# 18 Teaching

This post is to teaching in general. I studied child development in college which isn't the same as an education major but rather how children grow, develop, and learn-the science of it. What makes some learning environments better, how do you create developmentally appropriate curriculum, Why do children do this or that at a certain age, What are appropriate ways to talk and interact with children? These are some of the questions my courses explored. I've had a great year actually putting a lot of the theories that I studied into practice and seeing what held up and worked in a rural thailand esl classroom and what completely failed. This is one of my main reason for coming to Thailand. I had been a student for the majority of my life, faithfully attending classes and following directions and when I graduated I was ready to do something on my own. I definitely had to learn as I went with aspects that had to be tailored to specifically teaching ESL that my major did not cover such as how to teach reading, how to be 'the foreigner', and how explain directions to a lesson or game using almost no english. I'm glad though I had a lot of experience before coming to Thailand working with infants and toddlers mainly because it made me use to having the language barrier with my students..saying something and not expecting an answers or an answer that needed some piecing together.

This past weekend the other volunteers and I put on an english camp for 130 students for the high school and surrounding schools with the participants ranging from 6th grade to 9th.We had a blast. I was very happy 5 of my 6th grade students from both of my schools were invited to participate. It was a day and a half long event that started at 8am friday and lasted till 12pm saturday. It was the perfect event to have fun and be silly with the students and get them excited to study english. We sung songs so much our throats hurt, danced so much our legs ached, and laughed constantly at the 'bad boys' and lady boys of camp. It also provided the opportunity for the Thai high school teachers to gather techniques on how to teach english in a fun and engaging manner during our 8 different stations we had set up each focusing on different english materials. The subjects included: time, clothes, verbs, prepositions, dance, verb-to be, and a station to practice their performance for a night show. It more importantly gave me a fresh boost of energy and ideas to finish my last few weeks of teaching strong. I'm very lucky to have the other volunteer teachers this year to generate teaching ideas with, rant about the absurdities of the Thai school system, and their general camaraderie through out the year. So here's to a great year of teaching and learning!

Team Boy and Girl with the volunteers! (each group of students came up with a team name and chant such as: Team Diamond, Lemon, Boy and Girl, X-Zone, Sea Flower, Lovely, and Lucifer. ---all on their own!)

Little Moments

Throughout my days here there are little moments that I really cherish with my students. Now that my students are comfortable with a new foreign teacher in the classroom we have been able to let loose with each other yet have a set routine that makes the class run smoothly. Here are some of those occasions:

1. Greeting me everyday when I arrive at school lining up by the car reciting, "Good morning Teacher, How are you?" They then insist on helping me carrying any teaching supplies for me to the classroom often trying to get a peek into what we are doing in class today or if there are any surprises. This also connects for when I am about to go home for the day. They approach me usually in pairs to say, " Goodbye teachaar, see you again on Friday."

2. Hellllooo teecha. When I'm done with my classes for the day and I'm sitting in my classroom grading notebooks, lesson planning, or decorating the classroom every few minutes a student will walk by the room peeking in their head to say "helllloo" or "Tam arai, Teacher?" (what are you doing?) This sometimes happens when I am on skype with my parents and they hear the foreign voice and immediately ask "Teacher, may I come in?" They LOVE seeing my parents and then get to practice their go-to phrases of "My name is ___. I am ____years old. I am from ____. Today's weather is____."

