First Week of Teaching

Sewadee krap! That means hello in Thai. I'm sure you're very disappointed in me because I haven't really told you anything that's happened to me in a really long time! But fear not, I've gotten into a groove so I have more free time to write on this old blog thing.

So it's Thursday of my first week of real teaching. I teach P1-P4 which is like grades 1-4. Let's start with my 1st graders. They're awesome and energetic and I love them so much because they actually give me the energy I need to teach them! We've been learning about transportation this week so there's tons of running around the classroom acting like a car or a plane. They love it. There are roughly 35 of them in the class so that's not too bad. There are a couple trouble makers, but they sit at opposite ends of the room which makes things a lot easier. They love high fives with all their little hearts! I actually taught them how to say high five to make it even better. So in my first grade class, there's a small stage under the white board where I stand when I write. It makes me look silly. But this one boy always moves his desk right up to the edge of my stage during my class. Which, ironically doesn't help him pay attention any better. He's the one who always wants a high five.

4th Grade

My second graders started out as a bunch of little sh*ts. But They are slowly getting better. Their homeroom teacher stays in the room when I'm there and my partner Thai teacher, Bim, always talks to her instead of helping me control the class. That's very annoying when 40 kids are yelling and screaming and fighting and making paper cell phones while you're trying to teach. I almost lost it today with this girl who just does whatever she wants, but she always makes sure I can see that she's not participating. And she does it with a smile, which makes me even more angry. So I put a chair in the very back of the classroom and made her sit there for the rest of the class. It worked! There's a boy who sits in the front who always looks at me and says NO when I tell the class to do something. He's a really smart boy, but he doesn't apply himself all the time. Do I sound like a teacher now? He has excellent English handwriting and always gets all the questions on the worksheets right. I just wish he had a longer attention span.

2nd Grade

My third graders are my stars. There are no bad kids and they all pay attention all the time and are so smart and intuitive and ask good questions pay attention and basically everything a teacher wants from a class. Of course there are those couple boys who are always whispering and giggling... like little girls. I took up their workbooks the other day to grade them and they all did so well! I was so proud of them, and myself!

Then there's the fourth graders. They're a little better than the first graders, but not as good as the third graders. They're good like the third graders, but not smart like them. We've been doing a lot of grammar lately because there's a lot of grammar randomly thrown in their books but doesn't explain it! And since I'm a grammar Nazi, I go over it in detail! And they're ok with it all! I really like those kids a lot.

2nd Grade

So my schedule is awesome. I don't have class in the morning until 8:30, but I like to get there early to watch assembly and see my students outside of the classroom. They're always smiling and waving and saying, "teacher Ben!!" It makes me morning to walk around the corner and hear my students yelling my name. I teach two classes in the morning and at 10:30 I go on my 2 hour lunch break! Sometimes I go home and eat a little something there and take a little rest. Or sometimes I find a nice street vendor for some Thai food! It doesn't usually take me 2 hours to eat lunch, so I go back to school and chill in my office. Yes, I have an office! I use it for my afternoon grading. At these Thai schools, they don't have 5 minute transition periods in between classes, which sucks for them, but also sucks for me because I have to carry all my stuff to every class! At the end of the day I go back to my office for about an hour and grade and work on lesson plans for a bit. Then I go home and relax and watch TV and check on my awesome Xplore Asia friends that I miss so much.

Ok I just wrote all that during lunch and now school is over and I'm back home where it is raining. If you've seen some of my Facebook statuses, you know that it rains a lot here during the rainy season. Go figure. But it could be bright and sunny with not a cloud in the sky over the school, and be pouring down buckets of rain over my house. And I don't like it. Today was the first day this week I didn't get completely soaked while driving to or from school. It started sprinkling a little when I was on my way back after lunch and I just kept praying "just hold on I'm almost to school!!" Thankfully I was spared this lovely day.

Fancy schmancy motorbike

I finally took the workbooks from my insane second graders. I haven't graded them yet but they're sitting on my bed right now glaring at me. I would have done them at school but I needed to go to Tesco and look for a plunger to fix my toilet that had been broken since the first day. If I have to go number 2, I just drive somewhere where they have a bathroom. It's really annoying, but it works. They didn't have a plunger! I don't know where else I might get one so if you know how to unclog a toilet without a plunger please let me know! It's very annoying not having a bathroom on site.

Ok so also during lunch, I filled up my motorbike with gas. FULL. How much did this cost? About $4. I drove away from the gas station in shock. But who cares! Its awesome! Well tomorrow's Friday and it couldn't have gotten here sooner. These days are moving faster than I am and its hard to catch up. Luckily today I had my 1st graders last and they spend the whole beginning of the class copying something from the class before, and my Thai teacher, Bim, told me to let them finish before I start. I thought, who cares as long as I still get my 350B for this hour, right? It was nice to get a little break.