A day for collaboration

Today our lessons all contained elements of collaborative learning. We tried to get the pupils to work in small groups with no more than 3 children in each. We wanted everybody to be involved and on task and we wanted different members of the group to have different roles.

Our first lesson looked Pirniehall's local wildlife. The children in Grades 2-3 really enjoyed looking at Primary 4's work.

Primary 4's pictures went down a treat

They used the P4's pictures to help them to come up with different words to describe the animals as part of a group. Each group worked on a different animal and then the pupils became the experts, sharing their descriptions with the class in the form of a short talk.

Learning from each other

For the last couple of years we have given out disposable cameras and the children have come up with some fantastic photos. We have given them out again this year and have asked the children to take pictures of local wildlife. We can't wait to see the results.

The best homework ever!

While working with Grades 4-7, we asked the children to work in small groups again. This time we looked at Pirniehall's food miles. This is links to our Eco Work at home and our environmental theme at Say Ta Nar. Each group created a mind map based on a particular food.

Mind maps

We then did a carousel activity where we moved the food and mind map from group to group so they could read and build on the previous groups ideas. The children picked up the idea of a carousel easily and by the last rotation were moving the mind maps themselves. We need not have worried about the classroom organisation falling apart!

Everyone working in small groups

We then located the origin of each food on a world map and got the children to think about the implications of transporting such large distances. We have asked the children to go home and find out about where their food comes from. We hope that comparing Say Ta Nar's and Pirniehall's food miles will spark of some interesting discussion.

Being experts

After a delicious lunch and a bit of much needed down time we returned to the feelings topic to follow up on Pho Cho's lesson on the Cyclone yesterday.

Happy times across the world!

Our collaborative work continued and this time we tried to incorporate a few more collaborative methods. We randomly put the children into groups, gave the groups names and gave pupils specific roles.

Vanessa trying hard to remember groups and roles!

We think the pupils thought we were crazy, asking them to move around the room and find their friends with the same coloured bit of paper! Putting the children into groups worked well because there was a range of strengths in each. Giving the groups names and the children roles worked very well because it meant that it kept everyone on their toes as they knew they could be called upon to answer at any time.

Everyone has a role

The groups successfully discussed the range of feelings and made short role plays to demonstrate the feelings of the people affected by the cyclone.

Feeling hopeful

Feeling afraid

We reminded them of their targets from yesterday in drama. At the end they were able to highlight what they thought they had improved on.

Pho Cho's chance to observe!

Although we thought that we had perhaps bitten off more than we could chew we found that today went really well. Collaborative learning lends itself to working within the constraints of a language barrier because the children can communicate and learn from each other freely and are not dependent on everything being translated. It also worked well when working with a large class as it keeps everyone involved.

We enjoyed playing games with the Kindergarten and look forward to spending more time with them next week.

Which word?

We can't believe it's the weekend already. We feel tired but really pleased with what we have achieved. We're looking to seeing what next week will bring...

Hello? Anyone there?

Pirniehall hats, the new fashion accessory for the streets of Mae Sot!

Borderline's birthday

Borderline, the art gallery that was involved in the making our Our Burma Book turned 6 today. They had a birthday celebration holding an art exhibition of Borderline Gallery's member artists. There was a even special performance from the Babymime artists.

It was great to be a part of the celebrations and couldn't help but giggle at the mime artists - proving that you're never too old to laugh at clowns!!

Debating day!

We started of the day with an old Pirnie favourite, ‘I Feel Good!’ and used the lyrics to explore feelings words. The students worked in pairs to act out different emotions. We then added more feeling vocabulary and the pupils matched the words to actions and pictures. The pupils were already familiar with some of the words but found other, the excited, more challenging to say in English. They tried so hard to do their best and loved acting out the feelings to each other.

'I feel good!' 'I feel mad.'

'So sad, I do'

Which emotion do you feel? and showing 'Excited' at Pirniehall!

Pho Cho the took over to lead "Debate day". This happens very week and the children look forward to it and come prepared to discuss current issues. This week, grade 2-7 were debating how to solve Burma’s problems after the cyclone in 2008. This was a topic that was clearly close to the children’s hearts. Pho Cho had already introduced the topic and the children were aware that those affected need hospitals, clean water, shelter and food.

