Facts About the Job

As with Jules' previous entry, this one was written over a week ago, but we never posted it because we thought we'd add to it. Here are the details of what we teach, so maybe our "Jumble of Thoughts" entries will become clearer.

Our first week of teaching was an interesting one. I teach grades 1st through 8th in the morning, while Julia teaches three different Kindergarten levels, and in the afternoon we both teach 9th through 12th. I have each class for one hour a week, which as you will find, has its pros and cons. The way they set up many schools in Thailand is, they have an A track and a B track for every level. This turns out to be more important than the grade level they're in, as our Secondary 2/1 or 3/1 (which is like 9th and 10th grade) know more and are smarter than our 4/2 or 5/2 (which is like 11th and 12th grade). At first, this system seems to be the opposite of what we'd want for students. If the levels aren't mixed, then those who are right on the cusp who end up in the lower class, will only end up sinking down. Or those who are put in the lower class might feel they shouldn't try because they've already been labeled and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We thought about it though, and developed many theories as to why they might feel this is the best system for the kids. For one, the classes are large, so they already had to split them up in order to have a maximum of 40 in every class. They might have tried randomizing it, but soon found that the smarter/more hard-working kids were prevented from learning because of the trouble-makers and class clowns. Additionally, as with most schools in and around Chiang Mai, foreigners come, teach 6 months to a year, then leave. So every year these students are subjected to a new foreigner who has come to change the world in a White Man's Burden type of way (not dancing around the fact that we're slightly guilty in this). After a conversation with one of the better English speakers, we learned that they tell the students the "1" or "A" track is for science, while the "2" or "B" track is for language (aka, they want their smarter students to go into the hard sciences, while they leave the floofly arts and humanities to their lower-level kids. Because who in their right mind would study Psychology or English or Art right?). An interesting approach to say the least. I'm just glad they're at least telling the kids the difference between 1 and 2 is what they study, even if some of them do figure out that the 1 class is technically better. Additionally, similar to Western Education, the kids are placed in their track and pretty much stay on that course for the rest of their grade-school education. Once you're in advanced math, you stay on the advanced math course. So track "A" or "1" kids have been track 1 kids since the very beginning.

With this schedule, Julia and I think of a combined total of about 4 lesson plans in a week. Julia thinks of two for the morning classes, because she sees many of her classes twice a week. I think of one for all of my morning classes for the week, because though I'm teaching different grade levels, I teach the same thing. It's just a matter of making the activity or conversation or vocabulary more complex or simple depending on their level and age. And then in the afternoon, we teach the same lesson plan to each of our classes, again varying the level of difficulty. As you may guess, this is one major pro of having each class for one hour once a week.

More PROS about our teaching schedule:

1. Two part-time jobs actually have higher pay and fewer work hours when compared to a full-time job (BUT, see number 2 in the CONS).
2. The first school provides lunch for us before we have to go off to the second school. THIS. IS. GLORIOUS. Not only are the lunches plentiful and DELICIOUS (in Thai: aroi), they're (technically) FREE! So we collapse after three straight hours of teaching, and enjoy an authentic Thai lunch of chicken or curry or noodles with some sort of fruit and some sort of soup. Not having to worry about our lunches saves us so much time and stress AND money. What's not to like? (Well, the ONE thing not to like is that we only get about 15 minutes to eat it (J. during which time we normally must make strained conversation with the very nice principal, which is pretty much another English lesson) before we have to go to our next job)
3. The commute is not too bad because we have a driver who does most of the commute for us. We drive our motorbike (which I actually love doing) about 20 minutes to a school, then we have a driver to take us from that school to our morning school (another half hour), then our afternoon school (15 more minutes), and then back to the first school (15 minutes), where we take our motorbike home (20 minutes). Total, the commute is about an hour to our first school, but we don't have to be up until 8, and we can sometimes get home as early as 2, or more often 3:30.
4. J: Our new "bosses" at each school are very friendly and reasonable. They're constantly giving us snacks and coffee and water and telling us to sit down with them and relax. Often at bizarre times, like when our driver is late so we are five minutes late and come in rushing off to class. The teachers and aides are also very friendly and polite, and we have offers for guides and facebook friends. It's a very comfortable working atmosphere and we feel valued and accepted by the administration, which is a huge bonus. In a way, it's nice to be the only English teachers at a faraway school, because they appreciate that you exist at all, not to mention commute an hour each way to work for them. They have much more reasonable standards than our main boss (which is good and bad). We were prepared to make different lesson plans for each level of our high school classes, but hastily backpedaled when the principal told us "Oh, yeah, you can do one lesson plan for the whole week, that will be great!".   

