But hold on
to your seats because this just in: the new school year started and in this
eventful week the teachers provided us with no more than 8 hours to teach!
On Monday
and Tuesday we were to help two Thai teachers teach the new pupils revision
lessons before they entered the English classes in our school. I was shocked at
the level of English these children ‘mastered’. Some pupils couldn’t count to
twenty and some had difficulties reciting the alphabet. They have been getting
English lessons since they were 8 years old so I wonder what the hell the
teachers have been doing.
On
Wednesday it was the official start of the new school year. A long morning
ceremony followed by no classes pretty much covered the entire day. So after
half an hour of socializing with colleagues we skipped school (after we had
asked permission) and went home to get some other things done.
On Thursday
most of the teachers still had to go over the new rules, aims for their courses
and so on. Since all of the lessons would be in Thai today we ended up spending
an entire day in the library with no internet. I do love Thai schools, don’t get
me wrong, but spending 8 hours in a room where fans are non-existent? Not cool.
We put on
bold faces and told the teachers that if we didn’t have any classes on Friday,
we would just stay home. Luckily they created a timetable for the upcoming two
weeks so we would have something on our hands. Seems like I’ll be teaching more
than any regular English teacher, but hey, I am not complaining.
After four
lessons (Introducing yourself and revising numbers + alphabet) I was back in ‘the
zone’. The negative vibe we picked up in the last couple of days disappeared once
we were back in front of the classroom, trying to help Thai children understand
a tad more of English than they can possibly learn by their normal teachers.
Oh yeah, I
almost forgot to mention I spotted a strange looking gecko (or chameleon) in
one of the hallways.