Mai Bpen Rai!

Compilation of photos put together by my co-teacher in KG 1.

Well I've now been here almost a whole month, and I figured I should actually talk a little bit about how school's going, considering that that's the main reason why I'm here. For those of you who don't know, I am teaching three levels of kindergarten in the English Bilingual Program at Assumption College in Ubon Ratchathani. The KG 1/1's are about three and a half years old, the KG 2/1's are about   four to five years old, and the KG 3/1's are usually about five. In my time at UVM, I never worked with kindergartners, so this is a very different experience and age group than any I have worked with. There are between 30-35 kids in each class, and they are all at varying levels of social development and academic understanding. Most of the students are also in the EBP program because their parents want them to learn English, but they do not really know much. There are a handful of kids who are half-Thai and half-British, American, or Australian and they can be good with helping out. However, it can be difficult communicating with students who, native English speaker or not, would have a hard time in the classroom because they are so little.

The first week was definitely a struggle, mostly because there really isn't any sort of built-in system for, well, much of anything here especially in the schools. Everything-supplies, lesson plans, activities-is up to the teacher and everyone basically plans alone. This can be kind of cool because it gives you a bit of autonomy over the classroom environment, but it was definitely frustrating and a lot to get used to. In the States, we're really used to people holding our hand through everything (that's not true for everyone, but coming to a country where you're forced to be really independent makes you realize how much of everything we really do have in the States). Here, while every single person is always smiling and they all try to be helpful, everything is still up to you.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Mammote. 

There is never a problem or a worry here either-again something which is good many times, but can be maddening when you actually want something to get done. They have a saying, "Mai bpen rai" which basically means "no worries." It's awesome that nothing ever seems to be a major problem here, but in some ways, I think that is why the education system is still very much in the past here-no progress is made because there is never anything to overcome. But to keep it simple, my experience has been pretty awesome so far.

Bannet (pronounce Bonnet) and Andrew (KG 2).

The kids are so excited to see you everyday-it's kind of nice to have at least 90 people absolutely psyched to see you for no reason other than that you're their teacher. Some of their names are kind of ridiculous (i.e. Nurse, Fern, Chogun, Garfield, Ice, Island, Focus, and Chompu to name a few), but that makes them easier to remember (?).

We're supposed to use these St. Gabriel's Foundation "workbooks" which are a little overly simplistic and can be a waste of time if you ask me...or any of the teachers. But because they are so easy, you can make up games and activities to play with the kids because the lessons are so vague that they give you. So far, in Math the KG 1's have learned how to count to ten and have done some addition; the KG 2's have done addition and matching numbers to their number names; and the KG 3's have done word problems in addition and they can count to about 50. Science is all about body parts and trees and animals, while English is basically stuffing their brains with as much vocabulary as you can think of. The interesting thing is that the teacher before me checked things off in the workbooks that the students "understood" or "completed," but when I give them tasks on these things that should be automatic to them, they really don't understand. I'm basically starting over from the beginning with some of the kids because I think it's wrong to just push kids through the system even though that happens here a lot. For example, when doing the ABC's with the KG 1's, I sometimes put the cards out of order to see if they actually know the letter rather than having memorized the order. About two-thirds of the time they do not say the correct letter for a while because they've simply memorized the sounds of the letters, not what they actually look like or represent.

Day after said wedding: Family Day at school.

Okay, I'm being too analytical. The co-teachers are all awesome and they all do their VERY best to convey the information to the kids in Thai. It's hilarious sometimes when the kids start doing an activity the exact opposite way that I intended because the language is just so different, but you learn to roll with things literally all of the time here.

I've never considered myself to be a super laid-back person; I can be, but I like getting things done and being organized and I don't always "go with the flow." However, living in Thailand has taught me that it's better to be happy then to be right (thank you Eliza Arsenault). I am really argumentative and stubborn, two qualities which have served me both negatively and positively, but are two qualities which really have no place here. Arguing is useless because there are "no worries" for literally every problem or argument, and being stubborn is equally useless since there is nothing that stubbornness gets you here. I am grateful for that aspect of Thai culture because it's taught me to keep my mouth shut a lot more than I used to, and to just appreciate all of the small things that people do for you rather than focusing on the one bad thing and letting it ruin your day.

Getting my nails did at Family Day.

I'll definitely be writing more about school and the kids in the future, so don't you kids worry. I threw in some random photos at the bottom for your viewing pleasure. Mai bpen rai!!!

UVM Represent! At Juice's drinkin' some juices.

I went to a Thai wedding...and had a VERY good night.

P.S. I don't know why, but the captions aren't showing up when I post this...If you want to know, just ask!