Science Experiments, Loose Teeth, and Lesson Plans: What I'm really doing out here in Southeast Asia

Sorry for the belated update. I'd go on and on with excuses on why it has taken me too long, but frankly that's a bore and who cares? So on to the important stuff, the update itself.

I have a feeling some of my friends and family might not understand exactly what it is I am DOING out here in Thailand for the year. Sure, I'm "teaching English" -- but does that mean I'm really just on a year long vacation, hanging out with a bunch of TEFL grads and partying on the beach in between hungover lessons on proper apostrophe placement? ...Not even close. Okay, though I DID give a riveting lesson on apostrophes just last week. I'll explain...

My School

I currently work at a Sarasas Ektra, one of 24 Sarasas-affiliated bilingual school that are peppered all over Thailand -- mine is located just a 15-minute walk from my apartment.

Sarasas Ektra was granted license as the first bilingual school (Thai-English) in Thailand in the early 1990's and functions as a private school. The campus started as a special bilingual program called "Extra Class," created to have gifted students learn English directly from native English speakers to assure their English was precise and effective. The program was so popular and successful, it developed into its own entity, Sarasas Ektra.
There are three campuses all within walking distance of each other: Infant Campus (Kindergarten 1-3), Primary Campus (Grade 1-6), and Secondary Campus (Grade 7-12).

I teach Grade 3, so I work on the Primary Campus. The campus itself is very nicely maintained, a majority of it open-air and intertwined with gorgeous tropical plants and flowers. The school is 50% Thai and 50% English, which is apparent in everything from the posters, to the snack stands, to the "what's for lunch today" menus on campus. The campus is also 50% Buddhist and 50% Catholic. This means we honor and celebrate both Buddhist and Christian holidays (yay!) here. It has made for some fascinating festivals and ceremonies, where Buddhist prayers mix nicely with prayers to various Catholic saints.

If anyone is interested, I'll do a short video tour of my campus, and post it here online sometime soon.

My Class

So for this year, I am the Homeroom English teacher for Grade 3F -- they are an "Extra" class, meaning they are the gifted students among their grade. There are only 5 teachers teaching these gifted, "Extra" classes and I am thrilled to be one of them. During the summer session I taught a much slower-paced, younger group of Second graders. Being thrown from that bunch into a group of highly intelligent, knowledge-craving Third graders with attitudes to match their know-how... well, it's proven to be equal parts challenging, rewarding, and amusing.

Though my title is Homeroom English teacher, I am responsible for teaching far more than English vocabulary and how to use English Grammar. As an Extra class, they spend 70% of their week learning from me, in English. I teach the concepts and the English to go with these concepts, and the other 30% of the week is taught by Ms. Beng-orn, my co-operative Thai teacher -- she teaches the same concepts and subjects to the students, but in their native tongue. 

As an Extra class Homeroom teacher, I am responsible for teaching the following subjects each week:

Math

My kids are math wizards, and LOVE doing Math in class. Good, considering I'm not a huge fan of the subject -- so their enthusiasm keeps me motivated to make the 4 hours a week we dedicate to it fun and interesting. Currently we are studying number patterns and counting/writing number up through the millions, but July begins our heavy division/multiplication section.

Social Studies

Everything from Geography, Climates, and the Earth's layers, to Global Climate Change, Making/Reading Maps, and the histories of the ASEAN nations. I only get to teach this subject one time a week, but It's so much fun. :)

Science

My father would be proud... I teach four hours of Science each week, currently on the topic of Heredity. We've already done an extensive science experiment involving plant heredity and the passing of traits from various plants to their seeds. I did a lesson recently on Types of Twins and my class went bananas over the idea of Siamese/Conjoinal Twins. We'll be watching a documentary I found on the subject in class next week. future topics include Natural Resources, Pollution, and Chemical Reactions. 

English

This is more of what you'd expect, but more involved than you probably realize. The students work out of an English book, an English Workbook (daily exercises and general lesson practice), an English Writing book (for taking notes in English and practice with sentence formation on paper), a Creative Writing book (which I utilize often, as my class is extremely creative with their writing), and an English Dictionary (for them to fill with Thai translations and use as they please). 

This is the one class that I teach every single day, 7 hours each week. Topics, of course, range from proper use of Pronouns to lessons on Adjectives, reading comprehension, speaking practice, and of course, consistent streams of new vocabulary. 

