Teaching...the finale.

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I’m baaaack! This blog is well overdue and I’m sorry for not keeping everyone updated. A lot has happened since I last wrote, but I’ll try and keep it to a mere short story rather than a novel.

With regards to teaching, things got a little smoother as the semester progressed. Along with picking up A LOT more Thai, I started to not care so much that the students were being devils because there wasn’t much I could do about it. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in another blog, but I found out that the school I was at is literally one of the worst schools in Ayutthaya. All the students that don't get into the good schools go to Ayutthaya Nusorn (A tuk tuk driver asked where I taught and when I told him he replies "I'm so sorry!") After I let go of (mostly) all my frustrations with the school and the students, I started having a little more fun! I went from being overly tedious in my lesson plans to just planning games and fun activities.

I also was asked to hold after school English lessons for the Thai teachers. I reluctantly accepted even though the pay was horrible and it added a few extra hours on top of my already overloaded class-schedule. I was given a power-point to use by my boss which turned out to be way too difficult for most of the teachers since they probably hadn’t had an English class since college. After about a month of just reading through the power-point and seeing how un-affective it was, I started planning activities and doing games with the teachers, which turned out to actually be quite enjoyable! When teaching normal students, it is customary for them to stand at the end of the class and say “thank you, teacher”. This same routine was used by the Thai teachers in my class. You can imagine how awkward I felt to have about 30, much older, teachers stand and address me like I was their superior! Overall, I’m glad I did the teacher training because it made me more connected to the teachers at the school. School ultimately ended for me on September 16.

A few weeks before school ended a student came up to me and asked me if I was Christian. After saying that I was she said she was Protestant and (after grabbing the nearest teacher to help translate) asked if I could tutor her and her friends. Every time I saw this student she would always say ‘God bless’ before leaving….so cute! I was only able to tutor them a few times but I made more progress with them than the entire semester with my classes. Getting them to successfully make the “r” and “th” sounds was immensely gratifying!!! Before I left for good, she gave me a card that reads, “Hi Genna, you will go to him. If you return to the United States do not forget me. I thought I would miss you so much. Although I will be with you in a few days. thank you so much I am very glad to know you. Thank God for a few days. I love you. I ask God to bless them. By Mint.” Many students didn’t quite understand that I wasn’t coming back to the school.

I'm going to keep this blog short...but don't worry, my next one will have all the fun stuff in it 😉

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