School Reflections

Well we made it – our last day today!! We finished teaching February 22nd. We did not have school Monday because of a holiday. This week February 26^th  – March 1st is Finals Week. Finals week is similar to midterms – foreign teachers sit in the office to complete grading because English finals were the week before.  We both finished our grading Tuesday before lunch – meaning we have a lot of time to sit in the office with not very many things to do. We have occupied times over the past few days reading, playing games on the computer and tablet, tutoring students, and playing some games with students when they are not testing.

Teaching in Thailand for 5 months has been an adjustment especially with both of us having taught in the States. The school system here is so drastically different than the western system we are used to. Let’s compare a few things:

	Thailand School System	United States School System
Discipline	Reasons for Discipline: - socks are too short or holey - shirts are not tucked in - hair is too long - Skipping class (sometimes disciplined) - Playing games while the teacher is teaching Consequence: - a whipping with a stick - getting your hair buzzed (discipline when it is to long) -A stern talking to -If it gets really bad, parents come into school Things we see that often do not have consequences (that we know of):  - Punching another student -  Pushing or shoving each other - Cheating- most cheating seems to be tolerated	Reasons for Discipline: - cheating - skipping class - fighting - bullying Consequences: - detention - meeting with Principle and/or Parents - meetings with school counselor and/or police officer
School Lunch	Free Choice! There are around 30 different food stalls selling anything you could want meals, desserts and drinks. Students and staff are choose what they want each day. Lunch is paid in cash. There are no restrictions on what or how much a person can eat.	Lunch Program with set requirements and restrictions.
Teachers Clothing	Men: dress pants, buttoned shirt and tie. Women: dress or skirt at least knee length and must cover shoulders. No open toe shoes.	Appropriate professional clothes for your teaching situation.
Students Clothing	Uniform. The uniform shirt has your name embroidered on it and your grade denoted by a colored dot. Shoes, socks, backpacks, hairstyle and hair accessories all uniform and must be worn. Hair especially strict for M1, M2, and M3 (7th, 8th, and 9th grade)	Free choice, as long as it’s school appropriate.
Teaching & Office Time	7:30 – 4:00 everyday - 50 minute class periods - Teach a 17-20 periods a week, maximum is three periods in a row. - Teach 2-5 class periods in a day - All work is done at school (in our case at least)	8:00 – 4:00 everyday - 50 minute class periods - Teach 30-35 periods a week - Have one or two periods off a day - Lots of work is done before and after school
Classroom Challenges	*Classroom environment is much different than at home. Often foreign teachers are treated very differently than Thai teachers by the students. Many Thai teachers carry sticks (and speak the language) so students are generally good. Foreign teachers do not carry sticks and have a language barrier; with these barriers, if a student decides they do not want to learn English and would rather talk, play, or fight it becomes nearly impossible to discipline. Especially when you consider 45-50 students in a class. With that many students there always seems to be a few who have a long list of things they would rather do than learn English. A foreign teacher can see all of the following happen while trying to teach: Excessive Talking Fighting Skipping Class Climbing Out Windows Sneaking out to escape English Class Setting Fires Punching Playing Takaw (Thai Soccer) Sleeping Working on other class work Students chasing others around Special Needs- little to no support Low English Ability Inability to Discipline	*Classroom environment is much more controlled due to high expectations for behavior and smaller class sizes. Students generally respect the teacher while teaching. Students are expected to put forth effort and complete work independently. A teacher may encounter the following challenges in a classroom: Talking Cheating Special Needs - however there is usually  support for this in the US Mental Health Issues Minor fighting Tardiness Skipping Horsing around Sleeping
What students call us:	Teacher Josh & Teacher Beth - Most students just call us Teacha	Mr. Deal & Mrs. Deal
Grades	A class subject is comprise of 100 points, 60 points each semester for daily work (30 given prior to midterms and 30 given after), 20 points for midterm test, and 20 points for final test. - In almost all cases students cannot fail, you must pass them. If a teacher fails a student, the teacher must do extra work with the student to make them pass. *We have seen that this can create a huge problem in some students work.  At times little effort is put into their school work because they know they will pass no matter what they do.	Points are at the teachers decision, whatever fits their class. - Students can fail. *Students have to put in effort to make sure that they do not fail.

