The "Real" Job

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Teaching continues to be the roller coaster of a lifetime. In good news, I have finally tamed my 5 year olds!!!!! I decided to split them up into color team and put a chart on the board. The chart has a giant ice cream cone at the end and four tricycles (designated for each team) moving towards the cone. If the team is good, they get points, if they are bad, they get points taken away. At the end of the day I move the tricycles towards the ice cream cone based on how many points they received. The first team to get to the cone will get ice cream at the end of the course.

This has proven to be most effective. I usually start the day by effectively playing musical chairs to get them used to sitting quickly and quietly in their designated color team spots when I ask them. The teams that do it the fastest get points. This helps them use a bit of energy up before class so they stay more focused during the lesson. My 5 year olds can now tell me what day it is, what the weather is like, use Can and Can’t, tell me what action I’m doing, what color I’m holding up and pronounce the letters V-Z. I feel much more accomplished this time around.

I did have some trouble students in that class that have now simmered down. Instead of being disciplinarian Kelsey, I’m Arjan Kelsey, the fun teacher who gives high fives and hugs and gives special privileges to students who are very good. Though they still wear me out, I do enjoy seeing them run in every day with big smiles on their faces excited for my class.

My 8 year olds are getting a bit more rebellious. They are still a great class and a great way to end the day, but some of my students are being more liberal with their behavior. Instead of listening to me right away, they continue to talk and carry on. I’ve had to remind them that I am the Teacher and the one they have to listen to. Sometimes I do some listening exercises to get their attention like saying “hands up” really fast and the last person to raise one hand and cover their mouth with the other hand gets a point taken away. This usually gets their attention real quick. This course I spent a lot of time teaching them vocabulary and working on possessive and object pronouns. They’ve done quite well in fact, despite the addition of two new students in the middle of the course. Most all of them are moving along at a good pace and having tons of fun in class.

My high schoolers have definitely warmed up to me. I’ve started playing more games with them so they enjoy class a lot more. I spent the last few weeks prepping them for their midterm, which they all did very well on. However, there is the issue of cheating . Here in Thailand, cheating is not a huge offense in school, which really really bothers me. Someone else proctored my exam for me, so I wasn’t there to observe my own students and stop any copying or cheating. Also, in our particular program we are not allowed to fail our students because we need their parents’ money to fund our program (or so our director says). It is very frustrating as a teacher to see cheating and copying and know that there is nothing I can do about it; something I will just have to let go during my time here in Thailand.

I do forget sometimes that although I technically work at a “high school,” my students are only 13 & 14 years old. They’re still the equivalent of 8th graders and middle schoolers in the U.S. They certainly act like it sometimes. Jeeheon and I cause quite a stir up amongst our students. Although we’ve never told them directly and we don’t display it at all, our students have deducted that we’re dating. Jeeheon is their math teacher and I’m they’re English teacher and together we’re a subject in their everlasting gossip circles. It is actually quite funny for us to be a part of sometimes, though we make sure to never act inappropriately or obviously at school. Many times have my female students (who all have a crush on Jeeheon) come up to me and asked, “Teacher are you and Jeeheon (pause) you know…?” To which I always respond, “I don’t know what you mean…could you rephrase that in better English?” which always gets them to roll their eyes and walk away tittering. The boys (who all have a crush on me) do the same to Jeeheon, who also gets a kick out of it. Ah the joys of middle school life.

We have a month and a half left in the semester. Our finals will be in the last week of February and then we will get a bit of a break at the high school. I will continue to work the same hours at the Language, teaching my little kids, but hopefully have a little less stress. Then the new semester will begin in April. Although I enjoy teaching, for some reason it has been difficult for me to feel completely comfortable. I am always stressing about getting my lesson plans done, making sure I’m prepped for all of my classes and constantly worrying about things I think I’ve forgotten to do. I’m still learning those tricks and activities I can rely on when a lesson goes sour. I have a few go-to games, but I always feel as though I’ve failed as a teacher when a lesson goes bad. Even though I know that isn’t true, I still have a hard time feeling as though I’ve accomplished anything with my classes when things don’t go as planned, which they never do. An obstacle I will have to overcome soon or the stress will start to eat away at me from the inside.

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