CONS about our teaching schedule:

1. An obvious con is that we don't actually get to cover much in the time that we have. And it's harder to review the information the next time we see them, because they've already had a week of other classes. As I mentioned in the last post, it seems like we're more of the fun break that the kids have than the actual teacher coming in with a set curriculum.
2. Because we have two part-time jobs instead of a full-time job, we don't get many benefits. Besides not having medical insurance, we don't get paid holiday (and there are a lot this semester). We also have very few breaks as we get to the first school, teach three classes, eat a quick lunch, and then hurry off to the second school to teach.
3. J: It doesn't seem like we are expected to grade our students in any way, which is 1. bizarre 2. time-saving 3. very annoying. There is no motivation for the kids to do anything if they aren't at the very least having their papers graded or studying for some sort of test. We can only give positive reinforcement.  

So for now, we are going to enjoy this wild ride of our first job(s) in Thailand. But in the long term, we're hoping to secure a more permanent job that is closer to Chiang Mai. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Julia's Jumble of Thoughts

This entry was mostly written a week ago, but I never managed to finish it. So keep that in mind!

Thoughts on teaching. I'd say what seems like the best advice for teaching is something my Dad always says and that applies to nearly all situations: Have a plan, but above all be flexible! I can spend hours on a lesson plan and have it all fall apart in the first five minutes, so I've learned to loosen up a little and only make a very vague outline that I can adapt on the fly. This ends up being a lot less stressful both inside and outside the class.

For example, here were my lesson plans for today.
Morning: Days of the week, hello song, action game, color flashcards, color song, color game.
Afternoon: Slang, What is "famous", have kids write name of a famous person, review of yes/no questions, put name of famous person on each kid's back, have them ask yes/no questions to guess.

Previously, my lesson plans were very detailed and even included dialogue so I could be sure to explain directions clearly. But really...that was stupid. You don't know how the kids will respond at all, and it's best to just take it as it comes.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I have learned that a lesson plan I would expect to take five minutes will take half an hour. Especially with the older kids. A note on the older kids: These guys have been learning English for at least TEN YEARS. For anyone who complains about how the American school system does not prepare us at all as worldly people, deals terribly with languages, and doesn't take advantage of the critical period to impart language learning skills, I say: yes and no. I would say that after four years of high school French (and even 6 months of Hindi), my classmates and I would be more competent in those classes now than these kids are in English. After. Ten. Years. Not helping their case, every class in the afternoon comes with a Thai aide, who tends to frustratingly, but with good intentions, translate everything I say, no matter how simply I try to say it. The kids just don't have to try, and that stagnates them. I've found the same to be true in other countries. Quality over quantity. If the kids don't care, and don't immerse themselves outside of school, it just isn't going to happen. The school would be better off saving their money, buying good books and hiring good teachers, and immersing their kids in an English program only when they're older. And, oh wait, there we have the American system! So for as much flak as it gets, I think our system is really not the worst way to go about it. We certainly have a lot to learn from Europe, but don't we always?

I'll give you an idea of their level. Here's a common command I give, very slowly, and with gestures, to a classroom of 18 year old Thai students: "Please write....please write...ONE sentence...about yourself. About you. One sentence. Write one sentence...about you." After this, I will write an example on the board, because Thais thrive on examples. I try not to write too many, because then they just copy them all down and don't think of anything themselves (I have also learned to erase them almost immediately after writing them, which is greeted by horrified responses). After I do this, the Thai aide translates the instructions and examples many times. After this entire procedure, I will turn to the class and see everyone staring at me, not writing anything. At this point I will try going up to the sharper ones and, using a combination of main verbs and examples and repetition and pointing, try to get them to catch on, but they will just laugh and look confused and pretend to be busy. I will then go up to the board and write another example, and repeat the instructions in a new way, and have the Thai aide translate. After about ten minutes, 5 kids will have written something down, and it will be the example that I put on the board.

