Job Discussion Forums

[Yesuree]

This is my first teaching experience in Thailand. It's in a small rural farm-town about an hour from Khorat in the NE. I like the town a lot-I arrived more than a week before teaching and was met at the airport by a contingent from the school who brought me here There are some good ruins,history,museums, nice people, beautiful rice-farming countryside close by. I have a room in a guest house where I share bathroom and kitchen facilities until I find my own place--but its comfy and cheap so I may just stay on there. I've done some good bicycling, made some friends, went on a weekend trek, enjoyed the wonderful food while wondering what I was eating half the time.

That's the good part and I'm wondering if the rest (i.e. the reason I came here) is par for the course or a fluke. Frankly, I may quit and wonder if I should just look for a new job in another country.
Despite my best efforts to get a bit of orientation in the days (or hours, or minutes) before my first class, it never happened. Getting an answer to any queries that would have helped me personally get settled was beyond my wildest dreams. No one seemed interested in making any effiort to answer my questions or show me where supplies and teaching aides were located. I was handed a 2x3 piece of paper with my class schedule a few minutes before my first class. The secretary of the English department led me to the classroom, gave me a 30 second introduction to
a roomful of boisterous 13 year olds and left. I had a nice blackboard but
no chalk. No roll sheet. Just me, my woefully ambitious lesson-plan and the kids who I taught with varying degree of success of getting to know but mostly just trying to keep order. I couldn't find my next classroom and everyone I asked seemed to think it was funny I didn't know the Thai digits for room numbers. I finally pinned down one of the three Philipino Native English speakers for roll call sheets. I wondered why my classes were all trying to leave early, when halfway through the day another teacher just happened to mention that we were on a shortened class schedule due to a meeting later. I tried to collect myself today for another onslaught. I had plenty of chalk loaded up only to find the class room I was teaching in had a dry erase board with no markers. I asked the teacher who wandered in for one and he gave me one that ran out in three words. He stuck around (I hoped to help me out) and eventually came up with another marker. This was my worse disciplined class--the students were practically dancing on the tables while the Thai teacher laid his head on the desk and took a nap. I've had challenging classes before but nothing like this. I dread going back tomorrow. Is this a typical teaching situation for teaching in Thailand?

[sigmoid]

[flapjack]

Take it easy, everyone else is! lol.
Just take a few deeps breaths and relax.
I agree with sigmoid.

Hi I am a student who walk by.

That was one of my kids here, he is pretty smart and very nosy.
My first job in Thailand was in the refugee camps. We had dirt floors, bamboo tables w/ bamboo benches, one side of the tin building was missing , for ventilation, no books, no paper, one blackboard and one peice of chalk.

50 dollars a month and shack to sleep in, now that was the life, actually one of my favorite jobs ever. If I were young and single I would be back in thailand in a New York heart beat.

Play games and get to know the people there. Definitely don't walk out on that job. It will look good on your resume that you had the sack to teach there. If you want a more serious English teaching job for your own personal satisfaction try Bangkok some other country.

Good luck,
I would trade you places if I could, so enjoy it while you can.

[frankly speaking]

Sigmoid is right, just play games. After all this is a third world country and the students are not important. They don't need or deserve a proper education. YEAH RIGHT.

Seriously, it sounds that you are having a difficult time but stick with it. Just because there are problems doesn't mean that the students shouldn't be expected and encouraged to learn. The bottom line is if you don't have the ability to do the job. Give them notice and let them find a teacher that does. You will do a dis-service to the kids if you don't have what it takes. Ask yourself this question. If it were your kids studying, would you want them to study with you? If the answer is yes, then stick it out. Don't just lessen the demands on your students or yourself. High expectations aren't a bad thing as long as they are attainable.

Good luck. I hope that you learn to love it and not only grow as a teacher but can create an environment with your students so that they can grow also.

[Yesuree]

Thanks for all the good advice. I'm going to stick it out--force myself to give it a few weeks until all the difficulties at least are routine and expected. Maybe I'll even come to enjoy it.

[sigmoid]

[flapjack]

Thats right , do student centered activities, you can bring up the level of their own expectations upon themselves. After all you have a year to do it. I have stayed in jobs a LOT WORSE than what you are talking about, just because I beleive in finishing my contract and that the kids deserve at least one year of the same teacher.

The best approach is to be gentle but firm and enlist the aid of your students, kids love to help out. Never show that you are angry or frustrated, meditate or do whatever it takes but keep a smiling face and you are sure to win over the thai people.

[frankly speaking]

Yesaree, I am glad that you are going to stick it out. Dedication is very important. In a few months, keep us informed how you have grown and what you learned by being there.

Sigmoid. I must apologize. I read your post in haste. I only saw the part of Lower Expectations and play games. It was wrong of me. I assumed you were saying something different. I must admit that it bothers me greatly hearing people say that they just play games with their students and don't expect much from them. I realize what you are saying and I do agree with Task Based Learning. It does need to be supplemented though.

Personally, I would take the kid that is border line bad and make them teacher's pet. That way they are too busy to make trouble. "Idle hands" as they say. Don't reward bad behavior but Pro-Act so that it never has a chance to start.

There are some books on dealing with emotionally challenged students. Those lessons will help you manage normaly active classrooms.

[norbdemn]

I have been out here just about a year and a half. My last job was in a village in Songkhla where I was the only farang! I had a hard time at first since the last time people had a farang living/working in the village was over 2 years ago.

Despite the challenges I enjoyed it once everyone adjusted (including myself).

Yesiree, I would recommend (as others suggested here) to just 'go with the flow'. There are always going to be annoyances its how you deal with them that makes a difference. You need to be able to improvise at a moments notice. Remember to smile at the students and faculty no matter how you feel.

If you stick it out, you will appreciate it.

Good luck!

[Sweetsee]

Great story here, can't wait for an update.
Good luck to you!
Enjoy,
s

[AnchorMan]

Don't let 'em get you down. Get through the first semester and the "Thai way" of education will become more bearable.
On a practical note, three resource books that have been invaluable in my teaching of Matayom students:
Word Games with English 1
Reward Elementary Resource Pack
Primary Activity Box

Expensive, but worth every baht, IMHO.
I use material from these books every day I do teaching.
(And even if you don't have a school copying facility - they are a great source for a bit of creative flow)

[Mchristophermsw]

Sorry to come by a little late....I hope your still there!


For me, I like to be prepared. That means I have my own tool box of weapons ready! I am in the States at this time, doing one of thee hardest jobs anyone can do---Child Abuse Investigator. But I will be heading out to Thialand in a few years! I look forward to: the slower pace, fresh fruits and food, tropical wheather, beautiful women with simple and natural beauty, and the kids with those Huge wondeful smiles and sparkling eyes! Yeah, teaching will be a nice change for me..

Or maybe we can change places, I can let you deal the low lifes that have sex with little children and even babies. Or maybe you can experience looking in the eyes of a little girl that has been beaten beyond recognition by her drunk father or sold for drugs by her addict MO? Then there are those lovely homes that have human feces all over the walls and floors, cockroaches everywere, soiled matresses, no heat, no food etc----but hey, there kids; their resilant; they will bounce back--right?

Sometimes looking through different glasses give you a whole new perspective.....anyhow thanks for listening to my rant. And keep doing a great job, your their for the kids