They moved on to examine the issue of whether or not Burma should accept aid. The children were then split into 2 groups and were asked to carry out a discussion in role.

Group 1 was to have the opinion that Burma should accept international aid and group 2 were to be against accepting aid. Both groups came up with interesting arguments. For example, group 1 argued that Burma needed help at the start to get them back on their feet and then after that they could support themselves. Group 2 argued that people need to try and look after themselves and that they should go out and find the things that they need.

The severity of the situation really hit home when children shared their personal experiences.

‘My family has had to move because there is no work in Burma.’

‘Things need to change in Burma because it has so many problems’

We were amazed to see how engaged the children were in the debate and how confident they were at discussing such a complex issue. The children obviously feel very comfortable in the school and feel free to speak their mind.

Engaged in group discussions

After lunch, the topic continued with a drama lesson and we all helped the children to prepare a short performance based on the cyclone and the immediate aftermath. We were impressed by how the children organised themselves, even when working in such a large group. The performances were fun and the children certainly threw themselves into it. Claire and Vanessa tried their best to assist and be part of the performance!!!

We had a productive discussion after the performances and gave the children positive feedback. When we tried to get then to think of things they had done well it became clear that they found praising themselves difficult. They are very focused on improving and can be a little hard on themselves.

It was great to see Pho Cho in full flow. We were amazed at his ability to give the children the skills, knowledge and confidence to debate. We left feeling quite inspired - Pirnie pupils get ready for some debating!

Enthusiastic productions

Another fantastic day at Say Ta Nar. Pho Cho and Neeshar - what a team!

First day at school

We arrived at school and were given a Say Ta Nar welcome - a yummy breakfast. It was lovely to meet everybody. The children then introduced themselves one-by-one. We introduced ourselves and answered questions about Pirniehll. To our complete surprise one of the questions was a request for our national song. So what else could we do but throw ourselves into a tuneful redition of 'Flower of Scotland'!!

A grilling from Say Ta Nar!

We were able to answer questions about everything from school uniform to our curriculum and assesment methods. We had an interesting discussion about behaviour management which just goes to show that teachers have similar challenges, no matter where they teach.

As a present to the Say Ta Nar children we presented them each with a Pirnie baseball cap. Suddenly all the baggage issues became worthwhile as we saw how happy they were to receive them.

Anyone for a hat?


Everyone together

The children were very excited and we've never seen so many inventive ways to wear a hat! A huge thank you to Mrs Wilson for being able to source so many hats!

Thinking hats on!

Too cool for school!

In the afternoon we all joined together for some songs. We were so impressed at how well the children had remembered the words and tunes from previous years. The children really enjoyed the singing and there was lots of giggling, especially at our silly dancing and actions.

We then began our environmental theme with grades 4-7. We shared Pirniehall's Eco work and discussed different ways to help the environment. Working in pairs, the children got organised quickly and confidently shared their ideas with each other and with the whole class. Here are some examples of their ideas:

'Move factories away from homes'

'Reduce building to save the trees'

'We want to teach our community about helping the environment'

We hope that we can use some of these ideas to form a Say Ta Nar Eco code. We then went on to plant some seeds. We are all hopeful that green shoots will appear. Mr Fisher would be proud of us!!

Working together and sharing. Fingers crossed they grow!

Our Eco lesson fitted in well as Pho Cho was teaching Grades 2-3 about growing crops to sell.

Happy children

We have had a fantastic day at Say Ta Nar. We were struck by how much the children wanted to educate others about taking care of the environment and their ability to look at the big picture really shone through.

A well deserved drink at hometime

We've arrived!

Have arrived safely in Mae Sot after a very long trip. We were met by Pho Cho, Neeshar and Geoff. It was lovely to connect with our Say Ta Nar friends again. It was very exciting for Vanessa to finally meet Pho Cho and Neeshar after hearing so much about them. We have met the Campie team and already started to share our teaching stories.

We are looking forward to our first day at school tomorrow. We are already preparing ourselves for the heat in the school but can't wait to meet everybody!