3. Goodbye Hugs and handshakes. With my 3rd and 4th graders at Wang Yang our Goodbye routine now consists of a mandatory hug and handshake. After putting away their notebooks for the day they line up to get their handshake and hug from me. As the girls are leaving they usually say , "I love teacher Bai Tuey!" and I of course respond with "I looove you!" They have even now started blowing kisses hahaha

4. Dance Parties while cleaning. As mentioned before in "Day in the life of a Thai Student" post the students are responsible for the school being in tip-top shape. At the end of the day they sweep the school again, mop/scrub the floors, water the plants, put away dishes, and any other chore that needs to be done. During this time if I am in my classroom with my computer I usually play my students favorite song "Waka Waka" by Shakkiera while they cleaning and we can dance around and try and make the chores a little more fun . My co-teacher usually walk by at this point and think I am absolutely ridiculous! oh well

5. Afternoon gardening. After I finish lesson planning and cleaning up my room for the day one of my favorite activities is to sit in the Pla Pak Noi garden while my student diligently tend to their grade level's plot of vegetables. I walk around and my student quiz me on the Thai name for the vegetables. Their garden has chili plants (all thai food MUST have a few crushed chili peppers in it to add some kick), onion, garlic (you'll find whole cloves of garlic in Isan food), cilantro, and some veggies I can't remember right now.

6. Stickers. One thing the other volunteers and I have learned is Thai students LOVE stickers. It doesn't matter the age, students even in 12th grade will do about anything for a sticker. During games students will get so excited about the possibility of winning a stickers that they will be jumping over one another or desks to answer the questions or clinging onto one another in anticipation. Of course as the teacher I find this hilarious!

All of these things really make teaching in Thai unique and special. They make up for all the times I sometimes struggle to convey one simple direction of "come here" or "Say this...phut Today..Today" and they just stare at me with blank faces. It has only been 4 months here and I still have a lot of time left to make more special routines and moments with my students!

Day in the Life of a Thai Student

Update, finally! I haven't had internet at my house for the past 2 weeks or so now and I haven't been very willing to sit outside in the cold at the high school to pick up their wireless for very long!

This is an account of what a day in the life of

one of my Thai students might look like. However, everyday I am amazed at the different cultures and routines each of my elementary schools has so this account is one specific to my smaller more rural elementary school PlaPak Noi. This school has already become very dear to me and acts more like an extended family for the students and teachers. The teachers are more like parents in charge of disciplining and teaching students life skills.

Every morning starts with a morning assembly. The time mainly depends on when the teachers arrive at school this can be 8:15-9am. Students line up in their grade levels in perfectly straight lines equally spaced apart. The flag is raised, national athem sang, buddhist prayer said, and a marched exit accompanied by drums.

School Maintaience responsibilities fall mainly upon the students. They are incharge of sweeping, mopping, picking up any trash, watering all the plants, and picking up leaves (by hand), and even helping with construction. Right now my students have been helping with the construction of a new building of classrooms(funded by donations) to replace the open-air wooden room that houses sometimes up to 3 grade levels. I will see my tiny 2nd grade boys hauling huge cinder blocks or digging out the side of the hill to insert steps. I find this involvement in the school and its upkeep very beneficial to the students who then respect and appreciate their school. I do sometimes worry about their safety with the construction though.

In the next block of morning classes grade levels will rotate through my english class. I found that the morning schedule really revolves around my class since the bell is manually rung only by my students exiting the class. I dont think the bell is used at all when I'm not at the school. Time at the school runs on daily events rather than a schedule. When the students aren't in english class they are maybe working from workbooks, cleaning something, or the older students helping prepare lunch. Everyday it seems like my students receive a small cooking lesson (which sometimes I wish I could join!).

Lunch is then served with the menu usually being sticky rice, steamed veggies, fish soup, somtam salad, fried egg, and pork. However frog and chicken feet occasionally pop up too! After the teachers are done eating my 5th and 6th grade students are in charge of washing all the teachers dishes and cooking bowls.In the picture you can see the wash tubs that are usually surrounded by dogs looking for leftover scraps. The afternoon I teach Kindergarden-2nd grade and the older students play sports, scrub floors, or work on their prized vegtable garden they started a few weeks ago. Here is a video of my students one afternoon working in the garden.