 

Other  things we have learned is it takes a lot more time to get through material. Something that would get completed in one class period at home takes 2-3 class periods here. A fair amount of teaching material gets left out. Teaching time is reduced by students wandering in late, taking attendance, having to stop and have the students quiet themselves, students escaping the classroom, explaining things multiple times and then having the best English speaking student translate it for the rest of the class. Homework is out of the questions in most classes, because many students will lose it or do not understand when it is due, or many will copy it anyway (take pictures of it with their cell phones). 

This has been such a learning experience! We remember entering classrooms of 30-50 students, some of which did not speak any English, (mainly Josh’s classes) on the first day wondering how we were going to teach with constant talking and moving around. But we made it! Some days were rough and we came home a bit frustrated; but it’s like that with any job. Other days we left the classrooms very happy and excited thinking that we might have made a difference in their English ability. We were forced to grow as teachers, adapting to new methods to better serve our students needs and abilities. We are both very proud of what we have done and would not trade this experience with our students, colleagues, and school for anything knowing that we have become better teachers and people because of it.

We will certainly miss certain things about teaching in Thailand. We love hearing the students greeting message at the beginning of class and their “thank you teacha” at the end of class. Or whenever we see a student, in or out of school, both hands start flailing in a waving motion as they yell “hi teacha!!!”

The students greeting before every class period.

Or how some students will seek you out at lunch just to say hi. We will also miss being the celebrity couple (Beshua... okay I just made that name up) on the block, Josh being the tall white teacher, and Beth the only white female at school. We will miss some of the great students we have gotten to know over the past 5 months - especially those who have taken great care of us at times and been our personal translators and tour guides.

 

2/1 Class (we both teach) giving us a little goodbye performance.

What’s Next?

A few of Beth’s family members are traveling to Thailand to visit for 10 days. We are so excited for them to see and experience our life in Thailand. It will be nice to see familiar faces and spend some quality time family!! We plan to spend a few days in our neighborhood and Bangkok, visit the ancient city of Ayutthaya, lay on the beaches of Phuket, and enjoy the mountains of Chiang Mai.

After they leave for the States, we have one day to relax and prepare for our next adventure – Australia! We are traveling to Australia to visit Katrina and James who we haven’t seen them in almost 2 years – so excited to spend time in their neck of the woods!

Lots of fun and family ahead! :)

Erawan Waterfalls - Kanchanaburi

Monday, February 25 is a Buddhist holiday - Makha Bucha. It is a public holiday so no school! We decided to travel for the long weekend. Plan A was relaxing on the beach at Koh Samet, after finding out all hotels were booked. We moved onto Plan B - Kanchanaburi. We had been to Kanchanaburi during orientation week back in October, when we rode elephants and floated down the River Kwai. This time we had a different location to visit - Erawan Waterfalls, a series of 7 tiers of falls.

We left Saturday morning and headed down to Victory Monument to find a van for the 3 hour trip. It was much quicker finding the correct van this time! We got prime seats (near the vent) in the van so no sweating for us! The 3 hour trip went pretty quick. After being dropped off at the bus station we found out it was only 1km walk to our hotel, so we start walking. We settled in to our room then headed down to the pool for some relaxation.

Sunday, after breakfast we made our way back to the bus station to catch a 50 baht (less than $2) bus to Erawan National Park. Having been in Thailand for 5 months, the bus we rode didn't surprise me at all; no ac windows open, wooden floor, rusted body, the broken door that were fastened open. We made the 1.5 hour trip up into the mountains, people getting on and off the bus along the way. Because we have a Thailand work visa we were able to enter the park at the Thai rate which is 40 baht instead of the foreigner price of 200 baht. Once paid and in we all got off the bus and started making our way to the first tier of the waterfall.

Door wide open as we drive.

It was a bit of a walk, with so many people on the first and second tier of the waterfall we decided to continue moving up. We stopped at the third tier to dip our legs in, then kept moving up. The four tier was great! Two massive rocks acted as the water slide into the deep aqua blue pool below. We each slid a few times and swam a bit, kicking often to keep the fish from nibbling the dead skin off our feet. Time to keep moving, we continued to make our way up on the rough rocky path. We briefly stopped at the 5th tier, then kept moving up. We came to a fork in the road and saw three little monkeys playing in the trees. We took the path leading to the seventh tier. This was turning into quite the hike - rocks, tree roots, wooden bridges and shaky wooden steps. Glad we decided to go all the way to the top - the view was gorgeous! Waterfalls gently coming down from the mountain that surrounded it. After the long hike up we again jumped into the cool blue water, swam under the waterfall, and climbed up another waterfall. We had a lot of fun!

3rd Tier

Josh on the natural waterslide

4th Tier

5th Tier

7th Tier

We started to make our way back down the path. It was easier coming down, but still took some effort! On our way we quickly stopped to peak at the sixth tier. Finally down, we changed and hopped on the bus and headed back to town. Our seat was right in the back of this old run down bus, the door wide open. Gotta love Thailand buses!

6th Tier

Once back in town we enjoyed a very late lunch at a great little place and walked through the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery  where almost 7000 allied troops were buried. They had died during World War II while building a railroad and bridge over the river near this town. They were imprisoned by the Japanese. Most of the fallen soldiers were British, Australian, and from the Netherlands.

Later, we got a massage to relax our hard worked muscles (we hiked about 2 miles in the mountains in flip-flops.) A great end to a great day! Oh and did we mention - our bed is soft, our pillows fluffy and the water is hot - so we are living in luxury and loving it!

Valentine's Day & Other News

Happy Valentine's Day from Thailand - a bit late. Valentine's Day here was quite the experience, they sure like to celebrate - but not with the little Valentine's Day cards we give out. They go bigger!

First, lets back up to the a few days prior to Valentine's Day. Beth was asked by two of the Thai teachers, more like told, that the two of us will be doing a presentation about Valentine's Day at morning assembly - in front of 3700+ students and staff. We were to give a presentation about the history of Valentine's Day, how to celebrate it and explain different symbols of the day, then end it with a kiss!?! The next day it turned into us two and a student translating and interviewing us about the holiday and no kiss. Later that day it turned into just Beth and the student, same interview. Beth had some minor research to do on the history of Valentine's Day, then she and the student wrote a little mock script comprising of 4 questions and answers. Beth was also instructed to wear pink on Valentine's Day. 
 
On Valentine's Day - the sidewalks were filled with flower, candy, and sticker vendors with students gathering around purchasing all their Valentine's Day goodies. We got to school and made our way down to the quad for morning assembly. First up on the program was a dance, performed by four ladyboys. This dance was one of the most provocative dirty dances we have seen in Thailand, and it was in school.

 
Following this interesting and provocative dance (a hard act to follow), was Beth's interview. The student would ask the question in Thai then in English, Beth would then respond in English and the student would translate to Thai for the students. It went pretty well.

 

After the interview, two English Program students (we both teach them) did a small presentation on their upcoming study abroad experience. Then they presented us with beautiful flower creations.

 

 Us with the the two boy students traveling abroad to study soon, the girl student in the middle is who interviewed Beth. We both have these students in class.

 








Whew - got through morning assembly, now onto classes. Students were giving flowers, stuffed animals, and candy to everyone - friends, girlfriends, boyfriends. It seemed like everyone had a few roses from a special someone! Then the stickers - wow the stickers! Student would cover their uniform in Valentine's themed stickers, some forming words and others just placed haphazardly all over their shirt. Josh was given many stickers by his M2 students, Beth was proposed to by an M1 student. We both received a one flower from different students.

