Our
first day of work was on a Friday, an odd day to start the school
year, but nice to have the weekend to assess the classes and create
lesson plans. The workday began at 7:45am, we clocked in, I went to
the staff room in the Prathom building (elementary), and Ryan went to
the Mathom building (middle/high school). When I got to the staff
room I immediately found the fellow foreign teachers. There were
three guys, one from Canada and two from England. They had all been
working there a few years or more, so they knew the system. I would
be working with Daniel. We had the same schedule, except he taught
social studies and I taught health. The way it worked, we would both
walk to the homeroom of each class we had, and we would divide the
class in half. I would take students 1-24 (group A), and he would
take students 24-50 (group B). There are four classes to each grade
level, and there are six grade levels, all of them which we split in
half, which means I only see each class once every two weeks. As far
as lesson planning goes, this makes it easy on me, since I only have
to plan a lesson every two weeks, but for the students it doesn’t
seem like a very good strategy. How are students suppose to remember
what they are taught in a fifty minute lesson if they only see me
once every two weeks? Some aspects of Thai teaching re very different
from the United States. For example, because I work at a private
school and parents pay for their children education, they expect
their students to receive all passing grades. So it is against the
rules of the administration to give any students below passing
grades, even if the student refuses to do any work. The laid back
life style of Thai culture is also very prevalent in the school
system. It is so laid back that it can definitely be seen as
unorganized and not prepared. On the first day my classroom changed
three times. At first I was to move classrooms every time I taught,
and then I was told I would be teaching in the staff office, and
finally I was placed in my own room. I was so grateful for this. The
room was large, with plenty of desks, an open area, and whiteboards.
The only downside was there was no air conditioning, but I wasn’t
going to complain because I had my own room, which was a lot more
than most of the other foreign teachers got. The first Friday of
teaching I was suppose to have taught five classes, but only ended up
teaching one. Every class I went to to pick up my students their Thai
teacher said that they were behind schedule with their class, and
that they wouldn’t have time to make it to my class. I was a little
disappointed that I didn’t get to teach, but was also happy for
that time to clean up the classroom and perfect my lessons. One of
the things that is definitely different about teaching in Thailand is
the resources. I went to the office to ask for paper, and they were
hesitant to give me any. Finally they gave me a small stack of white
paper from the photocopy machine. I got the impression that if I
needed any materials I would have to buy them myself. While I was in
the office getting paper, the head of administration for Pathom
greeted me. She looked at my outfit; a long blue skirt that went down
to my ankles, and a white long sleeve button up blouse, and told me
that my skirt was too long. I thought this was funny, because I wore
the exact same outfit when I saw her a week ago in the interview, and
she told me my outfit was fine. The school is an all girls catholic
school, and I knew that they would be finicky about dress code, but I
never thought they would have told me my skirt was too long. Almost
all of the staff at the school don’t know a word of English, so
communication is difficult and nearly impossible. For that reason, I
am happy there are other foreign teachers who have been there a while
who can answer some of my questions. When lunch time came around I
made my way over to the Mathom building with the other teachers where
we went to the staff cafeteria and were served a free lunch. The
lunch was rice, chicken, and cucumbers. I found an open table and sat
down. Ryan joined me shortly after and we told each other about our
day. Like me, he hadn’t taught any classes yet. Earlier in the
morning there was a school assembly that I didn’t know about, but
Ryan went to. He said that in the assembly all of the new teachers
got up on stage to introduce himself, and he was the only white
person among a line of Thai people. One by one they passed the
microphone, everyone spoke in Thai, and when Ryan got the microphone
he introduced himself and said what grades he was teaching. When he
did this, the girls in all of his grade levels, began to scream and
cheer, like he was a celebrity. When he told me this I was so
disappointed that I wasn't there to see, or to be on stage and
introduce myself as well, but the foreign teachers in the prathom
building didn’t go to the assembly, so I was unaware that there was
one. When we finished lunch we washed our dishes. This is one aspect
of Thai culture that I think should be in American culture. All of
the students and teachers wash their own dishes after their meals.
Outside the cafeteria there is a washing station where you wash,
rinse, and leave your dishes on a rack to dry. When we finished I
said bye to Ryan and made my way back to the Prathom building where I
taught my first and only class of the day, fifth graders. They were a
fun group, and because they were older they understood enough English
where I could play games with them. We played musical chairs, four
corners, and introduced ourselves. At 3:30pm we clocked out, and made
the short walk back to our apartment. Although Ryan and I only taught
one class each, we had a great day, and know we will enjoy our
teaching experience.
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