Mai Pham is not your average six-year-old.
When she’s not busy tackling the first grade, Mai, who lives in Alabama, spends her free time making educational videos for students in Vietnam, reports local Alabama newspaper Times Daily.
With the help of her mother, Nga Dinh, the six-year-old teacher creates three short videos a week on whatever piques her interest. The videos are then sent to Vietnam, where Dinh’s aunt is a teacher, to share with students on the other side of the world.
“She knows what other children are interested in, and I ask her questions and she answers and explains along the way,” Nga Dinh told the news outlet. “Sometimes, we do the lessons through email or other computer programs and sometimes Skype.”
In Vietnam, a total of nine students watch Mai’s videos, aged six to 10, plus a handful of middle schoolers. Each video provides Vietnamese students an opportunity to connect with someone abroad and learn about life in another country, while Mai is able to practice her Vietnamese.
Some of Mai’s favorite lessons are about English grammar.
“I love teaching science, like how to make a butterfly come to a flower,” she told the Times Daily. “But I've also video'd about long and short vowels, and they like that, too, because they're learning English.”
In the future, Mai hopes to one day meet her students.
“I love them and they love me,” she said, according to the news outlet.
[Photo via Times Daily]
