I wrapped up my first semester with KKEI...really about 3 weeks ago. Since then I've been distracted by my friends Connie and Sarah coming to visit me. They both changed my life in Khon Kaen in their own ways. How lucky I am to have such friends!
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Through KKEI I learned that I'm good at organizing teachers. I'm not as good at being with kids. I hope my stamina and patience for the latter will improve. I should get a chance to find out this coming Fall when I go back to KKEI for another year and a half (first we have to request a stipend for 3, rather than 2, ITT members). I learned so much this first semester, but had little opportunity to apply it and test myself.
A lot of what I learned, though, was reflected in our KKEI Retreat, which was followed up by John and I totally redoing the KKEI website. Dut-da-dah! (Still not done...but cool anyways.)
If everything works out, KKEI teachers will be creating their curriculum before the school year starts, under "KKEI Principles," but as appropriate for each of their classes/schools/communities. If everything works out, teachers will come to the U.S. in October and connect to schools in Spartanburg, New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. If everything works out KKEI will facilitate action research in the coming year to better define the goals of their own and others' teaching -- and problems that they face. If everything works out, KKEI will have a more concrete presence in the general public, through facilitating concrete, strategy-driven activities.
It's a lot to work out, and I wish I were there for all of it.
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Rather, I'll be taking a 6-month sabbatical (haha) in Kentucky -- or however long my pocketbook can take it -- working on a human rights project with the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange (ENGAGE) and with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC). This sabbatical may give me the opportunity to combine much of what I love: organizing, human rights, schools, and maybe even farming...? I won't really know what's up till I get there in early May. I hope I get to dance, too. I hope I find a totally integrated approach to life!
