This year one of my favorite After School Extension (ASE) is called body weight. Basically, what we are doing is working out our body with many different types of exercise, for example: crunches, plank, mountain climbing, push up, launches, burpie and more. The reason I join this is because of my schedule during the week. I didn’t get to play any sport until weekend and sometimes I don’t even get to. So for the whole week at least I should workout some time because it is good for my health as well as helping me and my muscle to get stronger so that I can play many sports well. All of those exercises was hard for me at first and the next day after I did them my body hurt everywhere, but as I do it many times I have used to it and not really get that much pain anymore. I am still keep joining this activity because I always have a sense I will get the result that I want by doing it.
Khmer Literacy
Most of the lesson in Khmer class this year are pretty big, meaning that it require students to work in small teams more than individual. Those lesson are: how to write a book, Pchum Ben ceremony, how to do research, and how to write a speech.
Personally, Khmer literacy and English literacy got so many similarities as well as connections, because they are both literacy so many lessons are the same it just that sometimes we could understand them in different ways.
Physic
Spending and hours in physic is like looking through real life situation, whether it is possible or impossible to happen.
Formulas, equations, steps for how to do the problem, visual thought for how something works, and definitions of any term, these things seems flying around the classroom, since it is so that we got no more space to keep them in our brain anymore.
Physic is fun, in my opinion, because understanding the problems and start finding the answer for it is not actually a point at all, it is more important if we could dot connect the situations to real world, so that we know what it looks like and picture them in our head.
What have we learned in Literacy?
Before we get into any new lesson, in Literacy affirmation is always the priority. It brings motivation about life and goals of the day to each student’s everyday.
Learning literacy this year is very different from previous year, since we got new teacher. Within few months we learn so much such as, vocabularies, which we learn new word everyday, connotation and denotation, personal narrative essay, comma rules, parallel structure, preparation for reading and writing section of PSAT, semicolon, coming of age tradition, and rhetorical triangle.
The improvement of those lesson has gained a lot by everyone. Even Though we learned so many things, but there is no time that we ever forget them because we practice them in our daily life , whether by ourselves or with others.
About Me
My name is Kangnaneat. I was born to a peaceful and warm-hearted family in Kandal province, Cambodia. I am currently studying at Liger Leadership Academy, which is located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Coming to Liger has changed my life. I am fifteen years old and have been studying at Liger for six years. Describing myself at this age is difficult, but the words independence, growth mindset, and navigation come to mind.
Most people describe me as quiet, and this is the case in most classes. I am an introverted person; I like being independent more than being as a group because I get more focus when I am on my own. This doesn’t mean I am scared of asking questions- if I need help, I will always ask.
I believe having a growth mindset is very important; I do not always enjoy doing things that I am not good at, but taking risks usually, have good results. I am motivated and enjoy seeing others succeed.
Math
In math class there are 16 students. The topics that we are learning this year are quadratic, geometry, and algebraic fraction. After every lesson or chapter we have learned, we always have an assessment on it. There is one website that we can practice math online, Khan Academy. It is a very useful tool to help us learn better independently and/or with facilitator.
As part of our learning, every single student got one calculator each from Liger, it calls Texas instrument. This calculator help us a lot in our learning, since it got so many functions that would provide efficiency while we are doing our math.
This is the textbook that we are using.
On the 14th October, 2017, everyone at Liger have took their first PSAT, just the practice one, so that we know how it looks like as well as our score, so that we know what we need to improve. Everyone did great, and we got about 2-3 more years to get ourselves prepare and work on what is needed before the real PSAT for college.
Football competition with EYC
On September 2017 on one weekend we got a football competition with one school called EYC. Everyone who trained football had participated in the competition, both juniors, and senior cohort. It was a very blissful day. As any of the Liger team were in the field the sound of the cheerleaders had really made the players felt motive. All teams from Liger won the games, it is our pride but having fun is what the competition was really about. Anyways, after the game, we all came and talked together about how the game went and was decided that both schools should have another game with each other again.
