Katie Woood

From 15/01/2012 to 19/02/2012

During my volunteering I worked with 13 children at an Panchmane Early Childhood Development center. I worked from 10-3, six days a week where I taught the children and teachers many different games and nursery rhymes. I provided the children and centre with some new resources also. These resources were mainly alphabet and number ones which provided a fun way of teaching the children. I found that the children here are taught mainly through rhythm, patterning and memorising so developing the children’s knowledge in English through other way was very important. I did this by randomising a lot of the alphabet and numerical games, as well as teaching through flash cards and other visuals.

I found the teachers in the centre to be helpful in a lot of what they did and their English was to a reasonable standard so this made teaching the children new things a lot easier. The teachers and children are always eager to learn new games so i found this very motivating to want to provide the children with as much as possible.

Working for VIN has been an interesting experience and it has enabled me to recognise the differences in cultures and teaching. Having this opportunity has also provided me with an insight into how I could provide better opportunities for education for children like those in Nepal as well as children in other countries. I will definitely be coming back to Nepal in the future and I hope to continue to volunteer throughout the years.