4 Days Before Departure

Well I have a new assignment. Rather than being in Kathmandu, United Planet has decided that my skills (teaching experience and math/science education background) would fit better in a remote village outside of Kathmandu. I don't know the name of the village but I just learned today that I will have no access to electricity. That means a lot fewer posts. However, I am showing my Mom how to post on here so that when she hears from me she can share with everyone about my travels. I am sorry that the blog will not work out as well as I thought it would. However, I hope to still have some communication with my family while in Nepal. I still get to go on weekend excursions every other weekend and I suspect that perhaps some of these trips will be to Kathmandu since I am not staying there anymore and it would be a good tourist destination for me as a volunteer.

The school I am working in has 75 students and 7 teachers. The teachers are all previous students and so don't have great teaching experience and can only pass on the information they themselves had learned in school. All ages are present at the school so the material I am bringing over will be for math and science of many different levels. I think I might also try and pack some games like Dominos that might be fun for the students and help them with math. I have no idea the level of knowledge the students have in the first place so it is difficult to choose material. However, I think some basic biology, physics and chemistry would be great. I can easily work on teaching them some basic statics since I have that fresh in my mind. Anyway, I am trying to collect some books to help me teach and will wing it from there upon my arrival.

One Month Before Departure

It is now December 2nd (where does time go?) and I am starting to think through all the things I need to bring to Nepal with me. I also need to plan out some lesson plans for the students. Any ideas on fun science projects? I have a few from when I volunteered in the elementary school back home. However, I still don't know the age of the kids and am not sure when I find out. I will send an e-mail again soon to the program coordinator to ask if they have any more details for me.