On Teaching..UPDATE

Since reforming my attitude on teaching to be less hardcore drill-sergeant and more fun older sister-style, I am reinvigorated and in love with teaching. Since no teachers (hhh-rumph) come to relieve me or are ever around in the classroom, I have been staying a few extra hours whenever I don’t have commitments to be in other classrooms.

My schedule has me teaching 15 hours a week with 4 grades., but it’s closer to 25 hours because whenever there is a room without a teacher and I am free, I walk right in and start teaching!

I see my youngest students in Pratom 1 the most frequently, but I don’t mind. It is really hard to only see the Pratom 4 students three times a week however, especially because they scheduled two classes on Thursdays. If a student is absent, as they often are, they have missed at least two hours of English. This is awful if I have taught all new material or even if I am just reviewing old material.
Today I got ready to leave for school as usual at 8am with MaReam. While driving the big ass truck, she pulled over after a friend flagged her down. This woman taught at the other elementary school in Sanamklee; a school with only 6 grades and 46 students. We have 9 grades and around 150 students! We gave her a ride and although I had class at 9:30 and it was already 8:30 I agreed to do my usual “come meet the American” routine. I was introduced to all the teachers and greeted students doing the usual morning chant on the lawn (sing Thai anthem and other We Love the King stuff). I awkwardly talked, they stared and then the teachers said: Teach them English! So, I went with it and started “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” in my beautiful crackily voice. They absolutely loved it, especially when I went really REALLY fast to trip them up. I was having so much fun I lost track of time and had to make sure MaReam stepped on it to make it to class on time.

There are so many four day weekends that I can never completely count on having class. For example, today, Friday the 17th, Nhaca’s students (the older ones) didn’t have class because policemen came to the school to talk about motorcycle safety. They were “busy” from 8-3, no time for class! BIZZARE.

Also bizarre was that the meeting was held in our outdoor cafeteria so Nhaca could literally watch her students…watch a powerpoint. There was also free ice-cream? I mean, it was great, but really? I had all three flavors at MaReam’s request, coffee, coconut, and corn. Interesting!

My Pratom 3 Class was 25 minutes late. Unacceptable. They dawdled after lunch with the policemen-related festivities. I thought about scolding them, but they are 8 years old. We ended up writing brief letters and coloring while I played some N’Sync on my laptop. The kids LOVE the laptop. The therapeutic benefits of coloring are good for Teacher Deven’s soul. There were also lots of hugs from behind. Cute.