Before coming to Thailand, I worked for the last
year as a residential counselor working with teenage girls in the foster care
system. Needless to say it was an insane
job and by the time a year rolled around, I knew I was ready to leave that
field for good. Being a little naive, I
signed up to teach English in Thailand
thinking it would be a cakewalk compared to my last job. In some ways it is as I’m not being verbally
assaulted or physically threatened but it is SO much more difficult and
stressful than I expected. I teach 22
classes weekly which are made up of all the 8 classes for Prathom 1 and then 7
each for Prathom 2 and 3 (aka 1st,2nd and 3rd
grade. I have each class for one hour
each and usually back to back.
What I’ve learned so far about teaching is that it is
EXHAUSTING! It takes a ridiculous amount
of energy (or coffee in my case) to get through a single day of it. Teaching is hard work and to be good at it,
it takes dedication, enthusiasm and preparation. It’s similar to being an actor having to do
the same live show over and over, giving your all as if every audience is the
first. Most of the time, I feel like I’m
fighting a losing battle. I think
especially with my Prathom 1 classes, I’m going in with a defeated mentality
because it’s just tough to keep them engaged for that long. I try to make the lessons fun by including a
song (imagine me belting out “I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas”
acapella while they all stare at me or worse- ignore me!), some funny pictures
for the vocab words and games. But it
still gets crazy and I have very little control in my 1st grade
classes, to the point where I now have Thai teachers and interns helping me in
all of my Prathom 1 classes…needless to say it’s going a lot smoother now.
I’ve had a teaching epiphany. I realized that I have such trouble with my
Prathom 1 classes because they’re too damn cute! I can walk into Prathom 2 and 3 and be the
scary teacher when I need to be. I yell,
I tear up papers, I move kids and make them sit next to me, I take toys and
rulers away, I give them the glaring “teacher look” and I scold them which is
frankly why those classes go smoother.
For some reason, Prathom 1 is my teaching kryptonite. I walk in there and they look at me with
those big brown eyes and smile with their toothless grins and I just melt. I’m a complete sucker for them and they know
it! The ironic thing is you need to be
more firm and strict with the young ones to keep them on track and to keep any
sense of control in those classrooms.
I’ve learned already the hard way, once you lose the control it is very
hard to get it back.
I was one of those that believed the stereotype that Asian
students treat school with the utmost seriousness particularly compared to their
Western counterparts. I pictured little
angels sitting upright in their chairs with their hands folded neatly on their
desks, sitting quietly and ready to learn.
It has pretty much been anything but that! I also think I was disillusioned just as many of
the expat teachers are, to think that teaching was a side note to traveling
around. That’s really not the case...at
all.
Despite the difficulties, there have been awesome teaching moments where I feel that the majority
of the class was engaged and learned something new and that is one of the best
feelings in the world! I can see why
teachers who are good with classroom management freaking love their jobs.
There have also already been so many comical experiences
with my students inside and outside the classroom. Most of the hilarious moments are because THEY DON’T
UNDERSTAND ME! I try to make it very
simple and speak slowly but at times it goes right over their heads. For example, the
other day I went over the body parts with my first graders. I had slides and then they all had to takes
notes as I talked and pointed to different things like “eye” and “nose” and so
forth. After almost an hour of this, I
get back kid’s papers with noses labeled as necks and fingers as mouths! You just have to laugh.
If you don’t have a good sense of humor, don’t move to
another country and especially don’t teach in one. There are so many moments where I just crack
up because there’s literally nothing else to do. After weeks of classes, one of the only names
I remember is one of my 6 year old’s whose nickname is Beer. I mean, how could you forget Beer? Especially because he’s a first grader. I’m pretty curious how he got that nickname
to begin with as the parents traditionally give out the nicknames.
I’m fortunate enough to have amazing and welcoming Thai
teachers throughout the school and specifically in my English department which
make the hard days easier to handle. They are
amazing and wonderful women and I’m excited to spend time with them and get to
know them better. Oh and did I mention that
I get free delicious Thai lunches at school everyday? That helps too.
Favorite moments with my students thus far:
1) Having
my kids touch my belly and ask if I’m pregnant…the answer is an absolute no!
2) Every
class standing to say “good morning teacha” and sounding like 40+ synchronized
robots.
3) Asking
a question and getting 40 blank stares back (this happens every single day).
4) Attempting
to draw on the board and the hysterical laughs that come as a result…including
from me (see below). I didn’t know that to be a
foreign language teacher you should be a decent artist which as you can see, I’m definitely not.
5) Singing
“head, shoulders, knees and toes” with Prathom 1. They’re so cute and they were giggling like
crazy!
6) Having
a 6 year old tell me in Thai that she got poop on the floor while I was in the
bathroom. EWW!
7) Explaining
and demonstrating Pictionary multiple times and kids still blurting out what
they were drawing. They definitely
didn’t understand my directions…despite the repeated explanations and demos.
8) Being
so mad at a 3rd grade class that I took a girl’s plastic ruler (who
was actually being quiet OOPS!) and smashed it on the desk of a loud obnoxious
kid. Needless to say, I got their
attention.
9) Being
on the phone outside and being encircled by a group of third graders who were
just staring at me and touching me. So
funny!
10) A kid yelling “Toilet! Toilet! Toilet!” as I
walked into the restroom, just to show he knew an English word I think.
11) The naughtiest kids raising hell all through
class and then coming to me with their timid voices and hands in prayer pose
saying “may I go out please?” That’s how
they ask to go to the restroom. It
always annoys me…and makes me laugh at the same time.
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| Yeah, I wasn't kidding. This was my attempt to draw the body!!! I had to take a picture! It looks like an alien or just like a 2 year old drew it :) |
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| Some of my Prathom 1 Kids. They're a crazy bunch. Did you notice my one foreign student? |
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