Phonics

Phonics is usually taught specifically by Phonics teachers, but due to a change in the curriculum this year, Extra Class teachers were made to take on this responsibility. Though teaching it is new to me, I don't mind taking it on -- it's just another excuse to integrate what we've learned in other lessons of my class, and lets me take the time needed to make sure the kids are using proper pronunciation and enunciation with the language. 

Health Education

The Sarasas schools recently decided to add this to the course material for the students, and I use two hours of my Science lesson each week to include it. The book we teach from is wordy, and a bit heavy for Third Grade in my opinion (previous lessons include the dangers of alcohol, cigarettes, and glue sniffing and future lessons include sexual harassment), but I've enjoyed the challenge. We begin our food pyramid lesson next week, wish me luck!

Multiple Intelligences

This is another topic that up until recently, was taught only by the Thai teachers. Again, with time comes change and so Extra Class teachers are expected to participate in teaching this subject to the students. I only teach it once a week, but I enjoy it! We spend the lesson exploring the various Multiple Intelligences and doing activities that both illustrate and explain each Intelligence. I'm excited to see how it will help me to gauge the activities my class responds well to, as well as what they learn less from.

As you can see, it isn't your average 23 year-old American's workload. No, I am --in fact-- officially a bona-fide, genuine, hard-working Elementary School Teacher (complete with the miniscule paycheck.) And honestly? I LOVE IT. 

I work every single day from 7:30AM until 5PM (I chose to teach an after-school class of 12 students each day, as well) and spend every minute that I'm not teaching in my classroom, grading papers and homework, writing up lesson plans and getting to know my kids.

Which, speaking of my kids, did I mention that there are THIRTY-SIX of them?? Yep, 36. Thirty-six bright, funny, talkative, wild (and often outrageous) 7-9 year olds.  This is also a culture shock from summer session, when I taught two classes of 15 students each, all of which whom were younger and more inclined to lose teeth in the middle of a lecture than cop an attitude with me over an assignment.

My G3F class is amazing. They are quick learners and confident in their intelligence (almost to a fault). They enjoy practicing their English with me, and appreciate my wacky, dorky sense of humor. To be honest? They're nerds. Okay, I know that sounds mean... but let me explain. Other teachers draw pretyt flowers on the board to decorate their vocabulary lists and have the students sing songs about gardens and flowers.... I gave my students the opportunity to make their own tongue-twisters in phonics using the Digraph sounds "ch" and "sh" -- I received 36 tongue-twisters about man-eating sharks, shipwrecked pirated, hungry chimpanzees, and chubby aliens. 

To get them to understand Regional Climate Maps showing various heat patterns around the world, I had to relate it to something they definitely both understand AND enjoy: heat-vision goggles and what the world would look like if you looked at it through a Predator's eyes. 

Yup... they're not your average group of third-grade Thai students, but I absolutely love them. 

Their biggest (and really only) fault is their complete and utter lack of manners, but we are working on this. Sarasas is very keen on well-behaved children and a certain, almost military-like demeanor among the kids. 

As the soon as the year began I realized my students had fallen far off that band-wagon somewhere along the line, and are in serious need of discipline. Let's just say this is a daily lesson... for them, in respect and proper behavior. For me, in patience and creative forms of discipline. 

The class is smart, and will learn loads no matter who their teacher is. But I have made it my personal goal to be the cornerstone in their lesson on respect and behavior at Sarasas. They will be a different group of kids by the time I'm through with them, I can promise you that. :)

Wai Khru Day, 2011

On Thursday, June 16th, we held Wai Khru Day at the Primary Campus. Wai Khru is a Thai ritual in which students pay their respect to their teachers in a formal ceremony that begins with Buddhist prayers and chants. These chants express their gratitude and respect for teachers and asks for blessings of their studies in return. The foreign and Thai teachers are each presented with an offering of flowers from their students, and a representative student from each class performs a kowtow wai at the feet of the teacher. I had never even heard of this ceremony before coming to Thailand, and the whole thing was both incredibly surreal and moving. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me.

Overall, teaching in Thailand has been so different from anything I could have ever expected or prepared for. Without a teaching degree or even a TEFL certificate, most of my experiences as a teacher have been of a trial and error nature. But I can't begin to put a price on what I've learned here, and what I continue to learn every day.

The student representatives prepare for the ceremony

Sitting and waiting for the ceremony to begin

Me and Ms. Beng-orn, my Thai teacher

The kowtow bow

The director Mr. Pisoot, addressing the students

One of my students, Tawachit, and myself

Tawachit, Supichaya, Ms. Beng-orn and I