Well, I have finished my first (half) week of teaching. It was all very overwhelming at the beginning, and still is, I suppose. I wasn't given much instruction at the start. Mostly just told to relax.
But on the first day, things went a lot better as most of my classes were taught by either the teacher I had replaced or the manager. I took the last class and spent most of the 50 minutes trying to get them to be quiet.
I thankfully only have four classes a day, of 50 minutes each, which seems like plenty right now. My first two classes are from 8:30 am until 10:10 am, the next ones begin at 12:50 pm and 2:40 pm. So I have lots of time in between for prep and de-stressing.
I am teaching two grades (called pratom 4 and 5). They seem like a good age. They know quite a lot more English than I thought they would. They can answer quite a few questions and understand instructions quite well. Some are very, very smart. I have some difficulties talking to them one on one, but I think it's just because I can't understand them. Apparently they also have problems understanding me. The manager told me after I was asking them questions and they were looking back at me with blank stares that they probably just didn't understand what I was saying. There last teacher had a thick Scottish accent, so they have to get used to me, I suppose. I try to enunciate words more though.
The curriculum is split into units which are covered in two weeks. There are also spelling tests, homework, and unit tests. The units are things such as animals, food, etc. They involve working through a conversation, memorizing vocabulary and sentence structure, phonics and more reading and writing for pratom 5. Most of it is drilling the same things over and over, which gets kind of boring, but I'm trying to find ways to make it interesting. I think once I get the kids behaving better, I can use more games and acting etc.
The main thing that is most difficult and what the other teachers complain about a lot, is keeping the children under control. I was told a few times that the best thing to do is be as strict as possible at the start. (Even "don't smile til Christmas", I was told). So it's a lot of yelling (raising my voice) at children to be quiet and listen. Whenever the manager is with me, they are pretty good, but of course on my own they can get crazy. But it already seems like they have gotten better from the first day with me (but the first day was right after vacation, so they were out of control).
The whole scenario of the classroom is quite different than in North America. At home it seems like the teacher is more of a parental figure, whereas in Thailand the teacher is supposed to be respected and revered (which I guess you really have to earn anyway). I was told that the hierarchy of respect in society is: buddha, then the king and the royal family, teachers and parents, and then everyone else.
So the class is sort of set up like that, though I think the foreign teachers are not very good at maintaining the system, since we aren't used to it. At the start of the class the children wait outside and are not allowed into the classroom until you permit them to come in. They have to line up outside by gender. Then I have to make sure they are in absolute straight lines, looking forward, silent, waiting. Then I let them in and they are all supposed to 'wai' me (this is the Thai gesture in which the hands are put in a praying position and then you bow your head). Usually I just won't let them in if they don't shut up. Each child is also supposed to say "Thank you, Teacher Lindsay" when they leave, but I just let them run out and tell them they did well.
So I'm starting to figure it out. It's also difficult to plan the lesson well and have enough material to keep them busy for 50 minutes. If there are any lulls in the lesson, it turns into instant chaos.
The children are all very nice on their own though. By their selves they are all very timid and shy (except some boys who still shout about whatever). A good thing about teaching in Thailand is that each child has a short nickname (about 2-5 letters), in conjunction with their extremely long first and last names. The nicknames are given to the children at birth. It's believed that evil spirits start to invade the person right at birth, so the nickname is used to elude the spirits? (I think this is what I read). Most nicknames are Thai, but quite a lot are English words as well, which is pretty interesting. There are children named "Gypsy", "Mild", "Gift", "Why", "Ice", "Apple", "Mind" and "My". I guess as more English is introduced to Thailand, more children get these sorts of nicknames. The children still laugh hysterically as I read the Thai nicknames. Some of the English nicknames are pronounced in strange ways as well. For example, there is a "Fisher", but it's pronounced "Pitcher". And everyone laughs regardless of how I saw "Caramel".
The other foreign teachers are also nice, it's all mostly males from around my age to some that are quite older. There are also a group of Filipino girls that work with us. The teachers have helped me out a lot, answering many of my questions, and I have been working closely with the manager of the English program. There are many places to eat at the school, so many different treats for the children too, tons of slushie things, cakes, ice cream, candy. There is free food that the teachers get. But there is no choice to that. I am told that the quality varies considerably from day to day. Usually its rice or noodle based in or with some sort of soup. It's ok, gets me to try many Thai dishes, I suppose. Today was a strange soup. It looked like miso soup, with seaweed and what looked like chunks of tofu. It tasted eggy though, and I was told it's omlette soup? They cook egg and chop it up to put in the soup. It was actually quite good though..
Other than that, I moved into my apartment, which is sooo nice. It's a one-bedroom loft. It came fully furnished and has nice cabinets everywhere (even though I have nothing to put on any shelves, so it's quite bare and depressing). It doesn't have a kitchen, but barely any apartments do. It did come with bed, couch, fridge, 2 air conditioners, microwave, tv and I'm getting hot water put in (many places don't have it). The TV only had 5 Thai channels when I turned it on, but now they are all varying degrees of fuzziness. So I have about 3 and a half Thai channels. I might pick up some Thai at least... there's also a lot of muay thai on (the thai boxing). I'm thinking of buying a cheap dvd player and some counterfeit dvds, which are sold everywhere in the malls and markets.
The apartment is only a 15 minute walk from my school. I have to take this main road though which is kind of gross, with sparse sidewalks and so many stray dogs. But some side roads I take are gorgeous. Tons of fruit trees and flowers. I am trying to find a new walk that doesn't take the main road, but there is a big swamp in the way....
That's about it for my first week of classes. It's still hot, hot, hot here. It'll soon be going into the "cold" season which I think is high 20s. But should be nice not to come home drenched in sweat.... (at least I have a very cold shower to look forward to).
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