Navigating around Phnom Penh
Monday, August 7th was the first day of school after our two months holiday. It was an irregular week. We did not have class as usual, it was known as the resourcefulness week. During week we got to learn so many differents things such as make a phone call, project management, growth mindset, and vocabularies. There are also some new facilitators and we also got classes with them to learn more about their experiences and also share what we are doing at school. One of my most favorite activity and wish I could do it again was navigating around Phnom Penh, lead by one of our facilitator, Jeff, and all senior are involved. We were divided into teams and there are about 6-7 members per team. What we have to do was each team got different missions that needed to be done for Jeff or other facilitator. For example: buying some stuff at the shop, taking a video and/or pictures of something, printing something out of the book and more other things. It was four days long and only two teams went outside in one day, from 8am – 12pm. I learned a lot by doing this navigation such as, telling direction to people to get us where we want to go, crossing national road, making phone calls for help or asking people that we want to meet, and negotiating the price of transportation that we used. I wish I get to do this kind of activity again because it is a different style of learning and it helped us a lot in developing our skill which we could use in the future or even now.
Climate Summit
Climate Change is a global issued where everyone in the world is concerned about. So, in this exploration, we learned about Climate Summit. However, there is one program called World Climate Simulation. It is a program where people in different places came together and negotiate about Climate Change.
Our goal in this exploration is not only to learn about how does the World Climate Simulation works, but actually running the program with other people too. We have invited three schools and two organizations to come to Liger to participate in the program that we lead. We also went to Koh Seh, an island located in Kep, to learn about the ocean as well as climate change; we did a lot of snorkeling, beach clean up, and different experiments related to the ocean. It was a prodigious experience I had, and I really have a blissful time there.
Changing Cambodia 2016-2017
I believe that Cambodia, a developing country, needs more change agents. At Liger Learning Center that is what we are always focusing on. We want every promising child to change Cambodia, make improvements to their country to become better, whether based on what they learned or after they have graduated from school. In some of my classes (2016-2017) called exploration the project that we’ve done had changed Cambodia. In those classes we learned about Iron deficiency anemia, Khmer Rouge, and Climate Summit.
At the beginning of the year I commence with an exploration called Iron deficiency. It was one of my favorite exploration so far throughout the courses of the year. In a class with 12 bright young minds, we studied about Iron Deficiency anemia. It is one of those common condition in Cambodia where the level of our red blood cell diminish and that causes our body to contain less iron. There are three main types of anemia such as parasitic anemia, genetic anemia and mainly the iron deficiency anemia. Parasitic anemia is caused by animals that suck blood, for example hookworm. Genetic anemia is caused by passing the gene from your parents. The last one is iron deficiency anemia, which causes by the food that you consume into your body.
We have looked through many websites and videos in order to learn more about Iron deficiency anemia. Moreover, we have also been to one clinic in Phnom Penh to talk more about blood, since what we were learning also connected to blood. We had found one company which we considered as the solution to anemia. That is the Lucky Iron Fish. Lucky Iron Fish is a fake fish that made from special iron called F1. We can put this fish into our food and it iron will release out, that is one of the way that people can consume iron into their body. Our team collaborated with that company because there are such a lot of things that they could help us and we them also. After a few weeks of learning and researching about anemia in class, we went to Siem Reap to do the workshop for people who mostly lived in the rural area. The workshop not just only for adults but also for children who studied in some schools that we had contacted to. The workshop was basically about what we had learned in class, such as how to use Luck Iron Fish, food that contain a lot of iron and types of anemia. We also had performed a play to all of those villagers, it talked about a woman who is anemic. But then their is another villager who tells her to use the Lucky Iron Fish. We also cooked the food that we put the Lucky Iron Fish in it, then we let all the people taste it to see the different. But actually there is no different, but instead we do consume more iron to our body than before. At the end of every workshop that we have done, we had distribute the Lucky Iron Fish to all the villagers. In a total of four workshop we had distribute about 400 Lucky Iron Fish to people who participate in the workshops. Therefore, this action was one of how we had change Cambodia. Even if we are not the doctor but giving them Lucky Iron Fish which help them to get gain more iron in their body is also a part of helping others. This was one of the outstanding experience for me so far, seeing Cambodian who live in the rural live in the condition of anemia is one feeling, where we are sympathetic for them but after distribute them the Luck Iron Fish is also another feeling, where we feel we had also bring them happiness and light their lives once again.
