Category: BEA Students - Bayon English Academy

Bayon English Academy

Quiet Contemplation

13/10/2014

This is one of the reasons why I love the BEA extensive reading program so much! For many of the BEA kids, it's the first time they get to read for pleasure. We're only into the second month of the first term, and students have settled into the library program. They even come early to get in some quiet reading time.

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Laughter from 2013-14

21/8/2014

One of the best photos from the 2013-14 school year. BEA classrooms are not just places of learning, they're also places of friendship.

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Looking Back on 2013-14: Library Posters

20/8/2014

We've finished up our fourth year at BEA, and are now heading into the 2014-15 school year! It's amazing how time has passed so quickly this year. In another week, we'll have our open registration for new students and then from September 1, we'll be running our two-week orientation for both new and returning students. One of the first activities we'll do during our orientation is to have all our students complete "library profile posters" where students design a poster of themselves to display in our library - a way to let visitors know about our students and to make our students a part of the BEA library. Here's a look back on our library posters from the start of our 2013-14 school year - definitely one of my all time favorite art activities that we have as part of our language program.

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Certificate Ceremony 2013-14

5/8/2014

Another school year has come to an end at BEA! This year, we had 82 students receive their government accredited certificates for our language program, which included over 200 hours of instruction with our TESOL-trained instructors. Our managing director and head teacher, Shally Toun, taught the Advanced and Intermediate English Language Program while Sarith Sou, our other full-time teacher, had the Pre-Intermediate and Basic course students. Congratulations to our students and teachers for all their hard work this year!!!

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

TOEIC Testing

1/8/2014

As part of BEA's language assessment, our Advanced and Intermediate English Language Course students take the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) at the end of each school year. The purpose of this test is to assess daily communication skills for using English in the workplace, which helps our students know if they're ready for a job in Siem Reap's tourist industry. The two-hour multiple-choice test consists of 200 questions that is divided into listening and reading comprehension. Also, the students' scores tell us where they rank among other students in other Southeast Asian countries. From last year's scores, the BEA kids were slightly above the average score for the entire Asian region. We're hoping that once we've totaled the results, the students did just as well, if not better, than last year!

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides English language education, leadership, and job skills programs to underprivileged youth from well-trained teachers in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Candle Light Lessons

1/5/2014

Power outages have been getting more frequent this year as temperatures continue to soar up into the high 30s. Despite the lack of lights and the sweltering heat, the BEA kids remain as dedicated as ever to their studies as you can see in their debate classes. Some of the students even stayed after their lessons to work on their poster presentations in the library!

If you'd like to know why we're plagued with all these power outages, you can read about it in the Phnom Penh Post's recent article: EDC Under Pressure

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education and job skills in a safe, clean and professional environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Textbooks and Supplies for the BEA Kids

27/9/2013

Hi everyone,

Classes are in full swing at BEA as we come to the end of September. Since the first few weeks are always hectic, we don't give out supplies right away since there are often a few students who have to drop out because of conflicts with public school or their part-time jobs. Also, we usually add a few more students to the class lists if there are any available seats. Nevertheless, the BEA kids were excited to finally get their textbooks and school supplies for the 2013-14 school year. Since we've increased our student body to 140 students this year, supplies were more expensive this year at $1500 US. However, that's only $10 US for each student for the entire year!

Getting good quality supplies for the BEA kids is quite the challenge. This is my fourth year getting supplies, so I've developed a few contacts at the local bookstores that give us an NGO discount and recommend supplies that will last through wear and tear. Although you can get some supplies an incredibly cheap prices, they're not always the best option because they are of poor quality - meaning than the pens are difficult to hold or stop working after a few scribbles. My favorite was the correction fluid that I got for the 2010-11 school year that didn't even cover up mistakes after using one-third of the bottle! Now, I test every single supply before I even consider buying it for the BEA kids. Fortunately, the book store owners are happy to deliver all of our supplies for us. However, buying supplies from the market entail loading everything up on my motorbike and balancing them while I drive back to BEA. Until now, I've yet to drop a single thing while driving (or have an accident)! My most recent "accomplishment" was balancing 50 books in front of me with a bag full of 150 drinking cups and a birthday cake for our school assistant!

