Pla Pak Noi students in morning buddhist prayer and meditation
Three days of teaching down! "Teesha Teesha(teacher) Bai Tuoy (My thai nickname) " is what I've heard on a constant stream throughout my days at the 2 elementary schools. Everyday whenI arrive at school, students run to where my ride drops me off greeting me with flowers that they have picked from the road, pictures they have drawn, and any other miscellaneous objects they can conjure up. The past 3 days have been exciting, exhausting, and sometimes just crazy trying to figure out my classes, level of students, materials available to me, co-workers, and being around Thai all day. There is not a minute in my days at school when there isn't an adorable Thai student smiling at me wanting to say Hello.
First day of Class:
1st grader girl Pom:
Monday seemed like a long day partly because I had no idea what was going on ( which is how most of my days are here). I arrive at 8:30am with my co-teacher Kim. Students start class at 9 so I had a half hour to sort through my lesson plan one more time which only consisted of some easy welcome activities, "about me" poster, and name tags. My next class was suppose to be at 10, however no students showed up. During this time I had no idea what was going on or whether to expect students or not. I heard a bunch of noise next door so I peeked in to find my 6th graders(who I just taught) just hanging out with no teacher. I asked where the teacher was and they said "working (pointing out the door)". This seems to be acceptable for teachers to leave students unattended for allotted amounts of "free time" if there needs to be an impromptu meeting or even I've caught teachers taking an afternoon nap. I wandered down the hall some ways to look into another classroom to see a teacher at her desk with a TV on behind her and students wandering around. This is one aspect of the Thai School System that will take some adjusting to and many "Mai Pen Rais" (no worries- in Thai) will have to be said. Anyways As my day continued I happily taught my Welcome lesson with many students being fascinated by the pictures I brought in of my family and friends. After going out to lunch with Kim I came back to find out that I'd be teaching grade 5 for the second time today because they decided to change my schedule and grade 5 will now be after lunch. Not having another lesson plan ready I had to make one up as we went through class. According to past volunteers these "change in schedules" happen frequently. I resorted back to subjects we planned during curriculum doing some Days of the Week and ABC activities that didn't need any pre-made materials. From 2-3pm I have prep time before heading home around 3:30 pm however many students end up filing in my classroom to say hello or just look at me. Having this amount of attention all day is oddly tiring, which is weird to say.
However being around the students makes me realize why I came to Thailand. Events in the US, even Halloween or the Giants winning the world series seem insignificant and not in my frame of mind anymore. Living in Thailand makes you live in the present. Planning is not significant but living by what the day gives you. A pertinent example of this is not having a school calendar or schedule. Besides the national Buddhist holidays there is no set time for when vacation starts or ends, what days you have off, and so on. This can already seem at times frustrating when you are handed these scenarios last minute but I'm learning fast not to dwell and keep going.
In attempts to learn all my students name I had them make name tags and take a picture. Students are required to wear some type of uniform to school everyday whether it be sports day, scouting, or regular, which makes it even harder to differentiate them. Also girls are required to have short hair till I think around grade 10 and boys are expected to have no hair around ears. This means almost everyone has similar haircuts. I'm pretty sure I butcher their names every time but it'll take some practice. Here are some of my adorable yet crazy students from my class of 31 kindergarden, 1st, 2nd graders.
**I also added a few new pictures under Photo page!
1st grader Luck:
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