My second exploration that also had changed Cambodia was about Khmer Rouge. All Cambodian knew really clear for what it means and the theme of it for how it looked like. It hard to learn about this topic because it is something that we could never forget, especially all of the victims who had suffer through this cruel genocide, Khmer Rouge. Everything are all connected, Cambodia genocide would just not exist without any reason and behind those reasons there must be something that might connected to the other country that we wouldn’t know. In this exploration we’re not only focusing on the Khmer Rouge itselves we also learned about different genocides from the other countries, through poems and some website based on true stories. Even some of the genocides does not relate anything to Cambodian genocide but we could still get knowledge, opinions and different thought on it by finding the similarities and differences. Learning in class did gave us something but I think learning outside the class gave us another experience. So our group went to the Killing Field and S21. Killing is the place Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge soldiers use to kill people. There are audio tour and tour guide. But everyone in the group choose audio tour because it is more independent. As I listened to it and walked from one place to another somehow I couldn’t believe what I saw and what I heard. But I still try to go all the way because it was part of our learning. S21 was now a present, not for people but for Khmer Rouge victims in the past. Before it was one of the high school in Phnom Penh. Again, there are both tour guide and audio tour and still, everybody choose audio tour. To me I think S21 is the most creepy place that I had ever seen in my life. Everything was just speechless. After seeing this two places there is one question that always stuck in my mind, that why cambodian killed cambodian itself. I was still not sure for how to answer this questions because I don’t think there is a right answer. This two places got me surprised. I mostly see a lot foreigners going out there but why there are only a few of Cambodian. This our own history there should more of our citizens went out to know and learn about it but instead there are more foreigners. As our final product of this project we had created one video. It was about S21. Every single person in our team had express their person feeling about S21 in that video. We want all Cambodians and next generation to see the video and willing that they could change their mind, by going to see those two place that are about Khmer Rouge which one of the most important history of Cambodia. We considered this as changing Cambodia, even though it might seem just a little thing but we believe that if one person have watched it and do what we want then the whole society will start doing the same thing.
Finally, the last exploration of changing Cambodia. It is called Climate Summit. Of course we did learned about climate change. Everyone in the world know about it, it is a global issued. We have looked at one international event/program that people are doing it nowaday. It was called Climate Interactive. This program allowed people from countries all over the world to come together and discuss about climate change. It was divided into six regions, US, EU, China, developed countries, developing countries and India. As the whole group we looked at the event and learned for what it looked like. We also practice doing it with our team to see how it goes. Since this exploration started we already have a plan that we are going to make this event happen in our school with students from different schools or organization(s) that could speak English in Cambodia. After we know how to lead the event to others we actually did it. We invited five schools and another six students from our school, Liger. Our event was one day. All the participants had been divided into six regions, it was not by school, everyone are mixed together so that they could know each other more. We have four scientists, represent by the students from our school to talk about Climate change, background information. After that everyone get into their region room and start to discuss about that global issue as well as what effects Cambodia might get from that perspective. Then start the negotiation with the other regions. In conclusion, what we have on that day was huge and really worthwhile. Even we can’t teach or give knowledge to the who Cambodian about climate change but that doesn’t matter, at least we had already educated students which they all are still have a long mile more to go in their life so we believe that they will spread what they have got from us to their people/family or if possible to the whole society. Climate change happen because of human’s activities so we should do what we must do or stop what we have to stop as soon as possible in order to solve this global issue. We should start it right now, today, this minutes and this second because know one know the future of our planet for what’s going to happen. Life just go on, and things that going to exist will come up.