Dany Hour was our first kindergarten teacher at Green Umbrella. She lives in the community around GU, and took English classes at Green Umbrella English School. In 2016, Dany became a full-time teacher at our Karuna Kumar Primary School (KKS) and has been enjoying the role ever since.

Dany is the youngest of her siblings with an older brother and sister. Her brother, Hour Ramil, works as a transport worker, and her sister, Hour Davy, is  a housewife. Dany is now married and has an adorable baby girl, called Lima. Her hobbies are singing and cooking.

Dany has always loved young children, with the ability to communicate and interact with them with great patience. She enjoys working with these very young students and loves to see them develop their skills to read and write. Dany has a natural ability to manage a classroom with 20 busy kindergarten students. She gently shows the kids how to behave and play nicely, so that she can engage with each individual child in learning and reaching their potential.

Appreciating Dany’s inherent ability, Green Umbrella promoted her to teach students in the first kindergarten class in the academic year 2020. As a K-teacher, Dany is enthusiastic to continue to improving her own knowledge and skills in writing, reading, art, literature and behavioral and social skills for 4-5-year-old children.

In 2021, as Green Umbrella transitions to Early Childhood Education, the aspiration is for teaches like Dany to truly become experts in this area of early learning. While the school is currently closed due to the pandemic, Green Umbrella is focusing on training teachers on the Early Childhood Education Philosophy, coordinated by board member, Juila Alden.

Dany comments that “the training is helpful for me in developing my teaching skills and in interacting with students”. These teaching skills include coordinating the morning circle and exploration time, storytelling with the use of opened and ended questions and doing some web design.

Dany affirms that she sees much improvement as she applies what she has learned from the recent ECE training. The kindergarten students, currently being taught online due to the pandemic, have more interaction with Dany during the lessons. The students chat more with each other also, and they feel confident to ask more questions. Dany observes that the kindergarten children are also developing thinking skills, flexibility, and problem-solving at their very young age. Online learning has also enabled Dany to liaise more with parents at home, introducing them to the importance of ECE as a critical start and part of their children’s ongoing education.

By 2023, Dany expects that GU Early Childhood Education will become a model school in the community, which is a strategic goal for Green Umbrella. This would enable many more children to access education from a young age, improving the overall literacy and education levels of Cambodian youth.