Basically, as useful as my Oxford Seminars training course was, it wasn't useful at all. To some degree, the situation is out of your hands. You're not going to be able to cover much, you're not going to be able to get them all to participate, and no matter how you simplify things sometimes they just won't understand. It's a common question in Thailand: Why, if the Thais take so many years of English in school, do Thais speak such terrible English? The answer is blaringly obvious, now! Government schools are supplied with Native English Speakers who don't really know how to teach, but try their best. In turn, the government schools allow them zero resources, save for a white board and (sometimes) white board markers. There's no way to see what the kids already know, because there are often not any books. The best we can do is try to teach them pronunciation and center lesson plans around things they may be vaguely interested in. But at the end of the day, grade 1 and grade 6 will get the same exact lesson plan, and they will do equally well with it. There is no progression at all, and the administration is really just okay with that. It's deeply frustrating and inspiring at the same time. Much of my free time is now consumed by trying to think of lesson plans that they will understand, and enjoy, and remember. I daydream about four months from now, when my students will be able to describe themselves with something other than "I am student". But then my next lesson plan bombs, but I adapt it, and by the end of the week someone learned what a "hint" was and how to properly say "what's up" and one of my students wrote "I like ice cream and I like cat" and I go to sleep excited about my lesson plan for the next week and a little less disappointed at my lack of teaching skills.

On the other hand, some of the students are great! It's strange going from being that one kid in the class who cares to being the teacher that clings to that one student. You see them sitting there, always finished early, always bored, always impatient with everyone else, and you just want to tell everyone else to go away so the passion in this one person won't die and I can teach them something. I want them to have the chance to be in the /1 classes and succeed, but of course, those are the cons of the tracking system. Anyway, a lot of the students are really cooperative and friendly and I can have full conversations with them and actually feel like me being an English speaker is useful to them. Which is great.

Also great are the little kids! My kindergarten classes are, for the most part, adorable and well behaved. It's a good morning when you come to class and are immediately hugged by 20 kindergarteners and greeted by a chorus of "Good morning khun kru [meaning teacher...we'll have to work on that one] Julia!". Thus, every morning is a good morning. They can be a little rowdy, but so far it's awesome to teach them the simple stuff and have them actually learn. As they get more used to what I want from them, things have become easier. At first some classes would just repeat literally everything I said, which made for some hilarious moments (imagine 30 four-year-olds with hand on hip all saying "You guys are so smart!" in chorus), but now they understand that sometimes they just need to listen. I'm rediscovering my love for kids as I use puppets and silly voices and all that good stuff. But three hours of teaching kids is pretty exhausting!

At this point I feel like I'm just rambling, so I'll move on. Chiang Mai traffic! Driving a motorcycle! I'd just like to mention that when I met Ariel, she was proud to say that she didn't know how to ride a bike and hadn't driven a car since getting her license over 5 years ago. A week ago, we bought our first motorbike, and now Ariel changes gears and goes on the freeway like nobody's business. You never know how things will change! Let me rephrase: When you are Ariel, you can do whatever you want to do because you are hard working and determined and accept that your fate is entirely in your hands. Let me also mention that one year ago, I sent Ariel out to get garlic and she returned five minutes later freaked out because she didn't actually know what it looked like. Today, Ariel makes Thai tea from scratch from her own recipe, makes half of our meals, and is showing an alarming amount of interest in buying a blender. The other day she wanted to buy a book about cooking a variety of things in your rice cooker. I checked her for a fever. Also, for those of you who know about Ariel and clothes, I will mention that her floor is spotless. She puts all her clothes on a shelf after wearing them. In the space of a year, and in some cases just a month, Ariel has become a domestic, badass biker chick. Watch out world. You don't even know!

Oh, I forgot to talk about Thai traffic. Right. Basically, Thais are so good at driving. I'm pretty sure they have some sort of magic Thai-adapted horn that has an effect similar to a bicycle bell. It's just a little "meep!" that says "I'm coming up behind you! Just wanted to let you know!". On a Thai highway, you can drive as slowly as you like if you stay on the left, which is nice if you're scared or just learning or just don't want to be speeding along with the cars. There are traffic lights, but you really only need follow them if someone is coming. If there's room for you to turn onto a street, go ahead and do so! There are always so many things happening on the street that everyone is watching out for them. So it's okay! Go on! This is not to say that driving is easy, by any means, but it at least makes sense and isn't as stressful as it could be.

