I started school in Thailand on Monday, and it was a great day! I introduced myself correctly (I think) to the students, and didn’t commit too many thai faux pas – with the exception of not taking off my shoes when I went into my Paaw Aaw’s office…oops! No one said anything, so I hope they didn’t notice.
Not knowing the ability of my students or my actual schedule, I didn’t prepare too much for the lessons I would teach. I knew I would introduce the rules and try to gauge their letter sense and sentence building with a game of Hangman. I teach m.1 – m.6…the equivalent of grades 7-12. The first class I taught was m.3 and it went really well. The students also asked if I would be their advisor. After not being able to figure out what that means in terms of responsibilities, I agreed anyway and received loud cheers of approval from the students. I hope I didn’t get myself into something I cannot do because of time/language restraints.
My other classes went just as well, and I enjoyed meeting all the teachers at my school. The school is very small, so there are only about 10 teachers, only 6 of whom I have frequent contact with. There are about 140 students, so class sizes aren’t too big considering Thai standards. M.1- m.3 classes are larger, with probably 30 students. But after m.3, school is not mandatory so my m.5 class has only 9 students, and my m.6 has only 6 students, which will make these classes more intimate and probably allow me to do different things.
I see each class twice a week, so I only teach 12 classes (for now, they’ve already added a 13th which may or may not be permanent) a week. Due to the relatively low English level of my students, I can teach the same lesson to all of the classes with only a few minor changes based on grade level. This gives me A LOT of planning time. For instance, this morning when I came to school I had 4 hours before teaching my first lesson. Most of the other teachers have similar schedules, so many like to come to my desk and practice their English. I showed them pictures from home, and they all tried to plan when they would come to the states for a visit! Eventually, I’ll try to set up a time or two each week during school for English practice with the other teachers. Also, I can bring my own computer to school and plan here, while chatting online to friends back home, or downloading a TV show I can then watch before going to bed. There seems to be limited materials for me to use, as my students don’t have English workbooks and the teachers seem to bring their own paper to use in the printer and copier.
So far, I have always had a Thai teacher in the room with me while I teach, as requested in our contracts. This technically isn’t necessary, and I’m hoping they’ll eventually ease up. Many of the teachers translate a lot of what I say to the students, which is helpful right now, but will probably hinder student learning in the long run. That being said, the teachers are so eager to learn English I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to attend as many of my classes as they can.
My Paaw Aaw is great. He looks a little like the guy from the Dharma videos on LOST, so naturally I was a little scared of him at first. But he’s a great guy. He has his own office, but spends most of his time in the teacher’s room hanging out. He brought me presents on the first day: a lighted Thailand paperweight, a beaded belt, and my personal favorite – 3 bright pink frilly curtains to cover up the beautiful wooden windows of my home. Such is life in Thailand.
For lunch each day, all the teachers contribute something, and we eat family style in the teacher’s room, Paaw Aaw included. It is really nice, because it helps me get to know the other teachers better. Yesterday we ate Som Tam, a spicy papaya salad which is a staple in the Isan diet. The som tam I have had thus far has all been milder, but of course this one wasn’t. My mouth was on fire! Luckily, there was plenty of fresh fish to wash it all down with. The food here isn’t bad, and I’ve been successful at trying everything without getting sick, but I can sense myself getting sick of rice and soup. Thankfully I can make my own breakfast, so the pb+j sandwiches help to even out all the other food I’ve been eating.
Nit, my host mom, is great! She is very friendly and so concerned with how I am doing. She always asks me if I have good dreams and if there is anything that she can do for me. My host father, Loi, is busy with his brothers finishing my bathroom, complete with a western toilet! I’m excited about that, even though I’ve gotten used to the whole squatting thing. The men at home are also busy caulking all the gaps in the wood of my house to keep the bugs and geckos out. So far neither has been a problem at all, but I appreciate their concern.
Tomorrow through Saturday I will be going on some sort of Buddhist retreat (I think – translation about these plans were rough to say the least). Nit brought me to Tesco to buy a lot of white clothes and she said we were going to be with nature, so this is my best guess about what is going on. I’d communicated that I’d rather not be missing school, but I don’t have much choice in the matter. That’s going to be the hardest thing to get used to – not having as much control over myself as I’m accustomed. Someone says “go,” I go. Someone says “eat,” I eat. It will be hard to get used to, but its also allowing me to have some truly unique experiences – the retreat this weekend is sure to be the same!
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