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Our school
The primary building and the canteen.A Day in the Life of.....
Kate Sorry, we haven’t written any blogs lately, we don’t get a lot of access to the internet these days, and not a lot of time to write them. So we will write a couple now to make up for it and keep you in touch with what we are doing. To start with we thought you might be interested to know a bit more about what we do day-to-day, now that we are working……
Our alarm goes off at 6am, and after we have had a shower and got dressed and eaten a bit of breakfast we leave the flat. We wear different uniforms every day. On a Monday all teachers in Thailand (and many other Thai’s) wear a yellow ‘King’ polo shirt, in honour of the King of Thailand’s 80th birthday this year. Yellow is the colour of the King because it is the colour of the day he was born. The kids all wear the polo shirts on a Monday too, so the school is a sea of yellow. We wear the polo shirts with whatever trousers and shoes we want. On a Tuesday and a Thursday we
dress smart, shirts and ties and smart trousers and shoes. On a Wednesday we wear lilac polo shirts that are the P.E uniform, and on Friday’s it is supposed to be Thai style dress. Thai style is silk or the sort of hippy style clothes they sell in alternative shops at home. It actually seems to just be ‘mufti’, as everyone seems to wear their own clothes. The children wear different uniform each day too, down to the socks and shoes. It can get abit confusing and as you can imagine, there is always one child each day in the wrong uniform!
Our flat is about a 5-10 minute drive from the school, along the same road. We usually get a taxi there, it costs about 50p. We get to school at about 7.15. I know, I just heard all of you who used to work with me in the Highways Agency ‘s jaws drop to the floor when I said I was at work for 7.15!! It is pretty amazing I know! Actually it never seems that early, because in Thailand everyone is up and about and going to work and school at 6-7am. Its also never cold
Outside our building in the morning
Everyone travels about on mopeds and motorbikes here. I guess it's the weather. They travel 2-5 to a bike! If you don't want to take a taxi, you can take a motorbike taxi, where a guy on a bike takes you where you want to go. There arnt any helmets obviously. Safety first and all that. and dark at that time like it is in the UK, which makes it more bearable! We go to our classrooms and finish preparing stuff for the day, doing last minute photocopying etc. as the children arrive. We work from our Grade 1 classrooms, which are side by side on the 1st floor of the school.
Just before 8am we line up outside with all the children ready to raise the flag. The students sing the National anthem as the flag is raised and then say prayers in Thai and English. After flagpole there are various activities each day, meditation, running or a vocabulary game in English or Thai. After that lessons start.
We each teach three lessons of English every day, to Grades 1-3. I teach 1P, 2P and 3P whilst Kris teaches 1A, 2A and 3A. The children we teach can already communicate in English and understand us, the ones that can’t go to a special unit to try and improve their English to the level of the other children. There are about 10-12 children left in each class. The classes last 50 minutes and our English classes are usually in the morning. In the afternoon
Songthaew
truck that transports people up and down the Soi. Notice everyone on the bus is wearing their yellow King shirts. we sometimes each some other lessons: I teach health to Grade 1P and 1A, and art to Grade 1P. Kris teaches art to Grades 3A and 3P and P.E to Grade 1P and 1A. We also each spend ½ hour on a Friday with the pre-Kindergarten children, aged from 1 1/2 - 3.
In total we teach around 3-5 lessons a day. The rest of the time we sit at the back of our homeroom classroom and prepare the lesson for the next day, do our paperwork and check the children are ok. There is a 15 minute break in the morning and a ½ hour lunch break. We get lunch provided at school, its supposed to be some kind of Chinese-Thai fusion meal. This means its rice, with curry, veg, fish or some kind of other dishes on top. It’s not great, the meat is mainly bones and scary looking non-descript pieces of animal, the fish is all bones and has the head and fins and tails still on and the veg is a bit bland. Ah well, its free.
The school day finishes officially at 3pm. However, a lot of the children to after school extra
Mobile breakfast
motorbikes like this drive around the streets and will cook you various meals. Meals on wheels indeed! language classes in Chinese, Thai and English until 5pm. I teach an after school class of 4 Grade 1 students from 3pm - 3.40pm. Kris teaches another 5 Grade 1 students from 3.40 until 4.20. At 4.30 we can go home. We usually take a taxi back to our flat. After a short rest we often go to the sports centre to use the gym or the pool or both. There is also a small café there where we eat our dinner. Other evenings we eat dinner in the seafood restaurant over the road. We are usually in bed by about 9pm ready for another long day.
On a Friday we go away for the weekend. When we get back to the flat we pack a weekend bag. We also put all our washing in bags and take it to the laundry. There is a serviced laundry in our apartment building where they wash, dry and iron our clothes and return them to us on Sunday neatly pressed, on hangers and smelling fresh and clean. Its great and all for about 5 quid. Bargain. Why do your own washing? We then jump in a taxi to Bangkok, returning on
My classroom
Without any children in it. It's nice and quiet like that! Sunday for another week of school.
If you fancy teaching English in Thailand, or elsewhere, check out the advice and information on our other blog:
What Kate and Kris Did
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