What does it mean teaching autistic students?

CHEN Sorphorn, graduating student from Chandara Students Home first promotion, shared with us her experience as teaching autistic students and why she decided to become a teacher in the first place. 

• Can you introduce yourself ? 

Hello, my name is CHEN Sorphorn, I live in Phnom Penh and I studied at the Royal University called North bridge school. I want to be a teacher in Khmer literature. In life, I like traveling and discovering new places. My favorite place in Cambodia is Angkor Wat. Moreover, I like reading books, go shopping and watching movies with my friends.  

• Why did you choose this major ? 

I chose to study Khmer literature because it is a subject I love, and I want to know more about the Khmer script and more in depth. I have learned that I have always shown myself to be responsible and willing to work in education. When I was 16, I started teaching my children in my village. I learned a lot about it, especially when I was a student, when things didn't go the way it was planned, but it was not because I loved children I also learned how to do well with others in teamwork.

• What did you like the most about your internship as teaching autistic students ? 

During my internship, I learned a lot and thanks to this, I was able to experience my future work. I learned how to work in a team, with my coworker (they helped me and encouraged me a lot) and how to explain the lesson to students. I was an assistant teacher in Khmer and English. Teaching autistic students was wonderful and one of the aspects that I liked was that I had to teach more slowly because their knowledge is slower. We took the time to explain and understand all the aspects of the course. 

• What were your missions during your internship?

For my mission during the internship, I learned how to be a teacher, how to teach to the students and it was my first time. But I tried my best to do it. I am really happy to be a teacher and I really like it. I like the school and like all the students in Northbridge and all staff are so kind and friendly. I will not change my dream job. I do love this school and I really want to be a teacher.

During my internship, some days they had different disciplines such as sport, art class, math, and time to play games. During my days, I was going to see other teachers and observed how they taught.

On the other days, they had some reading story class and I came see the the teacher teaching. But also, some other teacher came to teach about the day and month and to sing the song the day of the month. More over, there are another days, where the students have to read stories in class and there are other activities such as dancing and singing.

• What did you learn from this internship ? 

I want to say that teaching autistic students is very different and I never knew, even what the name autism meant. When I first started working, I felt nervous when I saw the student activities. Students have different behaviors, different from other students and it made me feel scared. I wanted to cry at first. I told myself that I can not do this teaching anymore, feeling I wanted to go home after teaching for two hours, and I feel sorry for the parents of the students. They do not feel when they see their child behaving abnormally, so I sent an e-mail to the teacher. He said to me why he could teach the autistic students: so if he could do it, I told myself that I could teach the autistic students as well.

Day by day, I became more and more sympathetic to Heath Ledger students, and I felt more in love and intimacy. The student's bad behavior towards the teacher, his ability to control his emotions, and his ability to deal with students' problems can be said to be new skills that I have never heard of before.

• What is the next step for you now?

My next step is to find a job. I would like to work at Happy Chandara School, as I want to give back from what I received through the school. And if I find a job as a teacher there, I would like to continue my studies and do a master's degree in Khmer literature at the same time. This means that I would work during the day and study in the evening. With a Master Degree, I will be able to teach Khmer literature to high school or university students, which is something that I would really like to do. 

• Do you have a sentence or personality that you particularly like ? Does that inspire you ? 

One of the sentences that I like is “people are not the same”. I always compare myself to other people and sometimes some people are disappointed, angry, happy, sweet and it’s normal in life. Differences are the things that makes like worth discovering every day.