Our Unit 871 Instructor, Caleb, remarks on the importance of setting time for review of program materials when given the opportunity.
The beginning of February was scheduled to be the start of a new teaching cohort for our ALC program in Hanoi. However, due to the recent review of foreign programs by the US government, it has necessitated a temporary pause to the teaching. At first, this can seem like a setback. However, like any competent team should do, we have turned this into an opportunity to implement a number of improvements and review our materials and methods thoroughly.
Time for Review: Program Materials
We decided our first priority was to focus on tasks that specifically improved our curriculum and materials in the most practical ways. One simple need is in the area of stocked materials. Our ALC program uses a book series that requires each student to use a total of 20 books per cohort. In the past, a new group of teachers would come every 6 months, and it was difficult for new teachers to keep track of the existing stock. Not having the right number of the required books can be a serious problem because we must order everything from the USA several weeks in advance. However, because we teach one cohort after another, we have kept a running record, which we decided to update during this teaching pause.
So, we recently got a shipment of roughly 60 boxes of books to replenish our book stock. I volunteered to begin the sorting and cataloguing process. Importantly, we needed to have a sufficient supply of Books 4-22 for this next cohort, because this is the range that our students are in at Base 871. I spent the better part of 2 days cataloging our current book stock. Following that, I went through and sorted the boxes based on book level. Next, I undertook the process of opening the boxes and stacking the books on the correct shelf. Finally, I added the newly stacked books to the stock list.
Conclusion
On the face of it, organizing, stocking and cataloguing the program’s books seems like a trivial task. Yet, we’ve seen the challenges that come when we don’t have the required books on hand, or when we don’t know how many more are left or even know where they are located. Keeping materials organized and accessible, both digital and physical, saves a great deal of stress and time in the future.