Thai Teaching

Kids are kids, are kids, are kids. That being said, there is a world of difference form kids on this side of the world, and the ones in Benton, Maine. This shouldn’t be shocking as growing up in Surat Thani has maybe three or four things in common with growing up in Benton, but the bigger difference is the schools themselves, and what I am doing at them. In the states, even as a substitute, your job is to keep the classroom environment a reasonably calm, structured level for a learning environment, but this is not the case as an ESL teacher in Thailand. Here the every day teachers still prowl the lines of desks holding rulers or switches ready to rap the knuckles of any ill behaved child. The style of learning revolves around sitting quietly and repeating, or copying what the teacher says or puts on the board. Thus, when a goofy foreigner comes into the room and starts behaving strangely there is an almost palpable release of tension from the kids and they go off the deep end a little. Screaming, walking around, and even occasionally actually paying attention are all common responses.

When you first walk in to the class room kids are talking enough to create a dull roar, and by the time you are about five feet into the class room a small voice pipes up above the rest, “Stand up pleeease”. Suddenly, the noise stopes, chairs or benches scrape and the class is standing, “Gooood morning Teacher”. Suddenly, they are not only standing, but staring expectantly at you. “Good morning class, how are you today?” What happens next depends on the age group, in P3 and up students will respond “I am fine thank-you, and you?” but in P1 and P2 the kids respond, “I am happy… (all fifty, in perhaps the most rehearsed expression of joy ever throw their arms up and wave them twice)”. The next thing you must say is “thank-you class, you may sit down now.” If you do not say this, the children will remain standing, I’m not sure for how long, but I have a suspicion that it might be the entire class. From this point on in the class there must constantly be crazy, exciting, funny or loud things happen or the class is lost to you. I started off making lesson plans, but pretty quickly realized that what you actually need is a routine. It seems like very little actual learning went on, which distressed me at first. But, I quickly realized that if you are seeing a class of 50 P1-P6s only once a week for one hour, you cannot deliver a lesson and expect retention. The best you can do is keep them entertained and using English for the hour that you are there.

Also, we had a freaking monsoon day... It made me curious what would happen if they got snow. probably apocalypse.