Our little documentary-esque 3 month experiment with living on the poverty line continues to be interesting. Apparently, yes, you can survive on $30 a month. Without getting scurvy. The secret is: instant noodles, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, eggs, tofu, milk, and tuna. Surprisingly, all of these things are as expensive or more so than in America, but they get the job done. This is also where our free and delicious lunch at school really comes in handy. Also: don't do laundry, be sure to buy food at the local market, thrive on the "reduced for quick sale" items. Make tin foil-lined cardboard screens for your windows (to block out the sun) to save on air conditioning. Use everything that pumpkins have to offer. Limit toilet paper use by doing it Asian-style. Take advantage of all possible ways to make money on the internet. This is beginning to sound a little like the Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen Song. One might think that living this way would get tiresome, but surprisingly no: when you're living with your best friend, poverty can be kind of fun. There are always water drinking competitions, adventures with vegetables (pumpkin soup, pumpkin seeds, watermelon carving, the how-many-dishes-can-I-make-with-a-potato game), Harry Potter book marathons, trips to go window shopping in grocery stores...We have been fortunate enough to spend money on things that will really save us a lot of money in the long run, like our little motorbike Sparkules. We have been very blessed by free lunches at school that give us the majority of our nutrients. And hopefully, in two weeks (pay day), the experiment will be over! Luckily we have the luxury of labelling it as such.

I think we have another blog draft in the works, so I'll go ahead and wrap up this long winded one. Thanks for reading!

A Jumble of Thoughts

I wanted to get our big blog entry out there about how we spent our Halloween and how our job is going so far, but the weekend came and went and now the new school week snuck up on us. I have just found out, however, that my classes are cancelled for the rest of the morning because apparently Ovaltine has come to the school and is giving a presentation. So I decided to take this unexpected break to get some thoughts down. Also you'll have to excuse any absent-minded stream-of-consciousness writing because I just had my arguably worst worst class of the week (my first grade class B which means not my A class which means havoc and phone-stealing, crying children, shouting, running, and possibly 5 students actually trying to learn) and am thoroughly wiped out and discombobulated. Oh yes, and I'm typing this on my iPhone.

Now that we're actually creating lesson plans, there are some things I learned from the Oxford Seminars course (and from my few instances of teaching or mentoring students in the past) that I have had the opportunity to put into practice (if there is anyone from Oxford Seminars reading this, maybe this can help, though it probably mostly applies to Thailand or Southeast Asia only).

Any classroom management strategies I've read about simply don't work. They just don't. There are preliminary procedures, like establishing rules on the first day and sticking to them. Having a level system in which kids get a mark for each time they act up, which eventually results in a penalty or punishment of some sort (did anyone else have those color cards in elementary school, where they start the day at blue, and then one penalty goes to green, then orange, then red?). I can't do any "establishing" rules because for most farang (foreign) teachers, and especially for Jules and I, we entered the school year during the second semester. Additionally, we only teach every class for one hour once a week. We are just the one hour foreign teacher break the kids get, so we're not to be taken seriously. This takes some pressure off of us, but also prevents us from having any continous lesson plans, or really reviewing something we've taught them the week before. It's like we're just the P.E. class: every class takes it, but nobody really takes it seriously. Then there are rewards and punishments. I can't punish the kids because for one, I can't speak Thai, so nothing I can say to them will make sense. The best I can do is yell at them, which I don't think solves anything. Besides which, raising your voice is nothing when you are in a place that practices corporal punishment. As long as I don't have a stick in my hand, it doesn't matter. So my final plea of trying to get these first graders under control, is to just reward the good with "good job!"s and smiles and nods of approval, while I ignore the three students who are following me around trying to steal my phone and notebook. The funny thing is, outside of class, these kids love me. They run to say hi to me and give me hugs. But in class, they couldn't care less if I existed at all.

Additional things I learned from Oxford Seminars that DON'T work:
Checks for Understanding. For those that didn't take Julia and my "Learn how to teach English in 100 hours" course (and for those that aren't or haven't been a teacher), checks for understanding happen after you explain directions for the next activity. You ask the class specific questions like, "What do you do after I give you a piece of paper?" and they answer (ex: "Write your name!"), thus demonstrating that they understand what they need to do. Well, to sum up how it works here: Nope. It doesn't. The kids don't understand when you're asking a question. Besides the fact that they don't fully understand English intonations (like your voice going up at the end of a sentence to indicate a question), they just can't grasp that you want them to answer you, not repeat after you. No matter how slow, or how simply I speak, I can't get them to understand that I'm checking that they know what to do.

