SOooooooooooooo, a general update of life and teaching in Thailand-

I had absolutely no idea what to expect before coming here.  I have travelled quite a bit, but never in Asia, and although I had worked in classrooms, I had never written lesson plans nor led any classes.  I wanted a challenge and let me tell you it has not disappointed! haha.

The Thai education system is..... different and I have encountered so many things that make very little sense to me.  It seems like the schools are much more concerned with show versus quality education.  Every morning we have an assembly with all 3500 kids, where they sing the national anthem, recite a few prayers for the king, and then go on these long tangents that I don't understand, but when I ask what they are talking about, it is the MOST mundane topics, like smiling for photos, or singing along to certain songs, etc.  And they spend 10-20 minutes talking about this stuff.  A lot of effort is also put into holidays and celebrations like Wai Kru, and Sunthorn Phu, like A LOT.  Concerts, games, decorations, and usually the whole school takes the day off.  Another indication of their concern for their appearance comes from their uniforms.  All Thai students must wear uniforms but they have specific ones for specific days of the week.   And they are somewhat intricate, the boys wear tassels around their socks, they were enameled pins, and neck scarves, and silly hats and what not.  I will admit they do look official!  These are just a few examples of many.

The actual efficiency and unglamorous side of the schools is a whole other story.  I will start from the beginning.  Upon arriving in Kalasin, we (the other English teachers and I) were not informed of what grade we would be teaching until 2 days before school began.   Upon receiving this information, we were then given free reign about what we specifically wanted to teach.  Although I do appreciate the freedom this provides, it also poses many quandaries.  In terms of English curriculum, there is no national standard or guideline to work with.  So every school, every grade, even every class, has drastically different levels of English.  This makes creating a lesson plan rather challenging, and what is just right for one class may be way too easy or too hard for the next class of the same grade.  I have absolutely no idea what my students were previously taught in their English classes, and therefore have no way of knowing what information is new and relevant.

Because of this, the only option is to determine their level of English upon entering the classroom.  But even this is difficult simply due to class size.   Almost all of my classes are 50 students.  FIFTY STUDENTS.  Fifty bloody seventh graders.  To actively engage and have every student listening and speaking is practically impossible especially when you are dealing with hormone riddled 7^th graders….  No but seriously, its a zoo, its complete pandemonium.   On top of that, I only meet with each class once a week, so the minimal information I am able to convey during a 50 minute period is most likely forgotten by the time I see them again the next week. 

Some of you may have seen my facebook status about the shortage of English teachers at my school.  We currently have 4, when normally there should be six.  I think our school was hoping to find those teachers within the first few weeks of school but unfortunately this did not happen.  In week 4 of the semester, we had a meeting with P’ Tommy, one of the faculty in the Foreign Language Department.  We initially spoke about our experiences in the classroom so far, but the conversation soon turned to the English teacher shortage issue.  Basically, the semester was rapidly moving forward with no sign of new teachers, so P’ Tommy asked if we would take on the extra grades that still did not have a Foreign English teacher.  We all were currently teaching about the maximum number of classes our contract allows, between 16-18.  By taking on these extra classes, we now teach TWENTY FOUR classes a week, all different.  I will now be going from about ~750 students to ~1300 students.  JIMENY CRICKETSSSSSSS.  We recieve overtime pay, which totals about 5600 Baht a month, but there is no getting around the fact that it is absolutely exhausting.  

The school is well aware of the compromise that is being made.  There is no way I can teach 24 classes with the same efficiency and dedication I could with 16 (even that is a lot), simply because there is not enough time in the day.  All my free time during the work day the first few weeks was spent printing, lesson planning and grading work.  We told P’ Tommy that we logistically cannot do a worksheet every week, to which he said that was fine.  A good amount of my classes will now consist of games, and other activities that do not require written work.  I am happy to help out, because it is clear our school is desperate, but I also want to provide the students with actual work and challenges.

