Hello Reader! I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you what it's like to be a teacher in Thailand at the end of the school year.
Earlier this week, My 5-6 grade supervisor, Pui,told me that I needed to give my final exams next week. This came as a total shock and surprise because I was under the impression that I had until the second to last week of March to accomplish this. Apparently not. Every semester, I am required to have any number of grades that equals 50 points. Since my predecessor did the first semester, I only need 50 points worth of work from each of my students in 4th through 6th grade. So this week was all about final grades that weren't the final exam, but also trying to explain to my students that their final exam would be next week. I cheated and used Google translator on my laptop to tell them this.
There's no worksheets provided for me, so I just made up some exercises for my students to do for a grade this week. Now its very interesting how the turning in works. In the United States, students who do the best usually turn their work in last, but in Thailand, its the other way around. The students who actually know what they're doing turn their work in first, and the kids turn in their work last. On the plus side, this means I grade the smarter students last and it restores my faith in my students that they actually understand what we're doing.
In 4th grade, their worksheet was a series of subjects paired with actions, like "she/go shopping." The object is to write a sentence in the future, using the phrase "going to," while also correctly using subject-verb agreement. So the answer would be, "She is going to go shopping." So easy!! The smarter students get this almost instantly and turn their papers in within 10. The more distracted students take longer, but eventually turn their work in. The slower, but motivated students turn their work in about 30 minutes later. And the stupid ones turn their work in last or not at all. Half of these students have only copied, "she/go shopping,"and the other prompts without the answer. EVEN THOUGH I have explained this at least three times in front of the class AND their smart Thai friends have explained it to them in Thai. I literally don't know what to do with them. They obviously know they don't understand, but they don't come ask me or their friends to explain it. Sometimes I cringe when I write their 1/10 score on my grade sheet because I like them so much and I want them to do well, or I grin maniacally as I write their 1/10 because they deserve it because they never pay attention in class!
5th and 6th grades are a little bit better. And I mean it when I saw a little bit. Maybe two or three more students get a decent grade because only a few more of them who pay attention compared to the 4th graders. But still, there are those geniuses who think its more important to get silly puddy all over their hands than to do their work. Whenever I catch a student doing this, which is literally every class, I walk up to their desk and hold out my hand. By this time they have placed it in their desk and play stupid acting like they have no idea what I'm asking for. I stand there waiting for them to put it in my hands. and when they do, I, making sure everyone can see, throw it out the window, where it hopefully lands in some grassy dirt, meaning it can never be used again.
This week has been chocked full of trying my best to take up papers and grading them and then inputting them into my grade book that I have to turn in at the end of next week. I even enlisted some of my 6th grade students to help me grade and sort most of my papers for extra credit. I was hoping that someone my less smart students would opt in, but, alas, only the smart ones thought they needed extra credit. I was given 50 points for this semester, so I divided them into two tests worth 10 points and the final exam worth 30 points. Even though sometimes its very hard, I have to award some students with 0 points.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the way the Thai school system works, when a student fails the midterm or final, they have one more chance to take it. If this second chance results in less than a 50/100, they automatically get half credit and therefore move on to the next grade, regardless of motivation or conviction. This is how kids move from grade to grade, and end up in my classes forevermore. They all end up graduating and either moving to esteemed universities across Thailand or to their father's vendor cart. As a teacher, I can always tell which ones will go on to be street vendors, and which ones will go on to be doctors and lawyers. Each job is respectable, but earn very different salaries. I just hope they realize at this young age which one they would be happier with.
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