Reflection – Storytelling for In - Service Teacher Training Short Course 

 Challenge 

 I supervise a grassroots pre - service teacher training program for ethnic education teachers in rural   Southeastern Myanmar . Each year we train a cohort of young teachers in our 10 - month program , but   the reality is that our graduates make up just a small percentage ( under 10 % ) of the teachers working   in the ethnic education system in Southeastern Myanmar . We are therefore exploring ways to reach   the many other teachers who lack pre - service teaching qualification by offering targeted in - service   support through teacher training short courses that can be delivered during the summer holiday . To   this end , we are preparing to pilot a 6 - week in - service teaching course for approximately 60 teachers   representing one of the six townships serviced by the ethnic education system . 

 The beneficiaries ( teachers ) come from disadvantaged , rural ethnic communities who teach a   combination of government curriculum and curriculum that has been developed by the   nongovernmental ethnic education provider . Their schools are under - resourced , although each child   typically has all required textbooks and is allowed to sit the government matriculation exam . Many   teachers are young , attending part - time university and female , and teaching is typically their first   professional experience . We realize that these teachers are largely unqualified and under - prepared for   the roles and responsibilities of teaching , and our short course aims to target a needed area of high   leverage growth to make them more comfortable , confident and successful in the classroom . 

 We are piloting this short course over a 6 - week period wherein teachers will be attending our class for   five hours a day , five days a week . The project is targeting approximately 60 teachers from one   township , although we are intending to scale the project to the remaining five townships in the region .   We are taking an iterative , agile approach wherein our training curricula can be modified as needed   during the initial pilot and the “ prototype ” curricula can then me modified as needed if we do scale it .   The project will be run by three full - time teacher trainers , and we will have access to part - time training   assistants who are graduates of our 10 - month pre - service teacher training course . Our staff will design   and implement the project . They are creative , confident , and have strong growth mindset . 

 Selection 

 For our first wave inspiration phase ( our research to answer the question what is to lead us to discuss   what if ) , we have brought aboard 10 field staff – teachers who are graduates of our pre - service   program – to help us conduct individual and group interviews for storytelling . We want to get a better   understanding of our beneficiaries ’ opinions of teaching , the challenges they face inside the classroom ,   and where and how their teaching profession exists in the grand scheme of their lives and the 

 communities they serve . We want to put the teachers at the center of our ideation , and believe that   having them share their personal teaching experience stories with us will best help us be empathetic to   their needs . 

 Application 

 We contacted our 10 field staff and prepared them to conduct interviews with the teachers that would   be attending our pilot training . These staff met with an average of six teachers individually and asked   them to reflect on three things : 

 1 ) What a workday in their life is like   2 ) What a non - workday in their life is like .   3 ) What the last several months have been life , using the following guiding questions if teacher 

 needed prompting : 

  What was your greatest 

 success ? 

  What was your 

 greatest challenge ? 

  What do you like the 

 most about your job ? 

  What are your core 

 values and habits ? 

  What would you like to 

 change the most about   your job / experience ? 

  Tell us about your 

 daily / weekly   schedule . 

  How do you like being 

 a teacher in this   community ? 

  What are your 

 greatest needs ? 

 The interviewers were instructed to listen and take objective notes , but were allowed to dive deeper   into answers if they needed more explanation or clarification , especially for the teacher to give his / her   perceived reason for a response . 

 We also wanted to get a better sense of how education is perceived by the students and their parents .   Each interviewer therefore also surveyed one neighborhood in each village in the township through a   group interview with students and their parents . Although we had to do group interviews for the sake   of time , there was good participation and our interviewers were able to ask these key stakeholders the   pertinent questions “ what role does the school currently play in your life ? ” and “ what role do you want   the school to play in your life ? ” . 

 Insight 

 Our research process gave a voice to our projects ’ participants and stakeholders . We learned a great   deal from our research , which better helped us identify several “ themes ” to address in our short   course . These themes were : 

 1 . Teachers feel a great sense of pride in their titles , but also combat dismay that their teaching is 

 not more fun for their students 

 2 . Teachers are engaged when they are at the school , but tend to disengage with their 

 professional responsibilities when their workday is over 

 3 . Teachers feel stress because of their time workload inside the classroom ( teaching up to 6 

 lessons each day ) and outside ( cooking , cleaning and washing clothes for their parents or   families ) ; therefore teachers do not have ample time to sit down and prepare for their lessons 

 4 . Teachers choose to use poor teaching methods ( ie reading by heart / rote - memorization ) not 

 because they think they are appropriate , but because they are so familiar and easy to prepare 

 5 . Students are motivated to have fun in class and be with their friends ( not so much to learn new 

 material or become experts ) 

 6 . Some students would choose to leave school if given the opportunity because they do not like 

 being bored during their lessons 

 7 . Students parents value education abstractly and as a child - care opportunity , but many parents 

 mentioned that their children rarely mention their experiences at school when they come   home 

