On wednesday we went to school…to TEACH! Teach as in teach kids, mold the minds of the future, be responsible for providing knowledge..etc. That was what we did. Kinda.
Tim and I both did the same lesson: we needed to spend a few days “playing” with the students to get them comfortable with us. Oh, let me back up…
There has never been an English program with Native speakers at this school, just Thai teachers teaching English. Think “Macalani” instead of “Macaroni” and you get the point of how they were teaching, and learning. So it was Tim and I’s job to show them REAL english (american english). They have only seen white people on TV. Our other English teacher is Filipino (he teaches Math/English).
We first have to learn their names. Now their Thai names are long and hard to pronounce, so they all have nicknames. Think of words like “arm”, “air”, “boo”, “jim”, etc. and you get the point. Ok cool, right? Well, then we have “aun”, “oon”, “oin”, etc - and they ALL SOUND THE SAME! So we had to figure out how to have fun, check roll, and learn their names all in one!
TIMMY TO THE RESCUE! He had an idea of having them make and compete in a paper airplane contest. So at the beginning of each class we had them write down their student number and their nickname on a piece of paper. Then we had them fold the paper into a paper airplane and and form teams to compete. Needless to say, all the classes enjoyed themselves (some classes a little TOO much) and it DEF helped pass the class. Afterwards, we collected the airplanes and recorded their nickname to the corresponding student number (since we can’t read Thai script that their name is printed in).
So we spend 3 days of making paper airplanes. I no longer want to make paper airplanes EVER AGAIN!
So my classes are as follows: I have 15 classes/week. I see EACH class for ONLY 1 hour each week. That means I only make 1 lesson plan, and just do it over and over 15 times. With one exception…I have an English Immersion class and I see them 4 times a week, so I need a new lesson each time I see them. So I of course did paper airplanes the first time I saw them, the the second time I saw them (as it was only half a week due to government holiday) I gave them a test. YUP, A TEST!! HAHA, ON A FRIDAY…WITHOUT NOTICE!!! 
Ok, I am not THAT mean - it was a pretest, that I am required to give within the first couple of classes. It isn’t even graded - it is just so I can see where their English stands so I can know what to concentrate my teaching on.
Well now that the first week is over I can say a few things:
- Fridays at 1:30pm are my favorite part of the week (the time my last class ends)
- AC does NOT matter in a Thai class; I will still get hot and sticky
- No matter what age group (I teach 12-13) there WILL be trouble makers!
- When students say “HELLO TEACHER” they just want you to say HELLO back so they can giggle
- Thai teachers don’t really do anything except lounge around between class and eat
- I HATE the classes that have chalkboards. WHITEBOARDS ONLY PLEASE!
- Students that are not in your class will sneak in if you are doing something fun
- No one knows if you are late to class, or if you end your class early
Timmy and I ended this week with KOREAN BBQ!!!!! YAY! There are no bars here, so instead we went to the bakery (because of the french influence on Loas, and us being so close to the border we have AWESOME bakeries) and got a cake. And ate the whole thing in about 15 min. Oops.
We did learn that almost every day the hotel crew puts in an addition to our room. We have now come home to find new clocks, new mirrors, shelves, towel hangers, shower caddies, etc. in our rooms. And our fridge is refilled with water bottles every day. Instead of a milkman we have a waterman (or woman, or ladyboy).
Life is good
Sawasdee Kha!
- Apes
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