Waking up late due to lack of sleep and stress definitely did not prep my day off to a great start. But as the group of new teachers headed over to the school ground and stood on the quad waiting for the morning ceremony (not too sure what the official name for it is), I began to feel so overwhelmed. The Thai flag began to rise with the national anthem playing the background and as I stood there seeing the little kids sing along I began to realise that this moment could mark the first day of what could be many for me as an Educator; this could be the first day the marks where I end up in life and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. After everything that has happened this year, and experiencing moments where this all seemed like a dream more than reality, I was so happy that I had finally reached the goal and began the adventure I've been waiting for since February; to be a certified English teacher working overseas. What is my life?!
Thankfully I will only be observing a few classes this week, just to kind of get a feel for the school and get my bearings. I met with the rest of the EP and MLP departments (EP students have all their classes in English whilst MLP have just English classes for 2 hours a week) and it was nice to be able to speak to some fellow brits who had been teaching out here for many many years. My first observation was with a teacher from Liverpool called Carl and his group of around 20 Secondary 3 (Year 9 as we would call it). In my section, I would be teaching around double that amount in my classes but it was to at least get a sense of how the children behave in the classes. Funnily enough, the class I shadowed were being quite "rowdy", but I would deem that a normal class. They spent pretty much the entirety of the lesson writing an essay on "What they did on their holidays" which pretty much consisted of kids writing little to no english or just copying off each other. It was so interesting to see that for a class that is deemed to have more advanced English skills, they are still very much lagging behind in their grasp of grammar and tenses - instead of writing "I went to Bangkok" they would write "I go to Bangkok". If thats what its going to be like in that class, then I really have no idea how much English learning my classes of about 50 are going to understand...
My timetable consists of 18 lessons a week, which equates to about 20/22 hours a week. Classes begin at 8:30am and finish at 4:45! Luckily for me, I get to finish at half 3 but have to stay on campus; a good opportunity to use the free gym or pool! Compared to British schools, I have free periods throughout the day which allows me to plan and mark work without having to do it when I finish (totally taking that as a luxury as I know that's not how it works in the UK!). Overall, the structure here is a looser than that of the UK and the respect for their teacher is just incredibly different - their naughtiest of kids are loud and don't listen but you will never expect backchat or violence. What is most interesting is the fact that the students also take their shoes off before entering the class, and their uniforms are different depending on the age, day and level (I think?). Also, kids will bow (or wai as it is known here) to you when you walk around campus, and some will come up to you and want to talk to you. After walking on the quad this afternoon, a student stopped me and wanted to know my name and where I was from; being the only teacher in the whole school from Wales, I think he was confused as he had never heard of that country before - its pretty much all English, Irish, Indian and Filipino teachers who teach English here. But regardless, he seemed genuinely interested in wanting to talk to me and after finding out I could potentially be his teacher, it was nice to see that I broke the ice with a student. I can't wait to start my own classes where I will become more recognised and actually put all my preparation and previous experience from camp etc. into practice.
The only downside to all this excitement at the moment is the downtime, like I said it will be nice when I have work to mark and lessons to plan but right now I'm really struggling to find ways to use this time productively - just because there is nothing to do. Earlier on today, we decided to play Heads Up and Hangman in our staff room which was fun and definitely killed time for a good hour. The problem is that when I'm sitting around doing nothing, thats when the tiredness kicks in. The heat doesn't help either - it gets so warm around early afternoon here (easily low-mid 30s) and when you're wearing a suit, I feel like I'm melting; the sweat is just dripping off me (sorry guys...). As I write this, I'm sitting in the staff awaiting for my fingerprints to be taken; they are used to clock in and out of work. That is the only thing that is between ending this pretty quiet first day of work. Can't complain though, I could be sat at home doing nothing so why not do it in a 30 degree heat eh?
Will update on the weekend. ลาก่อน สำหรับตอนนี้ (Lā k̀xn s̄ảh̄rạb txn nī̂/Bye for now)
My timetable consists of 18 lessons a week, which equates to about 20/22 hours a week. Classes begin at 8:30am and finish at 4:45! Luckily for me, I get to finish at half 3 but have to stay on campus; a good opportunity to use the free gym or pool! Compared to British schools, I have free periods throughout the day which allows me to plan and mark work without having to do it when I finish (totally taking that as a luxury as I know that's not how it works in the UK!). Overall, the structure here is a looser than that of the UK and the respect for their teacher is just incredibly different - their naughtiest of kids are loud and don't listen but you will never expect backchat or violence. What is most interesting is the fact that the students also take their shoes off before entering the class, and their uniforms are different depending on the age, day and level (I think?). Also, kids will bow (or wai as it is known here) to you when you walk around campus, and some will come up to you and want to talk to you. After walking on the quad this afternoon, a student stopped me and wanted to know my name and where I was from; being the only teacher in the whole school from Wales, I think he was confused as he had never heard of that country before - its pretty much all English, Irish, Indian and Filipino teachers who teach English here. But regardless, he seemed genuinely interested in wanting to talk to me and after finding out I could potentially be his teacher, it was nice to see that I broke the ice with a student. I can't wait to start my own classes where I will become more recognised and actually put all my preparation and previous experience from camp etc. into practice.
The only downside to all this excitement at the moment is the downtime, like I said it will be nice when I have work to mark and lessons to plan but right now I'm really struggling to find ways to use this time productively - just because there is nothing to do. Earlier on today, we decided to play Heads Up and Hangman in our staff room which was fun and definitely killed time for a good hour. The problem is that when I'm sitting around doing nothing, thats when the tiredness kicks in. The heat doesn't help either - it gets so warm around early afternoon here (easily low-mid 30s) and when you're wearing a suit, I feel like I'm melting; the sweat is just dripping off me (sorry guys...). As I write this, I'm sitting in the staff awaiting for my fingerprints to be taken; they are used to clock in and out of work. That is the only thing that is between ending this pretty quiet first day of work. Can't complain though, I could be sat at home doing nothing so why not do it in a 30 degree heat eh?
Will update on the weekend. ลาก่อน สำหรับตอนนี้ (Lā k̀xn s̄ảh̄rạb txn nī̂/Bye for now)
No comments:
Post a Comment