Checked in and ready!

Team Pirnie return for our 3rd year.

Claire and Vanessa are delighted to be travelling to Mae Sot next week to visit our partner school, Say Ta Nar.
We have again been awarded a British Council grant allowing us to continue our Global Partnership project.
Watch this space for updates about school and no doubt funny tales from our travels!

The final day

We can hardly believe we have just spent our last day at Say Ta Nar. We have enjoyed every moment with the children and teachers. The children remembered to hand in their cameras and it will be interesting to see their photographs this year.

The Say Ta Nar Get Together was memorable. We enjoyed having our Hlee Bee visitors, Irvine and Fiona, to visit us and with their help we have taken a video of lots of the wonderful singing by children and teachers to show at our first Pirniehall Get Together in August. We loved the Burmese singing as Pho Cho played the guitar and I know he writes some of the songs himself. We are amazed at how many `Fischy Music` songs the children have learned in such a short time and they sang with all the actions. What a performance! We noticed they go around in their free time singing and acting out the songs!

'Get Together' at Say Ta Nar

We inserviced all the Burmese teachers on our Emotional Literacy project with Pho Cho translating and it was great to see how much they were nodding and were agreeing with the philosophy. They felt it was very similar to the work they had done on critical thinking skills and we agreed as we had been to a presentation by Dr Thein Lwin when he was in Forthview school. Therefore both schools are working together in many ways and both have children at the heart of everything they do. We felt happy with this exchange of information and were able to pay the teachers a small amount for participating in the session. We enjoyed food and drinks together.

We were sad to hear that Emily had hurt her foot and was in hospital last night. Pho Cho and Neesha went to the hospital to see her this morning and reported she is improving. We wish her well and know she will enjoy the rest of her time in Say Ta Nar.


Sharing food after the Emotional Literacy In-Service

The children`s etchings from Pirniehall, Say Ta Nar, Forthview and Hlee Bee have now been published and all the schools have their own copies to enjoy with their children. There will be a Burma Book exhibition at Borderline Gallery organised by an artist friend to Forthview and Pirniehall. Pho Cho will speak at the opening but unfortunately it takes place tomorrow evening when other visitors arrive and the Pirnie team will miss it as we will be on the only bus out of Mae Sot that day heading for Chiang Mai. We know the Forthview team will video it and take photographs so that we can share with Pirniehall. There was a similar exhibition of etchings in Edinburgh when Mark Lazarowicz praised all the children for their impressive work.

At Borderline Gallery

Pirniehall children with their Burma books

With a mixture of sadness and pride, we waved our lovely children off clutching their bag of goodies from their Scottish teachers...we think the lollipops and sweets were the most popular! They want us to come back soon and told us in an informal question and answer session how much they enjoyed our visit and thanked the teachers for all their learning.

Our last moments together

I feel that we three made a great team and I have been impressed by Natasha and Claire's skills in planning and implementing dynamic, interactive lessons which have extended the work from the initial visit last year. The children have been noticeably engaged in their learning and have shown enthusiasm for all their tasks which has delighted their Scottish teachers. I cannot praise the girls enough for their commitment and contribution to our Global partnership.

We shared our final end of day drinks and chats. We were presented with our wonderful Longhis which we loved wearing. We shared our own personal gifts and a gift from the Pirniehall community. We discussed Rita, an invaluable volunteer member of Pirniehall staff and her family and how much they admired Say Ta Nar and the great work going on there. Pho Cho and Neesha have sent a lovely message back for them.

Thank you Rita and family.

Leaving a mind mapping resource

We all enjoyed our last hour together sharing thoughts and reflecting on our experiences and knew that this was just farewell for this year and not goodbye and that our partnership would continue to flourish. We got on our trusty bikes and gave an emotional wave as we left the gates of Say Ta Nar and went home to pack, ready to start on the first leg of our journey back to Scotland tomorrow.

We would like to thank Pho Cho, Neesha and family for their outstanding hospitality and for making us feel like a valuable part of the Say Ta Nar family. We are missing you already!

The last journey on our bikes - bye, bye Charly Cho!