So here we are over a month into teaching at our new school, Anuban, and here is my highly delayed post of WHAT’S going on! We are teaching now at a PRIMARY school (Elementary) instead of high school and it is to say the least crazy. Not only are the kids small because they are young, but since they are thai they are sooo tiny. And mine are pretty much missing all of their teeth and kind of drool as they stare up at me!
The whole experience is already totally different from our last semester and there are definitely advantages and disadvantages to where we are now. For starters, since we are in a city now, being a foreigner (farang) isn’t quite as exciting anymore to everyone. Whereas in Inburi we were their first foreign teachers, Anuban has seen their share of farang teachers come and go so nobody is really that interested. Where we were showered with love and gained teacher friends who I consider like family at Inburi school, we barely get a passing glace at Anuban haha. But that’s ok! Honestly it’s really nice some days not to have the pressure to HAVE to talk to everybody especially because teaching can really wear us down so our free time we don’t want to necessarily have to WORK to talk with someone who speaks limited English. And most of the teachers speak almost no English here at Anbuan (yes.. that includes the English teachers). There is another foreigner there from New Zealand who is fluent in Thai so that doesn’t help our case much either as when they want to talk to us they pretty much just blurt out thai expecting us to know what they are talking about. Oh well.. Felix and I have gotten into a nice silent routine and share are lunches alone at our desks in a giant room of teachers.
But as somber as that all sounds, things are actually really great. Teaching kids is an ENTIRELY different ball game than teaching high schoolers. If I ever though my high school students were naughty, or crazy, or loud… I really have something to put in perspective now that they were actually angels. At Anuban I am teaching 1st and 2nd grade while Felix is teaching 5th and 6th grade. My first week I was utterly blown away walking into a classroom and hence worn out like I’ve never been before after the week was over. THESE KIDS ARE MONKEYS! They are so wild I was just at a complete loss of what to do at first. We are talking 50 kids standing on desks..wait no JUMPING on desks.. beating each other with rulers and water bottles, screaming at the top of their lungs, riding each other like donkeys around the class, running circles around the class, half the kids RUNNING OUT of the class and up and down the hall ways, crowding me so I couldn’t move, taking what I write on the board and erasing it with their hands and then smearing the chalk all over each others faces.. asking me hundreds of questions in thai in rapid succession, BANGING as loudly as possible on their desks, are you as tired as I am yet?!?!?! I thought the first week of playing games would be my easiest week but I soon learned they they didn’t have the attention spans to even sit through a game. My first thought honestly was.. oh no what have we done leaving high school and willingly signing up for this madness, but luckily we have got the gist of things now and believe it or not, I am so happy we are at a primary school.
I quickly learned the key to my lessons.. and that the big secret was that they have..absolutely HAVE.. to involve a worksheet. Forget the games. And preferably a worksheet that involves as MUCH COLORING AS POSSIBLE! Never have I seen anything quiet kids down like a good coloring task at hand. Thai kids are perfectionists so when told to color you better believe they are going to do it, and do it perfectly. So now my lessons really only consist of me calling roll (which for 45 kids who are only half listening and almost never in their seats) and then going over the new vocabulary for the first 15 minutes, maybe singing a song in which they go WILD, and then giving them a worksheet and literally sitting at my desk for the most of the next 30 minutes. I don’t exactly get to rest… they come to me every 30 seconds to ask me a question, which is in Thai of course, and I can either guess what they are asking, or just nod my head “Yes” everytime (or No if I feel like I need to change it up a bit). So while the lessons are much much easier than high school, in the end the downside is how much the kids wear you out by the end of the day. Every week I learn multiple thai words from them screaming at me whatever English vocab I am teaching them back to me in Thai (of course words like Nose, Eyes, Ears, Ruler, Desk, Notebook.. etc. really don’t have much use to me in everyday thai conversation), and I am very happy we didn’t sign up for primary school for our first semester because my whole lesson is me using all thai words I know to get them to understand what I am saying.
The best part by far though is how absolutely ADORABLE these kids are. My students being 6 and 7 year olds they immensely loving. I almost can’t go into a classroom without being bombarded by hugs that I can’t figure out how to stop when I am almost being knocked down and fearing I am going to smash a kid on my way to the floor. They all cheer “YAAAYYY” and jump up and down as soon as I walk in and while I only can understand half they things they try to tell me they stand by my desk and babble to me about things and I love it. They have adorable nicknames like Cartoon, Ice Cream, Garfield, Turbo, Beauty, and Internet, and they are so tiny and cute in their uniforms I couldn’t be happier getting to spend my days with them just being silly and trying my best to get to know them. I do miss my high school students.. and that fact that I could actually TALK to them and the chance that they will one day remember me, but I am so happy we have got to experience teaching so many different levels of students(I have now been a teacher of 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, and 12th grade whereas Felix has taught 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th!). Some days are long.. after dealing with crying kids, the lingering smell of poo that will suddenly fill the class, being covered with chalk all over my face and clothes from endless drawing on the board, and just screaming at the top of my lungs to TRY to get these kids to for the love of god sit their butts in their chairs for 10 seconds.. but in the end I ride home happy and with so many stories everyday of all the funny stuff they do.