Drying rack of students family style lunch plates

The end of the school runs similarly to the morning assembly but without the drums and flag. Students line up say a prayer, thank the teacher, and are then excused to go home. The time for this also varies greatly on the teachers after school plans.

I find myself usually conflicted with the my student's school routine. On one side I think it is great that the students are involved in the upkeep of the school, how respectful they are to the teachers, and the flexibilty in the school schedule. If something important comes up or could be benefical to the students the schedule should be able to change unlike the strict American school system dictating teachers every lesson plan. However there is a severe downside to the Thai way. I feel like the teachers sometime take too much advantage of their "power". One afternoon my students were washing a teachers car or how they scrub the floors every week instead of being taught. My students are learning valuable skills such as growing vegetables but as far as more academic learning seems to be missing or involved classroom teaching. This is part of the culture of Thai Teaching that we as volunteers are hopefully modeling for the rest of school on how to make classroom learning fun, meaningful and relevant to the student's lives. Recently I was notified that the school board was coming to observe me teach at PlaPak Noi and videotape my english lessons to use as example for other thai teachers. Even though I hate to be videotaped or observed teaching for that matter, I'm happy that the school board is taking note to how we teach without a the use of a workbook and are willing to incorporate new teaching strategies.

Another day in the Classroom

Today at PlaPak Noi, I decided to do a crazy art day with my 31 Aaunaban(Kinder), P.1, and P.2 students. The very limited time I have seen some of my co-teachers in the classroom (most of the time students are roaming around playing sports or doing chores) the teachers are sitting in chairs while the students copy from workbooks. I want to make sure my students are having fun while also learning so my goal is to try to integrate some art style teaching lessons into our unit themes. My youngest students have had very few experiences with art and I'm not talking about the meticulous art with rulers and copying images in which yes they have a lot of practice with that. You can guarantee everything you write on the board with my older students will be copied EXACTLY, even random marks on the board or if you run out of room and continue underneath. Thai students are taught to copy and they are good at it. Because of this, I wanted to do a creative, messy, "hands-on" art project. I realize these types of projects do require materials which my schools can sometimes not afford but we can still be creative with the materials that are available.

For the past few weeks my A, P.1 and P.2 students have been working hard at learning body parts. We have been singing "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" "Hokey Pokey", using pipe cleaners and foam letters to spell out words and practicing the phrase "Where is your__(arm)__? My_(arm)__ is here.". Today I decided to do paint hand prints. Judging by the reaction of their faces I don't think they have ever had paint on their hands before. "Messy projects" aren't very thai. Most of the time when students are drawing they have a ruler in hand to make sure all their lines are perfectly straight. I wanted to try and break some of that mold and show different ways students can process information while also having fun. When I put the paint on their hands (with a spoon, no paint brush!) most of them squealed with excitement and a few were actually a little nervous about it. The paint was very thick like chalk which was pretty funny trying to spread it around with a spoon. After they made their print they ran around showing their friends their nice green hand. This could seem like a pretty ordain project for most American children but it was a special for my students.

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While some students were getting their hands painting another group was making rice letters. To make letters they glued rice on to a piece of paper then wrote the corresponding body part Ex. H-head E-ear L- leg. Rice covered the floor by the end of class, but it was fun and got them writing.

Overall I had a great day teaching and am still finding splatters of green paint on me! With all that said it might be a little while until I bring out the paint with them because it was exhausting. At dinner tonight Amanda was telling me how she was trying to explain to her Thai teachers how tiring it can be for us teaching and adjusting to a new culture. I think many times they forget that our day isn't the same as theirs and even the simplest activity requires a great amount of time and energy for us trying to explain. This of course goes along with we aren't lounged out on fold out chairs while we are teaching but are jumping around trying to act out the procedures or repeating ourselves 10x with the simplest "write your name." or direction of "come here". Teaching days can be quite exhausting mainly because any type of communication I try to have, even with my co-teachers, is very difficult. I talk in slow fragmented sentences most of the day with the small amount of Thai I am slowly learning "Saturday..go..nakhon phanom...volunteers...fun". Sometimes I enjoy the break during my lunch where they sit and talk thai and I can zone out for awhile and relax, however I always feel like they are talking about me! hahah oh well. Here is to another great Tuesday!

My P.6 at Wang Yang very concentrated at "fishing for letters" game after school on Monday.

*Game my parents sent to me last week, Thank you!

Gkai, Gkai, Gkai....no TURKEY!

I thought I'd attempt to give my students a small cultural lesson on Thanksgiving, nothing too detailed. It was quite a challenge to explain but I went with it anyways. I had pictures of pilgrims, native americans, a boat, turkey, corn, and potatoes. Using a map I acted out how the pilgram went on a boat and sailed to America to meet the natives. They said, "Hello, hello. How are you?" became friends and ate a dinner that consisted of Turkey.Thats about how far I went. There are chickens about everywhere you look in PlaPak wandering the streets sometimes with little chicks following them or one under a basket that will be tonight's dinner so the word Turkey they thought for sure was Gkai (chicken) in Thai. After several attempts of trying to explain that it wasn't a chicken even after having them look it up in a dictionary they were still walking around saying gkai, gkai, gkai....oh well. I had my younger students make hand print turkey labeling the colors of the feathers and my older students write one sentence of "I am thankful for____." I translated "thankful" in Thai so they could understand and I ended up getting answers of I am thankful for: animals, apples, tennis, soccer, sister, family, rabbits, and guava...? humm

For my students at plapak noi I had make Indian and Pilgram hats to wear around at school. They thought this was a blast. By the end of the day the whole school was walking around as a pilgram or indian even if they had no idea what it was for. It definitely made my day feel like Thanksgiving even though my thanksgiving dinner consisted of...you guessed it, RICE! It was fried rice which is very yummy so I wont complain. Tomorrow I'm having a thanksgiving feast with the other volunteers where supposedly no rice allowed!

Here are my adorable Indians and Pilgrim students who I'm very thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving!

Thai Teaching

Today was our first day of Practicum Teaching before the start of the second semester. In typical Thai fashion our day got off to an usual start when we showed up at our school to find no one there. Confused, we called our field director, who then called the english director, and notified us that he had gotten the days mixed up. The Thai teachers were notified that we were at the shool and around 15 student ranging from 1st-6th grade trickled into the classroom around 40 minutes later than our scheduled start time. Originally, we were suppose to have 2 separate class (divided grades 1-3 and 4-6th) but since only 15 students showed we decided to combine our lesson plans with the other group and improvise a class.

Our class was a success and the students and volunteer teachers had a blast! We started out with teacher introductions, then moved on to have the students create name cards for their desks. After attempting to pronounce their names such as Euu and doondtaan, I know it'll be awhile till I get them all down. Having such a wide range of ages in one class the other group (Sarah, Peter, and Kerry) had planned an ABC activity singing Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with each student being in charge of raising a letter when it came up in the song. Next, Rita, from my planning group did a lesson on weather practicing vocabulary such as Sunny, Windy, Raining, and Cloudy. I was extremely impressed by the english knowledge of the students many already knowing the phonetics of the alphabet, colors, and weather. To end our lesson we played the infamous game of Duck Duck Goose (but changed the words to Down Down, Up: to aide their vocabulary) *Shown in video above . The students loved this game with one little boy laughing and smiling so much he could barely say the words.

Overall it was a great first intro day to teaching and has made me so excited for the beginning of school. The children are so wonderful and polite. For example as I placed a paper down on each child's desk for them to create a name tag they Wai (hangs together in lotus/prayer position) and huge smiles across their faces when they learned they would be using markers. The classroom materials are at a bare minimum and the black chaulk board almost crumbling and hard to read. I know being creative and having fun with teaching this next year will be key to a successful classroom!

Here are some of my students: