The first day of school was a little bit stressful more so because some of the other teachers in my office had already started planning ahead and creating lesson plans. For most of the day, we sat in our office, planned, chatted and relaxed. I only had to spend a few minutes in my grade 6 English classes to introduce myself and go over a few rules that I wanted to have established.
The second day was a bit more stressful only because I was actually teaching a full class all by myself. The stress quickly faded away when I was up in front of my students because I realized pretty early on that all of the stress I usually experienced in front of my kids was because I had an associate teacher in the room with me back at practicum in Canada. Here, I had no other teacher sitting in watching, hearing, and jumping in on my lesson. It put me at ease and made it a lot easier to do my thing. The first couple of days were basically me setting the rules, explaining my reward system, and desperately trying to decorate my classroom. It just now had its boards replaced, it leaks 24/7 into a couple of buckets, and my door doesn’t have a doorknob. It has air con and an amazing group of students in it so I really can’t complain.
A basic rundown of my schedule: I have English classes with the two grade 6 classes (6A and 6B). I also have classes called Conversation and Reading. Both of which I have separately for each grade 6 class. These supplementary classes are always taught with two teachers. My grade 6 reading classes are co-taught with Teacher Steve (He’s been here for a long time and is super helpful). I also co-teach with his grade 5 reading classes. My conversation classes are with Teacher Jeremy (Also been here a while and also very helpful). The schedule has 8 periods with a short homeroom period at the end of the day. They are 50 minutes long and the students have a 15 minute break after 2 classes. Second break is a 50 minute lunch.
My schedule usually consists of two classes in the morning, three prep periods and then two classes at the end of the day. I have gate duty on Fridays which means I have to be at the gate by 6:45 to greet students, parents and teachers as they enter. We greet them using the traditional Wai gesture. If the students are walking in, they will put all of their belongings down, stop, and Wai back. As parents drive in with their kids, they slow down to wind their windows down to make sure that I see them and their kids wai'ing me back.
I’m also paired up with Teacher Lee (from England) for club days on Wednesday. Every Wednesday 8th period the kids get to do a club activity. They decide which club they would like to be in. This year I think there is a sports club, a movie club, fitness and food, juggling, and swimming club which is what Lee and I will be doing. Our campus has a beautiful pool and I can't wait to get to use it, I mean, supervise the kids.
So far my kids have been reasonably well behaved. The school has a system in place where the students are fined 20 Baht every time they speak Thai in an English class. I’ve collected about 160 Baht so far. The money I collect will go towards prizes or end of unit parties for the kids, so it does go back to them in some way in the end.
On Fridays, first period is reserved for worship where all of Prathom (Primary) goes to a special room for a service. The teachers get to just hang out while this goes on.
Another really interesting part of our day is the beginning announcements. Every day, the entire school lines up with their homerooms in the back courtyard. They do some simple exercises from attention to at-ease and so on. Then the school sings the national anthem (on fridays they also sing the King's song). Afterwards, a group of Prathom students lead the school in song. They then join their homerooms and another student comes out to lead the school in reciting the school motto, the school philosophy in both Thai and English. At the end, a Farang teacher comes out for the morning announcements and then sends the kids off to class. This is where I come in! I walk my homeroom to their class. That's it. It's a really important job though.
So far, everything has been spectacular. I can't wait to really get into the thick of my unit plans and long term goals for my students.
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