Some things I learned from Oxford Seminars that DO work:
Repetition. The kids in Thailand, and especially in the younger grades, are all about repeating what you say. This isn't all that great because they don't think for themselves or try to think outside the box; they will just repeat and copy whatever you say. Still, on the bright side, as a native English teacher, I can try to teach them proper pronunciation and intonation. Since Thai is a tonal language, they're all about mimicing it with the exact rhythm and ups and downs of my voice. I will say a word or sentence by pointing at myself, then get them to repeat or answer by cupping my ear.

Demonstrating conversation. When I draw a face on the board with a speech bubble and write "A" above it, then another face and write "B" (like a cartoon), the students immediately understand that this is a conversation. I'll write "A" saying, "Hello! How are you?" and "B" responds with, "I'm fine, thank you. And you?" Then I'll pair up the students and say one is "A" and the other is "B" and I'll point to the board, and they'll instantly know. I gesture that I want them to practice, and they do! It actually works great, and I can get them to have many conversations with this simple template. I can get them to think for themselves a little bit if I leave a blank too. For example, we went over emotions (happy, sad, angry, scared, tired) and then in the conversation, one of the students has to fill in the blank, "I'm _____."

As you can hopefully see, I'm learning what it's like to come in with certain goals, ideas, and activities and just seeing if they work. All of teaching is trial and error. I finally understand what it's like to hone your lesson plan and find out what works for what level until you have it down to a T. I understand how a teacher can get more and more comfortable after their first year of teaching. Of course I knew teaching was a long-term investment. Besides Kindergarteners, you can't see kids immediately learning before your eyes. The benefits that come from being a teacher involve years of work. Of course I knew that. But the long-term investment thing applies to almost every aspect of the job. Improvement in the students, improvement in my ability to teach, gaining experience, forming long-lasting relationships with staff, co-workers, and students, etc. ALL OF TEACHING is LONG-TERM.

That being said, this job is simultaneously easy and the most challenging thing for me. In some ways, I feel like I'm a natural. I can come up with a lesson plan and think of new ways to approach it on the spot when it's not working. I am easily enthusastic, I'm good at laughing at myself and letting/encouraging the students to laugh with at me (like when I accidentally use the wrong side of the eraser, and all of my third graders start laughing, I can't help but turn around and laugh with them). I'm terrible at classroom management. I don't know if that's just here in Thailand, or if I just need to get better with it. And I need to improve upon almost every lesson plan I come up with. It's fulfilling work, definitely, but it's exhausting. Most of the pressure to do well is from within. It's my goals I have for the students to learn, and if I can't get them to learn what I set out to teach them, I'm the only one who feels like I've failed.

Now that my jumbled thoughts are finally winding down, I'd like to thank you, whoever reads this blog, for letting me use it as a place to record my random thoughts and feelings. Having such a public diary can be the most embarassing thing. In 10 years, wherever I am, I may be laughing at how naive and silly I was as I reread these entries. But for now, let's laugh together. I don't want to take life too seriously. I want to enjoy it.





And one more thing, for those of you who might know more about my life, Alexi-day is coming up (November 16th). It will have been two years since my beloved best friend, Alexi Deauzat, has passed away. Let's celebrate her memory together. Eat a peppermint, wear a skeleton key necklace, listen to the White Stripes. Fill yourself with laughter, speak in a shrill voice, and every once in a while, just squeal, "eeeee!"

Much love,
Aire

Being White

This post serves three purposes:

1. To tell you that we are alive

2. To inform you that a big juicy post will be coming up shortly (I'd like to say within the week, but no promises)

3. To say how the topic of being white came up today in conversation and it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite bits from Louis C.K. Following is the conversation and then the video clip:

Jules (in talking about driving a motorbike around): How about the cops here, how bad are they?

Guy: They're not bad at all. Sometimes they have checkpoints, but all you have to do really is lift your helmet so they can see that...you're white, and they'll be like, "Okay have a great day! Have fun, you know, being white!"

I laughed. It's refreshing to openly talk about race, something that I feel isn't always tolerated--or maybe just isn't always done--in America. But in other countries, and especially for us during our travels in Southeast Asia with Julia being white and me being a mixed ambiguous race, race comes up a lot.

As I said, look forward to a long entry coming soon! For now, here's the vid: