My School

There have been so many holidays here that every post has been about something unusual, so I feel like it's time for me to describe my everyday life here. I work at a school called Tessaban Baan Bo-Fai. I take a fifteen minute songtow northward every morning, and then walk for five minutes once I reach the Bo-Fai village. Sometimes one of the other teachers will see me waiting for the songtow, and will stop and give me a ride on her motorbike. I need to be at school by eight for the morning assembly. The assembly is (obviously) in Thai, so I usually space out. They play the national anthem and raise the flag, make some announcements, and then do aerobics. Aerobics! It's hilarious.

After assembly, I wait for kindergarten to finish their milk break, and then I teach either K1, K2, or K3. I lead them in a rousing rendition of Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes or I review colors or the alphabet. Then I help them fill out their English worksheet of the day. They are always tons of fun, and indescribably cute. Sometimes I wish I could teach Kindergarten all day long. During the rest of the day, I teach one to three other classes. Our school goes from kindergarten through grade six, and I see each class about two times a week. I have a very vague syllabus to follow, and the kids have books, and there are tons of picture cards that I can use, so I'm actually pretty well supplied with materials.

Class usually goes pretty well. I have a co-teacher. Her name is Chrystal (she was born in America, hence the American name) and she teaches English. The picture at the top shows Chrystal and me with some of the students. Most schools in Thailand have a Thai English teacher, but they really like to bring in Farang teachers because we have fluency and desirable accents. Sometimes Chrystal helps to translate when the kids don't understand my instructions, and she also helps with classroom management when the kids get a little crazy. This is how classroom management works in Thailand: the kids are getting a little noisy. If it's first or second grade, a handful of kids have started getting out of their seats or are hitting each other. The teacher grabs a stick and bangs it on the desks until the kids shut up and sit down. If there are still problems, then the kids get some smacks. The teachers at my school don't hit the kids a lot, but they do occasionally, and at some other schools it happens all the time. Julia, one of the other girls in our program, asked her co-teacher for help with the first-graders, and the co-teacher told her that she just needed to hit them. Luckily, at my school, no one expects me to hit the kids, and usually Chrystal is in the classroom to help out. When Chrystal isn't in the room, I do my best to use various methods of positive reinforcement, but it can be difficult when the language barrier is so huge. I have no way of explaining to my 45 first-graders, "if you get five stickers, then you get a prize!" In general, things are going well, though. I try to keep things as interactive as possible, and get the kids talking. It's hard because they know a lot of nouns, but can't really construct any sentences. Hopefully I'll help them make some progress.

Outside of class, the kids couldn't be sweeter. Everywhere I go, "Good morning, teachaah!" "Good aftanoon, teachaah!" "How are you, teachaah?" That's about all they can say, but I appreciate it. The kindergarten kids see me and yell "Koon Kru Lala!" ("kru" means teacher) and then they wave and giggle a lot and run away. I get called "Lala" about as often as I get called "Laura" since the "r" can be hard to pronounce.

I'm usually done with school at 3:30, except on the days when I am teaching an English class for teachers. This is supposed to happen once a week, but has only actually happened once so far, since people are always making excuses and then not showing up. My co-teacher and the school director are the only teachers at my school who speak English well, so I often get frustrated with my inability to communicate. I'm working on my Thai, but I have not gotten very far yet.

So that's about it. I enjoy my job. Friday was another unusual school day because Saturday was children's day, so we had a bunch of games for the kids. Then on Saturday, there was a big celebration at the Sip Go Rai park. I was voluntold to emcee a performance of the chicken dance at the celebration, and that was pretty fun. Every school had a student performance, and our coordinator, Amy, runs a Saturday school for learning English, Chinese, and Thai. Her students did a Chinese dance, then sang the John Lennon song "Imagine" and then danced the chicken dance. It was entertaining. Yay Children's Day!