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Dragonfruit, mango, bananas鈥� Appetising, delightful, scrumptious鈥� What connects those words? You likely made quick associations between those words in a set and realised that there was a larger group they belonged to. Perhaps you thought about 鈥渇ruit鈥�, 鈥渢ropical fruit鈥�, or 鈥渇ruit that grows on trees鈥� and for the other group you might have thought about 鈥渨ords that describe taste鈥�. Categorising and finding semantic connections between words is one skill that supports vocabulary development; a solid foundation in vocabulary is key for reading, writing and oral expression across all ages.

For those students who acquire language with ease, this organisation into groups is likely a strength; however, for those who have difficulty with the rules that govern language, categorisation and semantic mapping are skills that need to be explicitly taught and reinforced frequently. So, what can we do as teachers and family members to support this important skill?

When working with young children, we can often support categorisation by naming two to three items within a group or by asking them to say the name of the group. For example, we may say 鈥淚 need to get CLOTHES on: I need a shirt, pants, and socks! You may go to the market and say 鈥淲e need fresh FRUITS and VEGETABLES” and then list two to three members within each category. When you actively name the group and list items within it, you are teaching children how those words are connected. As children age, those groups become more extensive but the brain learns flexible ways of grouping words and rearranging them. A middle-schooler might be able to think about synonyms, or a specific feature of a word and find other related words. When students understand that ADJECTIVES are words that provide a description and the student is instructed to change the adjectives to incorporate descriptions that appeal to the senses, the student might start sorting words into groups such as adjectives to describe sound, adjectives that describe touch, etc. For example, a student may write a sentence such as 鈥淭he food at the restaurant was good鈥� or they can rewrite to add more detail as 鈥淭he salad was crunchy and savoury.鈥� This type of exercise can further support higher analytical skills such as comparing, contrasting and developing logical arguments.

Through consistent practice and deliberate instruction, anyone can contribute to the development of skills in categorising, sorting, grouping and establishing connections between words. By nurturing these abilities, we empower students to expand their vocabulary and enhance their language proficiency, thereby laying the groundwork for academic success and effective communication.

Zuleika Billington
Whole School Speech-Language Pathologist

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The Professional Learning Department at 糖心Vlog chases two objectives 鈥� first, to make 糖心Vlog the best 鈥渓earning organisation鈥� in the world for all 糖心Vlog staff, and second, to take the lead in creating learning and growth opportunities for Cambodian educators outside of 糖心Vlog. At 糖心Vlog we would like to be respected among international educators as a place where teachers always grow and learn, where teachers are supported and encouraged to innovate and bring new learning into the classroom every day. Beyond our own development, 糖心Vlog has a strategic objective to become a leader of professional learning in Cambodia offering consistent, world-class, no-cost learning opportunities for Cambodian educators in Phnom Penh and beyond.

To meet these objectives, the Professional Learning team designed and implemented more than 25 learning events and programmes last school year. We work closely with the Educational Leadership team and 糖心Vlog staff to make sure that what we offer is in line with what our 鈥渃ustomers鈥� want and need to learn.

Last school year, 糖心Vlog will hosted nine different international educational researchers and consultants to work with 糖心Vlog staff as well as offering weekend workshops for Cambodian educators:

• Steve Barrett from in Los Angeles is a well-known expert in social-emotional learning and his work focuses on building great student relationships and strengthening our secondary Advisory Programme
• Kate O鈥機onnell is the Head of School at and Kate鈥檚 work with focused on integrating sustainability and systems thinking into our curriculum
• Deb Gibbs from New Zealand will work with 糖心Vlog teachers to help us leverage tools from the New Zealand maths system
• Jennifer Chang Wathall is a well-known author, researcher, and consultant from Hong Kong specialising in concept-based education and Mathematics
• J. Raphael Angel is a language acquisition expert working in Belgium and Raphael is focused on helping us strengthen our language programmes across the school
• Gavin Grift is a renowned author and speaker in Australia; Gavin will continue to train our staff in Cognitive Coaching and launch his new Emerge Leadership series here at 糖心Vlog.
• Matt Glover returns to 糖心Vlog from the USA this year to bring his innovative approach to children鈥檚 authorship
• Kathy Collins, a well-known reading specialist, author and presenter from the USA will join Matt to create a unique integrated literacy event in February
• Beth Skelton will keynote our in March and bring her expertise in English Acquisition to 糖心Vlog and a large international audience

We are so delighted to invite these researchers and consultants to work with our 糖心Vlog staff and other Cambodian educators.

Kimsean Sun
Learning Centre Officer

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Working memory is often described as a “sticky note for the brain”. It holds one or more pieces of information in the brain for a while, which we then use in some way, and eventually discard. But sticky notes are not very big, they have limited space, and sometimes the glue does not stick well… So how can we fix the glue or expand our brain’s capacity for sticky notes?

In a school environment, working memory is constantly in use. Teachers sometimes ask us to open a link, scroll to paragraph 6, read the paragraph, write four questions related to the paragraph, discuss the questions with our peers, and write a small reflection for homework. All of that in one sentence. Yes, it is very easy to get lost in these instructions and forget them. That’s because our glue might not be working, or our brain’s sticky notes might be too small. The same is true at home. Sometimes we might get some instructions, we forget some of them, and then no one is happy with the outcome.

Not being able to memorise things can affect not only our attention but also our organisation and planning. If this happens often, it is time to use some external strategies to help our working memory or our brain’s 鈥渟ticky note” 鈥�

• Use real or desktop sticky notes and write down the steps and tasks you need to do; mark steps as done or remove the notes when you finish them.
• Use a calendar to remember important deadlines or to plan steps if you have a bigger project.
• Use a notebook or create a document to remember new concepts 鈥� write down the concepts or important words, and later, read about them and add definitions, visuals, or links to videos at home.

There is one more important strategy to boost our working memory. By practising something difficult, we become experts in the area. Think about watching people dance. It seems like they need to memorise different steps separately, e.g.,

But they dance so much and remember steps in series that they become experts. This is called chunking 鈥� like combining three steps into one (think of all these three pictures as one gif).

In a school setting, this means we can boost our working memory by 鈥�

• Repeating new concepts using different learning methods, e.g., visual (using flashcards, watching videos) and verbal (saying it aloud, writing it down).
• Practising spaced repetition, e.g., repeating important concepts every day for ten minutes.
• Grouping important concepts to make them easier to remember 鈥�
• Visualise what you need to learn by creating art, storyboards, graphs, or infographics.
• Teach someone else. Teaching others will show if you understand the concept and help create connections with the information you are holding in your brain.

In conclusion, by incorporating these strategies into our daily routines, we can effectively boost our working memory and enhance our ability to retain and recall information.

Bojana Coso
School Psychologist

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This year in Secondary, we had our annual Careers Week (24-28 April) where students had the opportunity to explore a variety of careers. We have Career Talks, daily career-related posts on the Student Daily Bulletin and even career-focused advisory lessons. These are all in the hopes of achieving 糖心Vlog鈥檚 community goal to help students in their career development so they can research and anticipate potential career paths connected to their interests and abilities. We know that this is a long process of development which doesn鈥檛 only happen in the last few years at school. Therefore, we are given many opportunities to continue going through this process which will help us get a better idea of what our future careers may look like.

During Careers Week there were many activities which delved further into future career exploration. The activities available included several Career Talks during lunch which any student could sign-up and join. These talks ranged from a career in aerospace engineering to a career as an artist and an art teacher and to working for the United Nations. We dearly thank all of the presenters, which included parents, staff and alumni of the 糖心Vlog community, for taking the time to talk to us students and to help our understanding of their careers. These talks were available every day of Careers Week. There were 4-6 different career fields represented each day, with five to 45 students signed up to attend each talk, with a total of at least 140 students signing up for at least one session. This shows just how much we all appreciated these talks. Furthermore, the Student Ambassadors assisted the speakers at each career talk and ensured that everything ran smoothly.

Careers Week concluded on Friday with Career Dress-up Day where students were encouraged to dress up as the career they are aiming for or wear business casual attire. This was put in place to help raise awareness of the importance of career development.

Speaking as a student myself, I had a wonderful experience going to a number of these career talks. It was a helpful experience, as I had the chance to go to talks even if I was just curious about what the presenter would say but not necessarily interested in pursuing the career itself. This usually ended in realising that this career would not be what I would want to do. Oppositely, realising that yes, this is a career that I could see myself doing. I know that many other students had a similar experience and that we all benefited strongly from it and that we are looking forward to the next Careers Week!

Laura B
Grade 9 Student Ambassador

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This is a question the Early Years (EY) teachers wanted to undertake and explore. With the help of Matt Glover and his expert research and advice, we have come to new understandings and changes in our teaching practice.

Matt鈥檚 workshops and the book 鈥淓ngaging Young Writers鈥� were valuable resources in this endeavour. We were able to identify new ways of thinking about children’s writing and how to support them to see themselves as competent writers. The research we did was complex and thought-provoking.

In a simple summary, these are the new learnings we have applied in our classrooms:

Don’t write for children

A child might ask 鈥淚 can’t write it 鈥� can you write it for me?鈥� It’s important that we encourage children to try themselves 鈥� even if it’s squiggles, shapes, random letter formations or letters. As long as children know their marks symbolise what they want to say, it is meaningful for them. They will develop the agency and confidence to write themselves. If adults do this for them, all they learn is they can’t do it as well as us.

Point out things that we notice in books

An example would be 鈥淢o Willems uses speech bubbles so we can see what Piggie is saying.鈥� We have used nonfiction and fiction books to point out craft techniques authors use and children have started to notice and experiment with these in their writing.

Show approximations to help children see what their writing could look like

If we always show children examples of printed books, they may think they could never reach that level. When showing them examples of other children’s writing they can more easily see themselves as capable.

Little nudges, not pushes

When conferring with children, we look at where they are at and how we could nudge them a little further. Too far and they may become unmotivated. Good questions to ask are: 鈥淲hat will happen on the next page?鈥� and 鈥淵ou could write a book about that!鈥� whenever there is an opportunity. We also find out what motivates children, and what their interests are and find an entry point into writing through that, so it will be different for each child!

After adding these aspects to our teaching we saw a surge of confidence and enjoyment of writing in our classes. The children have engaged in joyful writing, being motivated internally through their interests. They like to explore story and information books and have tried out so many beautiful things they have noticed in books, which include author’s craft techniques such as question marks, speech bubbles, zooming in, big and small writing and adding emotions to drawings, plus so much more.

We have seen the true meaning of seeing children as capable so they will see themselves that way too. Our EY centre has become rich in its love for books, reading and writing with a true celebration of where children are at in their writing without the pressure.

Bonnie Jensen
Early Years Teacher

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Once a year in Elementary, each grade level is given the opportunity to share their learning, explorations and achievements in the arts with their families.

Last year鈥檚 Spotlight on the Arts events highlighted some magnificent learning across multiple grade levels. Performances were diverse 鈥� and instrumentation, theatre, dancing and singing were all given their moments to shine. The unique presentations reflected our programme’s diversity and our students’ progression. In visual arts, the learning seemed to take on a life of its own鈥� as displays expanded into every corner of the campus. Both collaborative and individual projects were displayed in galleries, walkways and gardens! Spaces were filled with colourful two-dimensional and sculptural work from all ages.

To wrap the year up, we were excited to celebrate our first-ever event for our youngest learners! Families joined in with their children and were given a window into the play-based learning programme that happens in EY Arts.

We wish to thank all of our families for your incredible attendance at these events. We loved having you celebrate the arts with us!

Karyn Templeton
PYP Lower Elementary Arts Teacher

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