Lao English Teacher's Workshop

When Sister Susan Gong was visiting Lao PDR in October 2014, she told us about a conference being held in Mongolia where professors from BYU Utah and BYU Hawaii were going to be the guest teachers to help teachers in that country learn to be more effective English teachers.  After hearing about Mongolia, Sister Bush thought “why not Lao PDR, too?”  That is what started the ball rolling. 

 It was a team effort involving many places, Dr. Evans  in Utah, Dr. Andersen in Hawaii, Sister Gong in Hong Kong, President Senior in Thailand,  and Elder and Sister Bush and the 4 young International Volunteers (elders) in Lao.  There were lots of emails, several Skype conferences and a lot of ground work at all points to coordinate.

After receiving permission from the Lao government, plans were made for a 3 day English Teachers’ Workshop, where 60 secondary English teachers gathered in Vientiane, Laos to improve their teaching methods.    These teachers have never had such a thing.    Our workshop focused on student-centered teaching, activities, effective ways to learn vocabulary, check for understanding, lesson planning with clear objectives and general teaching principles.  The 3^rd day was review and practice for all the teachers, conducted in 4 rotating breakout sessions by the international volunteers and the Bushes.  That was a lot of fun, as the conclusion to a lot of work. 

Madame Kettmany from the Ministry of Education addressed the group at the beginning and at the end.  L to R are presenters Dr. Anderson, BYU-H, Dr. Evans, BYU,  Mdm Kettmany, Elder Gong, Area President from Hong Kong, and Elder Bush, Country Director for DIC and presenter.

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The 60 teachers were eager and pleased to have the training.  

Dr. Evans from BYU Utah, Dr. Andersen from Hawaii

Tiengsack did a great job doing simultaneous translation during the keynote addresses/instructions.  He also translated for me during my sessions when needed.  He is one of our Church members and a graduate of BYU-Hawaii.

Below, he holds a number of headphones for the participants to hear his translations into Lao.  He also took some pictures for some of the teachers.  Elder Vance always enjoys a photo op.

International Volunteers (elders) were being trained for their teaching on Wednesday

Sister Gong is an experienced educator in teaching English as a second language, having worked with the Chinese program for the Utah Department of Education.  She conducted a breakout session on ways to involve students in practicing and activities for learning.

Dr. Anderson gets teachers to practice what has been demonstrated in working with class members.

Dr. Evans had a group of 12 Lao high school students come in as a demonstration group for a real example of classroom teaching.  The principles were taught, but with much smaller classes than most Lao teachers have.  Their classes are anywhere from 25-50 students.

President Senior instructing International Volunteers before the workshop began.  He is a former business man and BYU professor himself.  
L to R Elder Gong, Sister Gong, Sister Senior

Sister Gong interacts with two of our new members at lunch Sunday after Church meetings.  Both these young men are university students and speak English, Chinese, Lao, and Hmong.  They are amazing











Elder Bush taught one of the sessions on "Checking for Understanding", having the participants (Lao English teachers) practicing interactive lessons that let the teacher know that students are understanding what is being taught.  Board work is one of the 10 strategies demonstrated and discussed.

Some of the participants wanted a picture after the workshop. 

After 2 days of training with Dr. Evans, Dr. Anderson, Sister Gong and Elder Bush, we had review sessions on day 3 where the participants got to practice the things they had been taught.

Elder Hartman, who lived as a boy for 8 years in Thailand, conducted one of the review sessions.  We divided the 60 teachers into 4 groups and had them rotate through the sessions until they had gone over all 4 sessions of the first 2 days.

Elder Beebe, from Pennsylvania, conducted another review session.

Elder Bassett helped with our review activity that involved the Hokey Pokey and other interactive approaches to get the teachers moving and learning.

At the end, we presented each teacher with a certificate of participation, an extra workbook and a DVD of the conference to use back in their schools to review and train others.  The Ministry of Education had only one teacher per school attend so the participants could increase the circle of influence by helping fellow teachers.  We had a former missionary to Lao do the video work and he produced the video, with recorded summaries from each of the presenters, as well as a few shots of the workshop.  He stayed up most of Tuesday night editing and making the DVD so we could review it at 6:30 the next morning, giving him just enough time to get 60 copies made before the end of the conference at 2:45 that afternoon.  He arrived just as we started handing out the certificates.

Certificates are a prized evidence of accomplishment in Lao.

 We had a former missionary to Lao, Nate Bartling, do the video work and he produced the video, with recorded summaries from each of the presenters, as well as a few shots of the workshop.  He stayed up most of Tuesday night editing and making the DVD so we could review it at 6:30 the next morning, giving him just enough time to get 60 copies made before the end of the conference at 2:45 that afternoon.  He arrived just as we started handing out the certificates.  He  explained the DVDs before we handed them out with the certificates.

We had the cooking school prepare the lunches for all 80 of the participants and presenters each day.  That way we could keep everyone on campus and on the same schedule, as well as give the cooking school some great experience.

The foundation of every meal in Lao is rice, with veggies and some meat and soup.

The International Volunteers helped the kitchen staff with the dishes each day.  The staff didn't expect that and it was a fun experience for everyone.

Elder Bush leads the students in a learning activity that they found really fun.  It was a great experience for us all.

Back row were teachers who wanted their picture with us.  At the table for closing ceremony and remarks were Pavy, Mdm Kettmany, Elder Bush and Sister Bush.  Pavy is the director of  secondary schools and this facility where we held the training and did a lot of the logistics work for the venue.  This is also the school where we (Bushes) teach 3 classes of  English every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The participants’ comments on the ending evaluation we had each one fill out were extremely positive.  On how to improve, some said it was “Perfect.”  Most said they wanted more days or to have this again.  On the “worst part of the workshop,” the most frequent comments were “too short of time.”  They wanted more days. 

While we were conducting the workshop, Sister Bush went with Elder Gong, President Senior, Vientiane Branch President Kompadith and Udorn District President Khamphee to visit government officials in the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs, and the provincial government of Vientiane Capital.