^this was me.
Even though I student taught in Pattaya for two weeks, I was still shitting my pants at the thought of teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th grade Thai students MATH (did I mention I was teaching math?) Will they be able to understand me? How do you do long division again? What is the communicative property? How do I use a protractor? How do I figure out the area of a triangle? These were all very real concerns I had, and I did indeed google them the night before. For the record, long division is hard and stupid and you will never use it in real life (I'm going to be such a good teacher!)
I'm trying to think back on the first week of school and honestly I think I blocked it out of my memory. I know I made the students make name tags with their nicknames on them because Thai names are no joke. A few examples of my students' names:
Jirasak Jangjorn
Jittakorn Pothong
Papangkorn Rungpattaranakul
Theerapat Rakusueadej
Jirarat Wattanagasemtham
Huschaporn Keawkajang
Punyaporn Prachayanonta
So instead of that^, they all have nicknames given to them by their parents which include, but are not limited to:
O-zone
Peepo
Ah-ngoon
Lumpsum (Lump. Sum. A sum of lump)
Un-Seen (In the beginning she went by Seen, and now goes by Un-Seen...sooo much more fourth grade)
Goofy
Cooky
Kabtan
Pink
Blue (formerly known as BooBoo, but when someone told him booboo meant mistake, he changed his name to Blue- pictured below)
^stunna
Golf
Jedi
Ong
Piano (I wonder if her parents just looked around the room and saw a piano and thought wow, that's what I want my daughter to be named)
Zanta
Smart
Pear
Can
Can't (pronounced with a British accent...)
G-yoon (her parents couldn't have named her June? G-yoon.)
I also have a Pang, a Pong (pronounced Bong, but I also have someone named Boong), a Pangpond, Mae Mae and Moe Moe (Mae Mae and Moe Moe sit next to each other and look identical, yet are not related) Poom and Pum (Poom's name is pronounced with a slightly longer "oo" sound than Pum) and a Clinton. Why is Clinton's name so normal?! So the first week was dedicated solely to name games.
The second and third weeks of school were probably the lowest I have felt so far.
^this was me
I looked up flights home more than once (that would have cost a pretty penny) and cried more times than I do when I'm watching Ellen Degeneres' 12 days of Christmas Giveaways, which is saying a lot.
It's funny, coming here I heard nothing but good things about teaching in Thailand.
"Oh my gosh it is LIFE CHANGING. Seriously, my life. Has. Been. Changed."
"I am a better person after knowing these kids. I hope I have taught them just as much as they have taught me" *cue glistening eyes*
"Thai students respect their teachers SO much"
"I basically played games with the kids all day, it's like I was at camp"
"It was less of a job, and more of a calling"
Some of these are paraphrased, but you get the point. Everyone makes it seem like a walk in the park. No one talks about the hard stuff. No one tells you that your kids WILL. NOT. LISTEN. TO. YOU. Mostly because they know you can't/won't hit them, unlike the Thai teachers. I have had to leave the room because my Thai teacher was beating the students.
You will have classes where you will do nothing but scream, but no one can even hear you because they are all talking so loud screaming at each other. You will have classes where you want to storm out of the room (I have done that once or twice...). You will have classes where you break a kid's ruler because you hit it on the desk so hard to get their attention (ask Chelsea about that one). You will have classes that are cancelled and you don't realize it until you show up to the classroom and are the only person there because NO ONE TELLS FOREIGN TEACHERS ANYTHING. You will have classes where you are trying to explain something and no one understands because you are speaking in English, and you need one of the better English speakers to translate to Thai.
You will have classes where you want to go like this:
And this:
And this:
You will have classes where all the kids run up to you with their books when they are finished their work, shoving it in your face while you are trying to explain something to another student (because they weren't paying attention, surprise surprise), yelling "TEACHA TEACHA CORRECT OR NO?!?!? CORRECT OR NO TEACHA?!?!?!?!? TEACHAAAAAAAAA" *eyes bulging out of their sockets*
Do kids do this in America?!?! It is ridiculous.
You will have classes where you are so tired you think you are going to quit your job if that means you won't have to teach another class that day. Especially because the kids are in school from 7:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. with a quick 45 minute break for lunch, as well as a 10 minute break where they chug milk and then about 10% of them proceed to throw it up. Throwing up here is about as normal as sneezing. I wish I was joking. 100% of them need to be put on ADHD medicine. Again I wish I was joking. Maybe I'll slip some into all of their milk?!
You will have classes where you have to make your students write "I will listen to Teacher Laura when she tells me to stop talking" 100 times.
You will have classes where you get up to the front of the room and talk to yourself because the kids DO NOT CARE. A fun fact about the Thai education system: all students pass each grade regardless if they know anything. And I mean anything. I have students in sixth grade who couldn't even tell me their name if I asked it in English. I have students in fourth grade who barely know what 5+2 is. But at the end of the year they are still going to go on to the next grade. So why should they listen to anything you have to say? It doesn't matter to them. Lack of incentive is one of the most frustrating things about teaching in Thailand. You can't threaten them with a 0 on a homework assignment, or on a quiz, or on a test, because at the end of the year they know they are still going to get whatever grade is needed to pass. If a student fails an assignment/quiz/test, you as the teacher have to keep giving it to them until they pass. If they can't pass it as is, you have to make it easier for them until they can pass. Even if you try to fail students, the administration will change the grades you have given them, to a passing grade. Why does anyone think this is a good idea?!
But.
You will also have classes where a student finally understands something and you can tell on their face they are so proud. You will have classes where you are laughing so hard you are crying because your students say the most ridiculous things. You will have classes where you explain something and the kids actually listen and are interested (this is few and far between, but it has happened!!!). You will have classes when you walk into the room and all the kids scream yay because they are so excited to see you (even though it's sometimes too early and you haven't had your coffee so you don't exactly reciprocate the warm and fuzzy feelings).
Phew.
Glad I got that off my chest.
I am happy to say after probably the worst month of my life (it was a very emotional time for me, I believe I went through an entire jar of Jiff my mom sent me in 3 weeks) teaching has gotten a lot better. Do the kids listen to me? No. Do they understand me? Sometimes. Is their math better? Yes! (Am I just saying that to make myself feel better? Possibly) Am I tired? Always. Have I crashed my moto bike yet? I've only hit a pedestrian once so I'm going to go with a no.
You can do it! And keep writing the blog, it's great. Thanks, Teacha!!!
ReplyDelete