So that is our experience at Anuban primary school thus far! A lot different, and not with teachers as best friends, but kids that are hilarious and adorable. All in all the semester is already flying by soooo quickly! The end will be here before we know it and I can tell we are going to leave with wonderful memories in our last semester teaching in Thailand.
The whole experience is already totally different from our last semester and there are definitely advantages and disadvantages to where we are now. For starters, since we are in a city now, being a foreigner (farang) isn’t quite as exciting anymore to everyone. Whereas in Inburi we were their first foreign teachers, Anuban has seen their share of farang teachers come and go so nobody is really that interested. Where we were showered with love and gained teacher friends who I consider like family at Inburi school, we barely get a passing glace at Anuban haha. But that’s ok! Honestly it’s really nice some days not to have the pressure to HAVE to talk to everybody especially because teaching can really wear us down so our free time we don’t want to necessarily have to WORK to talk with someone who speaks limited English. And most of the teachers speak almost no English here at Anbuan (yes.. that includes the English teachers). There is another foreigner there from New Zealand who is fluent in Thai so that doesn’t help our case much either as when they want to talk to us they pretty much just blurt out thai expecting us to know what they are talking about. Oh well.. Felix and I have gotten into a nice silent routine and share are lunches alone at our desks in a giant room of teachers.
But as somber as that all sounds, things are actually really great. Teaching kids is an ENTIRELY different ball game than teaching high schoolers. If I ever though my high school students were naughty, or crazy, or loud… I really have something to put in perspective now that they were actually angels. At Anuban I am teaching 1st and 2nd grade while Felix is teaching 5th and 6th grade. My first week I was utterly blown away walking into a classroom and hence worn out like I’ve never been before after the week was over. THESE KIDS ARE MONKEYS! They are so wild I was just at a complete loss of what to do at first. We are talking 50 kids standing on desks..wait no JUMPING on desks.. beating each other with rulers and water bottles, screaming at the top of their lungs, riding each other like donkeys around the class, running circles around the class, half the kids RUNNING OUT of the class and up and down the hall ways, crowding me so I couldn’t move, taking what I write on the board and erasing it with their hands and then smearing the chalk all over each others faces.. asking me hundreds of questions in thai in rapid succession, BANGING as loudly as possible on their desks, are you as tired as I am yet?!?!?! I thought the first week of playing games would be my easiest week but I soon learned they they didn’t have the attention spans to even sit through a game. My first thought honestly was.. oh no what have we done leaving high school and willingly signing up for this madness, but luckily we have got the gist of things now and believe it or not, I am so happy we are at a primary school.
I quickly learned the key to my lessons.. and that the big secret was that they have..absolutely HAVE.. to involve a worksheet. Forget the games. And preferably a worksheet that involves as MUCH COLORING AS POSSIBLE! Never have I seen anything quiet kids down like a good coloring task at hand. Thai kids are perfectionists so when told to color you better believe they are going to do it, and do it perfectly. So now my lessons really only consist of me calling roll (which for 45 kids who are only half listening and almost never in their seats) and then going over the new vocabulary for the first 15 minutes, maybe singing a song in which they go WILD, and then giving them a worksheet and literally sitting at my desk for the most of the next 30 minutes. I don’t exactly get to rest… they come to me every 30 seconds to ask me a question, which is in Thai of course, and I can either guess what they are asking, or just nod my head “Yes” everytime (or No if I feel like I need to change it up a bit). So while the lessons are much much easier than high school, in the end the downside is how much the kids wear you out by the end of the day. Every week I learn multiple thai words from them screaming at me whatever English vocab I am teaching them back to me in Thai (of course words like Nose, Eyes, Ears, Ruler, Desk, Notebook.. etc. really don’t have much use to me in everyday thai conversation), and I am very happy we didn’t sign up for primary school for our first semester because my whole lesson is me using all thai words I know to get them to understand what I am saying.
The best part by far though is how absolutely ADORABLE these kids are. My students being 6 and 7 year olds they immensely loving. I almost can’t go into a classroom without being bombarded by hugs that I can’t figure out how to stop when I am almost being knocked down and fearing I am going to smash a kid on my way to the floor. They all cheer “YAAAYYY” and jump up and down as soon as I walk in and while I only can understand half they things they try to tell me they stand by my desk and babble to me about things and I love it. They have adorable nicknames like Cartoon, Ice Cream, Garfield, Turbo, Beauty, and Internet, and they are so tiny and cute in their uniforms I couldn’t be happier getting to spend my days with them just being silly and trying my best to get to know them. I do miss my high school students.. and that fact that I could actually TALK to them and the chance that they will one day remember me, but I am so happy we have got to experience teaching so many different levels of students(I have now been a teacher of 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, and 12th grade whereas Felix has taught 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th!). Some days are long.. after dealing with crying kids, the lingering smell of poo that will suddenly fill the class, being covered with chalk all over my face and clothes from endless drawing on the board, and just screaming at the top of my lungs to TRY to get these kids to for the love of god sit their butts in their chairs for 10 seconds.. but in the end I ride home happy and with so many stories everyday of all the funny stuff they do.So that is our experience at Anuban primary school thus far! A lot different, and not with teachers as best friends, but kids that are hilarious and adorable. All in all the semester is already flying by soooo quickly! The end will be here before we know it and I can tell we are going to leave with wonderful memories in our last semester teaching in Thailand.
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