 Hearing stories from the teachers , students and parents opened our eyes to the realities these   beneficiaries ( teachers ) and stakeholders ( students and parents ) face in their communities , and the   place education has within these realities . It helped us engage on a more personal level with the   groups we are aiming to help , and it was additionally beneficial because we had members of the   governing education body sit in and observe many of the interviews . They admitted that they had   never taken such a human - centered approach before , and that they learned a lot about the   experiences , opinions and emotions of the people their education system employs and serves .   Personally , many of the themes highlighted in the interviews were anticipated , but it was great to have   documented stories that share a strong , often common narrative as these could be very persuasive to   policy developers and international donors . Moreover , those who were interviewed were appreciative   of us “ lending an ear ” and listening attentively , and they all showed an eagerness to participate further   in our project , be it as a participant ( teacher ) or feedback provided ( students , parents ) during our   monitoring and evaluation process . 

 To conclude , during ideation our team went back to our framed design challenge and decided to   develop a short course training focusing on textbook adaptation such that each lesson incorporated a   learning objective “ reveal ” and activity that would surprise and excite the students . We introduced a   collection of activities easily applied to the textbooks ( thereby saving teachers planning time ) as well as   ways to let students create learning materials that would be shareable to their family . We have   developed a framework and are preparing to implement the prototype in the coming months , at which   time we will take feedback from participants and later from students and parents . Therefore , for us the   next stage would be a learning launch to test what we have developed in ideation and how it works   with those we have developed it for . 

 Approach 

 Using interviews ( individual and group ) to inspire innovation through storytelling was time intensive   and human resource intensive , and although it was extremely valuable , it might not be replicable with   the remaining five townships due to time and resource constraints . However , we still want to research   the needs of the teachers in the remaining townships before designing and implementing their own in- service teacher training short courses , and I think our team will use mind mapping for research in our   next township . We have gathered a lot of information from our initial interviews and storytelling and   we will present a lot of this information ( successes , challenges , emotions , needs , wants , regrets ,   values ) via sticky note to a focus group of our future stakeholders . They will then be able to organize   them according to their own personal experiences , expectations , et al , and from there we will have   created a graphic mind map of education ’s place in their lives and their community . We can do this   through a town - hall style meeting with stakeholders , and this will potentially save us quite a lot of time   as we hope to iterate our previously designed short course for targeted in - service teacher training   short courses for the remaining five townships . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Storytelling for In - Service Teacher Training Short Course 

 Challenge 

 I supervise a grassroots pre - service teacher training program for ethnic education teachers in rural   Southeastern Myanmar . Each year we train a cohort of young teachers in our 10 - month program , but   the reality is that our graduates make up just a small percentage ( under 10 % ) of the teachers working   in the ethnic education system in Southeastern Myanmar . We are therefore exploring ways to reach   the many other teachers who lack pre - service teaching qualification by offering targeted in - service   support through teacher training short courses that can be delivered during the summer holiday . To   this end , we are preparing to pilot a 6 - week in - service teaching course for approximately 60 teachers   representing one of the six townships serviced by the ethnic education system . 

 The beneficiaries ( teachers ) come from disadvantaged , rural ethnic communities who teach a   combination of government curriculum and curriculum that has been developed by the   nongovernmental ethnic education provider . Their schools are under - resourced , although each child   typically has all required textbooks and is allowed to sit the government matriculation exam . Many   teachers are young , attending part - time university and female , and teaching is typically their first   professional experience . We realize that these teachers are largely unqualified and under - prepared for   the roles and responsibilities of teaching , and our short course aims to target a needed area of high   leverage growth to make them more comfortable , confident and successful in the classroom . 

 We are piloting this short course over a 6 - week period wherein teachers will be attending our class for   five hours a day , five days a week . The project is targeting approximately 60 teachers from one   township , although we are intending to scale the project to the remaining five townships in the region .   We are taking an iterative , agile approach wherein our training curricula can be modified as needed   during the initial pilot and the “ prototype ” curricula can then me modified as needed if we do scale it .   The project will be run by three full - time teacher trainers , and we will have access to part - time training   assistants who are graduates of our 10 - month pre - service teacher training course . Our staff will design   and implement the project . They are creative , confident , and have strong growth mindset . 

 Selection 

 For our first wave inspiration phase ( our research to answer the question what is to lead us to discuss   what if ) , we have brought aboard 10 field staff – teachers who are graduates of our pre - service   program – to help us conduct individual and group interviews for storytelling . We want to get a better   understanding of our beneficiaries ’ opinions of teaching , the challenges they face inside the classroom ,   and where and how their teaching profession exists in the grand scheme of their lives and the 

 communities they serve . We want to put the teachers at the center of our ideation , and believe that   having them share their personal teaching experience stories with us will best help us be empathetic to   their needs . 