In addition, we buy all of our supplies from local Cambodian supplier so that our donor money goes back into the local economy rather than out of the country. This is the main reason why we discouraged supply donation from overseas. In most cases, they would never reach the school because of the unreliable postal system and it would cost us a fortune to accept deliveries sent by ship. This would entail a trip to the port in Phnom Penh, paying the storage fees and import taxes, and shipping the supplies back to Siem Reap. The cost of just getting the supplies back to Siem Reap would cover all of our local supplies bought in Siem Reap for the entire year!

Many are surprised to learn that notebooks are relatively cheap at $1.30 US for a good quality one, and the supply that we have plenty of at the school since we buy all we need at the start of the school year. Also, we need to make sure that all the notebooks are the same so that all students get the same type of notebook in order to avoid jealousy, especially if one student gets better supplies than another. We tend to choose notebooks with cartoon characters on them or those with solid colors. Surprisingly, there are often notebooks with images that are inappropriate for the BEA kids.

The most expensive supplies that we purchase throughout the year are ink cartridges and large bottles of anti-bacterial hand soap. Although these are often not the first things that people would like to donate, they are the most essential for the school. We're still using the $70 US printer we first purchased back in 2010, but since then, we've spent hundreds of dollars on ink cartridges. At $15 US for one black cartridge and $17 for a color one, we spend about $80 per month on these cartridges. Ink that we need for printing out daily lesson handouts, teacher-training manuals, accounting spreadsheets, monthly pay stubs, and the hundreds of other administrative documents needed to run a school. The anti-bacterial hand soap is needed to keep our kids healthy and to stop the spread of colds and other illnesses and encourage cleanliness at BEA. As soon as the BEA kids enter the front door, they're required to wash their hands before they go into the classroom. Keeping 140 sets of hands clean every day takes a lot of this soap!!!

Nevertheless, the BEA kids were so excited to get their supplies. For all our students, this is the first time in their lives that they've gotten a full-set of school supplies. They don't have the money to pay for any of these supplies since their families make less than $2.00 a day. "Supply day" is always a special, and memorable, day for them with lots of smiles!

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education with professional teachers in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Candid Shots from BEA's 2012-13 Certificate Ceremony

21/9/2013

Hi everyone,

For the past three years, I have been the "official" BEA photography for all of our milestones. For each and every one of these, I have failed miserably at trying to get a set of "formal" graduation photos of Shally, my NGO partner and our school's managing director, with the BEA kids. Since Shally had to smile and pose with sixty of the BEA kids who got certificates for all their hard work during the 2012-13 school year, it eventually got too exhausting and then chaos broke out...as usual. Indeed, I have hundreds of "nice" shots, but these are the ones that make me laugh out loud and really show that what we do is much more than just language education. Nobody ever believes that all of our students come from extreme and moderate poverty. It's amazing what just one year with BEA and "Teacher Shally" can do for these kids.

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education with professional teachers in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Program

17/9/2013

For the second time this year, we kicked off its Cambodian-Japanese Writing Exchange Program between BEA and Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. The BEA students got their profiles of their Japanese partners, who are students in Nicole’s Integrated English III course. In Friday’s lesson, the BEA kids brainstormed ideas to write about for their first letter about their daily lifestyle and then got instruction on how to write their letters. Nicole collected all the letters today and her Japanese students will get them once she’s back on campus next Wednesday for the first day of the fall semester. Shally Toun, BEA’s managing director, will then take over the Cambodian side of the program. During the semester, students will exchange three letters on a designated theme and take part in classroom discussions on Cambodian and Japanese culture. By the end of 2013, over 250 students will have participated in this program since 2011!

The Bayon English Academy (BEA) is an accredited NGO school that provides underprivileged youth with quality English language education with professional teachers in a safe, clean environment in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Congratulations Rithea!!!

7/7/2013

BEA got some fantastic news from one of its top students this week! Rithea Reth Leang who has been with BEA for the past two years will be leaving this September to study at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. She will even be doing all of her university courses in English! Everyone one at BEA would like to wish Rithea the best of luck in her studies and wish her many adventures along her way to fulfilling her dreams.

Rithea’s message:
Thank you so much teacher for caring and helping me through all the difficult times. My time at BEA has guided me into a better a future and given me confidence to face the world.