More on teaching

I have been thinking about my experience teaching at the Vocational school and with the monks. Out of the two, i really like the monks and am sad that i can't work with them every day. i feel like i am actually doing something and that I am wanted there. The monks smile, work hard, ask questions, we have interesting discussions... i leave feeling good - and i love that feeling... that is the feeling that makes me want to be a teacher. I leave excited because i have had fun talking with them or repeating words that they want to know how to say.

Then there is the vocational school. Everyday is different for which class we are teaching so, for the most part, we can have two lessons for the whole week and we just repeat our self. The students are 16-18 years old, there are anywhere from 20-35 students in a class, and all they have had English before. Debbie, Sev, and i work together - three is too much for a classroom... two is just right if not too much at times. We make our lessons and explain it to the the class only to have to have the teacher re-explain the directions in Thai, which i can't understand. I think the hardest part is not speaking Thai and to rely solely on the teacher to explain what we are going to do. At times I feel that the teacher is giving the answer to the students as well because the students aren't getting it. Plus, i don't really know how much the students know or what they are capable of.

One example of what we are doing: we write questions on the whiteboard and then say a skit out loud. the students must listen to the skit and write down the answers. first of all, i think the skit is over the student's heads. The skit is of someone go to the store and buying all different kinds of food. second, we probably are talking too fast. however, we do repeat it a few times so the students can listen for the answer. third, who knows if the students even get what we are doing. we tried this again with a different skit, which was a lot easier, it was just question and answer straight out. we said the question and then the answer. the students did a good job there... we just need to find a middle ground.

Sev and Debbie were saying how they were getting frustrated with some of the students. the students would just give them a blank face when they would come to listen to the students repeat the small skit we had written out for them. yeah, it is a little frustrating but i get it. i was the kid who didn't talk for four years in Spanish unless i had to. I'm sure i gave my teachers some great blank faces when they said what we were doing in Spanish because i had no clue what my teacher was talking about. but the difference is that my teacher was able to speak English to explain what we were going to do. I'm learning that going through an interpreter is hard.

This has been a good experience. the vocational school isn't my favorite place though. I might be moving somewhere else next week depending on if sev stays longer in nong khai or if she moves on.

I'm at an internet cafe where the shift button doesn't always work so my capitation isn't working tonight. picture are also not working very well for me. i had two other ones i wanted to put up but they will have to wait.

the first picture is of one of our classes. this picture is of one of the stands by the school that we eat at.