 Application 

 We contacted our 10 field staff and prepared them to conduct interviews with the teachers that would   be attending our pilot training . These staff met with an average of six teachers individually and asked   them to reflect on three things : 

 1 ) What a workday in their life is like   2 ) What a non - workday in their life is like .   3 ) What the last several months have been life , using the following guiding questions if teacher 

 needed prompting : 

  What was your greatest 

 success ? 

  What was your 

 greatest challenge ? 

  What do you like the 

 most about your job ? 

  What are your core 

 values and habits ? 

  What would you like to 

 change the most about   your job / experience ? 

  Tell us about your 

 daily / weekly   schedule . 

  How do you like being 

 a teacher in this   community ? 

  What are your 

 greatest needs ? 

 The interviewers were instructed to listen and take objective notes , but were allowed to dive deeper   into answers if they needed more explanation or clarification , especially for the teacher to give his / her   perceived reason for a response . 

 We also wanted to get a better sense of how education is perceived by the students and their parents .   Each interviewer therefore also surveyed one neighborhood in each village in the township through a   group interview with students and their parents . Although we had to do group interviews for the sake   of time , there was good participation and our interviewers were able to ask these key stakeholders the   pertinent questions “ what role does the school currently play in your life ? ” and “ what role do you want   the school to play in your life ? ” . 

 Insight 

 Our research process gave a voice to our projects ’ participants and stakeholders . We learned a great   deal from our research , which better helped us identify several “ themes ” to address in our short   course . These themes were : 

 1 . Teachers feel a great sense of pride in their titles , but also combat dismay that their teaching is 

 not more fun for their students 

 2 . Teachers are engaged when they are at the school , but tend to disengage with their 

 professional responsibilities when their workday is over 

 3 . Teachers feel stress because of their time workload inside the classroom ( teaching up to 6 

 lessons each day ) and outside ( cooking , cleaning and washing clothes for their parents or   families ) ; therefore teachers do not have ample time to sit down and prepare for their lessons 

 4 . Teachers choose to use poor teaching methods ( ie reading by heart / rote - memorization ) not 

 because they think they are appropriate , but because they are so familiar and easy to prepare 

 5 . Students are motivated to have fun in class and be with their friends ( not so much to learn new 

 material or become experts ) 

 6 . Some students would choose to leave school if given the opportunity because they do not like 

 being bored during their lessons 

 7 . Students parents value education abstractly and as a child - care opportunity , but many parents 

 mentioned that their children rarely mention their experiences at school when they come   home 

 Hearing stories from the teachers , students and parents opened our eyes to the realities these   beneficiaries ( teachers ) and stakeholders ( students and parents ) face in their communities , and the   place education has within these realities . It helped us engage on a more personal level with the   groups we are aiming to help , and it was additionally beneficial because we had members of the   governing education body sit in and observe many of the interviews . They admitted that they had   never taken such a human - centered approach before , and that they learned a lot about the   experiences , opinions and emotions of the people their education system employs and serves .   Personally , many of the themes highlighted in the interviews were anticipated , but it was great to have   documented stories that share a strong , often common narrative as these could be very persuasive to   policy developers and international donors . Moreover , those who were interviewed were appreciative   of us “ lending an ear ” and listening attentively , and they all showed an eagerness to participate further   in our project , be it as a participant ( teacher ) or feedback provided ( students , parents ) during our   monitoring and evaluation process . 

 To conclude , during ideation our team went back to our framed design challenge and decided to   develop a short course training focusing on textbook adaptation such that each lesson incorporated a   learning objective “ reveal ” and activity that would surprise and excite the students . We introduced a   collection of activities easily applied to the textbooks ( thereby saving teachers planning time ) as well as   ways to let students create learning materials that would be shareable to their family . We have   developed a framework and are preparing to implement the prototype in the coming months , at which   time we will take feedback from participants and later from students and parents . Therefore , for us the   next stage would be a learning launch to test what we have developed in ideation and how it works   with those we have developed it for . 

 Approach 

 Using interviews ( individual and group ) to inspire innovation through storytelling was time intensive   and human resource intensive , and although it was extremely valuable , it might not be replicable with   the remaining five townships due to time and resource constraints . However , we still want to research   the needs of the teachers in the remaining townships before designing and implementing their own in- service teacher training short courses , and I think our team will use mind mapping for research in our   next township . We have gathered a lot of information from our initial interviews and storytelling and   we will present a lot of this information ( successes , challenges , emotions , needs , wants , regrets ,   values ) via sticky note to a focus group of our future stakeholders . They will then be able to organize   them according to their own personal experiences , expectations , et al , and from there we will have   created a graphic mind map of education ’s place in their lives and their community . We can do this   through a town - hall style meeting with stakeholders , and this will potentially save us quite a lot of time   as we hope to iterate our previously designed short course for targeted in - service teacher training   short courses for the remaining five townships .
### Output: 