
to them was our zones of regulation.
So they talked about wanting to, um, kind
of focus more on cell, um, when they go back to Namibia.
Um, every classroom at Clover Creek has like a break space
or like a recharge station.
So that was something we gathered.
Um, some of the things that were in my break space so
they could bring them home
and try to kind of create something similar.
We made our reading groups for third grade at one
of our PLCs and so they got to, um, see kind of
how we place kids based on skill.
They took lots of notes on that and um, Ms.
Gravel and Ava were saying, okay,
even though we don't have like a lap teacher,
like we could still, you know, uh, group kids based on need
to kind of meet them where they are.
So I know that that has been a takeaway
and not only like have they learned from me,
but I feel like I've learned a lot from them.
In Namibia, religion is taught in schools
and so they do a lot of like bible songs
and Christian songs, which we don't do here.
However, um, Ms do many taught them like a good goodbye song
and some different colon responses that will continue.
And so like yesterday my students, they're like,
let's do our goodbye song.
So like I just feel like the music
and the dance in Namibia,
I'm not like a singing music teacher at all,
but I feel like that's the area that I wanna grow in
because some kids love that and live for that.
So, you know, I'm taking a lot of things
that I'm gonna keep here with me too.
- That's awesome. And, and outside of the classroom,
did you get to do some fun stuff?
At least? Did you go to Seattle?
Did you see the Space Needle?
What, what's some of the fun stuff you did?
- We went to Mount Rainier. Am I saying it correctly?
Yeah, . The day we went, it was really full.
That's what, uh, our professor told us.
So for me, that wasn't focused.
I've seen much, many more people than that.
But we went there, we, we, we got a chance
to be like at the facility center I think,
or something in that line whereby we could go check, go
inside and and
and look at like read the history about Mount Rainier
and about all the animals, the plants and everything.
And um, we got to take pictures.
We even brought our Namibian map
and we made sure we ,
we took pictures like very close to the mountain.
We unfortunately didn't get a chance to hike up
to the mountain, but at least we got that experience.
That was a, an amazing experience.
We managed to, to tour some of the places around town.
Uh, we went to see the, the glass, uh, museum.
We saw all the beautiful glass that he has made
and were told about how he has donated it to especially PLU
and uh, the different places.
So that was really cool to see.
I've never seen that, like physically I've seen it on tv, so
that was really cool to see.
I went to check out your fair, so amazing.
I went to some rides that we don't have back home
and I really loved the fact that it was,
it's very child friendly.
There's a lot of things for kids to do,
although it was really expensive.
, yes, there are things that I would've loved to try.
I saw somebody having like a big Turkey, Lego,
whatever it was, and I really wanted to try that.
But I was like, no .
I saw a lot of big animals like I see here you have
really big stuff.
I saw a big cow.
I've never seen such a big high, huge cow like that.
I saw big horses like back home.
We also do have those animals, but they're not that huge.
It was so fun and interesting for me
because this is my first time, so everything
that I saw was really fun and interesting.
- So Ava, you've been in a
Bethel classroom now for a couple weeks.
What's something that sticks out for you
that we are doing successfully in our classrooms?
- I like the fact that, uh,
you are really incorporating technology in the classes.
Yeah, it's a good thing
and it's a good way of really, I, I think like
that you can do your work faster,
whereas back home we are still sticking
to like our old methods of teaching.
We still have the chalkboard, uh, we still have the,
the chalk that we use.
So I think this one is very effective in a way that,
you know, you can get the message across faster.
That's what I've observed. Mm-Hmm,
- .
So like that was another thing.
Like we're trying to get them set up with like whiteboards
and whiteboard markers just to increase engagement.
So just the lack of resources when I was there.
It's hard for me now that I've taught for 12 years
without a white, like without kids using whiteboards
because it's so engaging
and then that's a way to hold them all accountable.
So I think just brainstorming like how to take
what we have here and then be like
what can we take back that's sustainable? But
- It was really interesting to see that, uh, here
where your, your government is really intentional about
making sure that students are having those
type of facilities.
And I'm not trying to say this to look down on my,
on my people or government,
but it's just something different that I saw Uhhuh
that was also really interesting for me.
- And I'll take this opportunity to thank our voters
for continuing to pass our technology levy to allow us
to have one iPad for every student
and all these other great technological advances.
So thank you voters for that.
And thank you both for joining me
and thank you for coming all the way over
to share your experiences with our children
and thanks for joining us on the podcast.
- Of course. Thank you so much for having me
and I would definitely love to come back
and, um, I really would want this relationship to continue
because it's something that we have started
and it has to continue.
- Connor, excellent interview as always.
And it's really great that Ava got to be here
during fair season.
The Puyallup Fair is a fantastic place to visit
and to soak up some of our local culture.
Next week we'll be chatting
with our chief financial officer, Brian Ley,
about the district's budget
and all things money. We hope you'll join us.
- Bye everybody.