Sawatdee Thailand: Teaching

So as I am here to teach English, I should probably post about that. My schedule is that I teach 15 hours a week, grades 3-9. I teach grades 3 and 4 twice a week and the rest only once a week. It can be really challenging in terms of retention for some of my classes, especially since for some reason I always seem to miss my classes with 5^th grade. The Thai educational system is one in which I feel like learning isn’t that important. I say this because they have parades or English camps or speech contests all the time, so they miss school. Teachers also seem to have little interest in their obligation to teach. I’m lucky to have most of my teachers attend their classes, but other volunteers have had very different experiences, such as teachers playing soccer when they should be teaching or simply not showing up. I also am lucky that at my school discipline is not handled by hitting the students. Again, other volunteers have had very different experiences.

In terms of actually teaching, I tend to teach the one thing to 3-4, one thing to 7-9, and vary with 5-6 between material for 3-4 or material for 7-9. That being said, the levels across the grades are varied so sometimes I have to backtrack. Also grades 7-9 are split in to /1 and /2, with /2 being more advanced. Grade 6 and below the /1 and /2 mean nothing.

So far I’ve taught:

3/1 – body parts, directions, feelings, shapes/colors

3/2 – colors, body parts, directions, feelings

4 – numbers, colors, feelings, body parts

5/1 – colors, feelings

5/2 – feelings, family

6 – numbers, feelings

7/1 – feelings, colors/I like

7/2 – feelings, family, directions

8/1 – feelings, family

8/2 – feelings, family directions

9/1 – numbers, feelings, family

9/2 – feelings, family, directions

I really see the impact I have on the younger kids – they retain more and understand more. The older kids… I hope that I’m making a difference but from what my host sister has told me I probably am not. Apparently, it’s not uncommon for kids from our school to go to high school, get into a relationship, and end up pregnant/married. It’s really sad to hear that and I think I might have a health class one day for the 8^th and 9^th grade. I really love my students. They’re all really good kids. Their biggest obstacle is their own lack of confidence and frankly a lack of prospects. My goal is to find a way to boost their confidence and inform them that English can be their opportunity.