This past week, I came to the realization that this work environment (along with adapting to living in a new country) is actually extremely stressful for me and has taken its tole physically.  I don't sleep very well, my skin has been pretty bad, and I have constant mouth sores!!!! (that is how stress manifests itself in me personally)  Like perpetual, I don't remember a time when I haven't had a canker sore as of late.  Along with the physical aspect it appears my mind has been in lala land, I kid you not.  I consider myself to be somewhat average in terms of forgetfulness back home, maybe slightly less forgetful than most on the forgetfulness scale.  Since being here, its like I'm a different person.... I am SO FORGETFUL, it's just as ridiculous as it is infuriating.  I have left my phone places, my wallet places, my sunglasses places,  I have locked myself out and lost my credit card.  I hate having to be dependent on others and affecting others with my stupidity and I have been doing more than I would like of that here.  Knowing that I am not like this at home makes all the worse, because providing excuses only makes you look like a real turd.  I wasn't even aware of this stress because it is very subtle.  But looking back, all the signs are there!  

Now that I am aware of this stress, I can take action to combat it.  The whole teaching thing has definitely gotten easier as I have gotten to know my students, figured out English levels, figured out what activities work in the class, and and have built relationships with my students.  I must tell myself that this is such a short commitment (literally though, I only have 2.5 more months left) and that there is no point to stress.  I have begun designing lesson plans that decrease my speaking time and increase the students.  Knowing how the classrooms work has better allowed me to plan accordingly.  Having a strong lesson plan is key.  

BUT GUYS.  My students, M1's in particular.  My sweet sweet students.  I love them so much.  I have bonded with them.  The first few weeks, both the students and I were a tad uncertain about each other yet as the semester has progressed, we have all gotten more comfortable and truly become friends.  I have discovered that the weirder the noises I make, and the stranger the facial expressions, the more engaged they are.  There is a direct correlation between how stupid I look and how much they pay attention.  I am not kidding, they eat it up!  After multiple comparisons to Jim Carey, I can finally put my excessive facial expressions to use.  This is a ramble, I'm sorry.

They are just so genuine and sweet, I can't explain it.  I have been teaching hobbies for the past few weeks, and one of the words was "laughing" so I told my kids to give me their weirdest, most evil laughs. OMG it was hilarious.  The fake laughter quickly turned into real laughter, I had tears in my eyes.  And every time I come into class they stand up and greet me with the standard "good morning teacher" "good morning!  How are you" "am good and you?" "I'm good!  Okay have a seat" and it just melts my heart how discombobulated and out of sync the greeting is.  Like they have only good intentions and they sound like a band of baboons.  It genuinely makes me laugh.  When I ask them questions, they get all nervous and you can tell they really really want to do well, and they get this serious look of concentration on their sweet little faces.  Even if their pronunciation or grammar was not quite right, I always respond positively with a smile on my face, both because I want them to feel confident when speaking English, and because I can't help it.  When I have leftover time in a class, I will just hang out with them, and we have the best time!  And the little boys who have yet to hit puberty OH MY GOD.  How can a creature be so cute.  They are TINY!!!!!!!!! And they have the highest voices, and still untouched by that dastardly testosterone haha.  They are just balls of smiley sweetness. Ahhhhh!!!

This whole rant sounds so gushy and overly sweet but I'm telling you this is truly how I feel, I'm not trying to be overly joyous for people back home.  Working with these kids has brought me such joy, and I feel empathy and compassion every day that I am in the class with them.  As the weeks have gotten easier, I am like gee, I don't really want to leave these kids.  I am still planning on coming home after 6ish months, but the students are going to make it very very hard.  Also, I just used the word "sweet" way too many times in one paragraph but that word is the very essence of these students.

But yes, as you have read, the majority of my experience so far has been challenging, but the connections I have made with my students has been really really amazing.  YES CORNY, YES COOKIE CUTTER, I DON'T CARE I SPEAK THE TRUTH. K bye