Other News:
An interesting thing the M2 students do every Thursday - clean the fish tanks. There are 4 or 5 huge fish tanks behind our building. We're told that students raise them and sell them once fully grown. It's so funny to watch them cleaning! Students in the tanks attempting to gather all the fish to one side as they scrub the walls on the other side. The fish all wiggle attempting to find freedom. It's quite the sight!

There is a carnival in our neighborhood for the next couple days. We are told it is in celebration of the upcoming Buddhist holiday on the 25th. Many carnival games are set up, a Ferris Wheel, a few bouncy houses, trampolines, and even little trains for children. There are also a few street vendors selling different items and numerous food stalls. Our sidewalk is flooded with several different stalls. We ventured down to on Friday night, looking for supper, we found a great savory rotti with chicken and onions. We were slowly making our way through the carnival back to our apartment when Beth stopped dead in her tracks - She saw an NDSU t-shirt hanging on the fence behind a street vendor selling American t-shirts from who knows where. WHAT?!? We had to buy it - only 59 baht or $2 USD! Our first NDSU shirt and we bought it in Thailand!

School News:
Today marks the last week of actual teaching for us! We will teach this week and next week is finals week. Finals week means students are taking final tests and the foreign teachers sit in the office all week and "grade." Wow - this time has gone by so fast - can't believe it! More reflection later next week when we have all day to compose a reflections blog.

Oh and Josh has no classes today - his M2 get a day off to rest.

Weekend in Nonthaburi & Bangkok

This past weekend Jess and Alex decided to visit our neighborhood. We were excited to show them our life in Nonthaburi. Their bus arrived on Saturday at 6AM - so early! We met them at their hotel, then went to find some breakfast. Shortly after the rain started pouring! It hasn't rained in about 2 weeks and it poured for about an hour!! This made for a wet walk back to our apartment. Attempting to dry off and grabbing some street donuts and 7-11 food, we visited a mall near us, something Alex and Jess do not have in Mae Sot. After a great lunch at a cute Italian place in the mall, we cooled off by the pool and soaked up the sun.

Saturday night we headed to downtown Bangkok to meet up with some other OEG teachers for dinner, at a sushi buffet. We were a bit nervous about the whole sushi thing, haven't ever had it before. The sushi restaurant had a moving treadmill type thing with many different ingredients to make soup.There was a stove with a pot on it in the middle of our table. We could grab food from the treadmill and throw it into the boiling pot. There were also many types of sushi, soda, and ice cream. We walked through the sushi line, unsure of what to grab yet filling our plates. Guess what..... Beth loved it!! Josh enjoyed it but it turns out that sushi is not his favorite food. We tried a few soup items but the sushi was the best! It was great to try new things and meet up with fellow OEG teachers.

To end the evening, us four went bowling. Fun times!

Loving Sushi!

Sunday we ventured out to Chatuchak Weekend Market. We wandered around, purchasing items here and there. The heat and crowds became too much so we returned to the pool to cool off. That evening we traveled to Asiatique, a converted warehouse block. It is now nice restaurants and shops next to the river, there is also a newly built Ferris Wheel. We enjoyed a great meal outdoors with live music. After dinner we  rode the Ferris Wheel. Each enclosed pod was air-conditioned! We went around 5 or 6 times and enjoyed great views of the city. Asiatique is such a beautiful area! We wanted to spend more time down there, but because we worked in the morning we left a bit early.

This weekend was Chinese New Year, so where ever we went we saw some sort of Chinese display or dance through the streets!

Monday, we went to work. Jess and Alex explored on their own. After school we met up to enjoy massages and grabbed supper. The massage place we usually go to only had three masseuses, so they stayed and we went to one of the other four places in the mall. We walked into one but decided to leave because it was a very odd place, all manly ladyboy masseuses, odd smell, and uncomfortable chairs. We did find another place to go, but we decided that our original place is the best one in that mall.

It was great to have Jess and Alex in our neighborhood, especially considering we will not see them until April, right before we go back to America. They have been great travel buddies and friends!