Wat Srakaew

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The TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course is finished with. Four weeks, of which I estimate 4 hours of it to be useful and practical information. The rest seemed to be a load of theory, which I won’t be able to relate to until I actually start teaching. After the TEFL course was a two week TEYL (Teaching English to Young Learners) course. That is also finished with now. One of the requirements of the TEYL course was to actually go to a school and teach young kids. The following entry is with regards to teaching at Wat Srakaew.

Wat Srakaew is located, I believe, about two hours north of Bangkok. The place it's-self is called Ang Thong and the temple is near Bpa Mod. Did that make any sense?! Exactly. A previous TEYL lesson in Bangkok involved us, the students, being given our subjects to be taught. It was a briefing, a means of assistance and apart from that a waste of a day. The subjects were handed out and my topic was to be clothing, ok should be kind of easy I thought. The rest of the day we prepared our lesson plans and were given guidance. We had to wait about until the afternoon for a guy to come down to the office, I still don’t know what the point of this was, nothing but general irrelevant banter was exchanged.

I managed to get about quarter of my lesson plan done at the school that day. I completed two lesson plans the day prior to actually teaching. Two plans were said to be needed because and I quote "You will be teaching mixed class's of mixed ages, one younger group (7-10) and one older group (10-16)" My plans were almost the same, I just changed one or two activities to suit the ages. Furthermore, we didn't even have a clue what sort of level the children’s English was at. How can an effective plan be completed without this information I thought. Oh well, I just got on with it and hoped everything would be fine.

The big day landed. I had my plans; I bought some crayons, glue sticks, blank paper, paper clips and a load of other stuff. The dress code was relaxed; as long as the ladies covered there shoulders and everyone appeared smart it was all good. I chose to wear a short sleeved shirt and trousers. If you feel the part then you act the part right?! I was ready, relaxed and dare I say confident.

The plan was to meet at the TEFL school for 9am & then we would all jump in the mini bus to the temple. Myself & a Thai friend, born in England and currently living in Bangkok decided we wouldn’t go in the mini bus. Instead he would drive us there in his vintage datsun. I did not doubt the car one bit, only 2/3 weeks prior we drove from Bangkok to koh phangnan (bloody far). However, I did doubt his punctuality! Like I stated in one of my prior journal entries Thai people have a tendency to be late. Late he was. About an hour late! That hour was a long hour. I waited around the TEFL school, got a star buck’s coffee and ate a ham & cheese cuiousant. Smoking myself stupid and revising my lesson plans seemed to help kill the time. By the time Pun came I was a sweating freak, a shambles I didn't think we would make it to the temple in time for the first lesson.

During the expected two hour drive I once again took the time out to study my lesson plans. About thirty minutes into the trip I realised something was missing. My bag of fekin props...Oh My God! Sh!te! I say props, though, it was really just a bag of clothes. That bag of clothes compromised a twenty plus minute activity of my lesson plan. I was screwed. Whilst previously waiting about for Pun I left my bag of props in the TEFL office. When Pun arrived I was so singly minded thinking that we was going to be late that I forgot to collect my props. It was like a big sweat bomb going off inside me. It hit home and hard. I poured and immediately needed a sh!t!

We thought we was going to be late so stopping for a sh!t break wasn't something we really wanted to do. I held it out. Ten minutes later I couldn't wait no more. We stopped. Getting out of Bangkok is always a nice experience. The air was clean, the traffic was light and the views were pleasant. We stopped at a garage in the middle of know-where. Running alongside the garage was a flat roofed shabby building, yes these were the toilets. I knew there wouldn’t be any toilet paper so I bought some from the garage and made my way to the unexpected. It was hot as, I was sweating, panicking cause I left my props behind and then to top it all off im faced with having to shit in a shabby smelly building that has squat toilets. God knows how people use these things without their legs trembling and resembling a moronic sepo with parkinsons. I proceeded and did the best I could. I was scared that whilst squatting over shit would drop onto the back of my trousers. Was I even using these toilets correctly? Fek knows. I just know I hate the things. Here's a lovely pic of a squat toilet. I think you put your feet on the two flat panels either side. A brave person could try sitting on it but that isn’t really advised =)



Mission empty bowels completed now I had to sort out my sweating problem. The good oll Johnsons baby talc was needed. Luckily the garage sold it, I covered myself in it. And unfortunately my black bag too! Back to the car and off we set again. The route we took was by far quicker than the route the mini-bus took. We got to the temple about thirty minutes after the mini-bus. We made it in time.

When we arrived at the temple/orphanage they was on their lunch break. Here's another shitey pic. This is the road we drove down & parked at.



Walking down the road towards the teachers canteen kids were walking up & wai'ing us (hands in a preying like manner, raised to the upper chest or above & slightly bowing) It's a mark of respect and the higher the hands are raised depends on your status amongst a load of other stuff I don’t really understand! At the canteen the rest of the TEFL group (mini-bus'ers) were sat around the table eating. There was meals prepared for us but I wasn't even hungry. Nerves had taken over my hunger! I attempted to eat what I could, though I only had a few mouthfuls it's a mark respect.

The time came. We, the teachers, were partnered together and whilst one person would be teaching the other would be observing. I and Brian, a chap from New Zealand were previously partnered and assigned our class room. Due to the mishap of leaving my props behind Brian kindly suggested that he would take the first lesson whilst I reorganised, re-planned and generally scrutinised my shambles of a plan. It helped!

Observing Brian's lesson gave me the time to, as said, reorganise my work etc. Though, his lesson appeared so smooth and trouble free that it kind of put me on edge! Here's a few snaps of Brian in action. He does have snaps of me teaching too. Getting them from him is another thing. As soon as I get the pic's I'll update this entry.





***This update has taken me weeks so I'll cut to the chase and get this entry finished with!***

The introduction and first activity of my class went well. After which I had another activity where the students were put into three groups and told to turn over two images at a time from a selection of 10+ images. The images had to be matched and the word said correctly to gain a point for that team. I didn't think it out quite aswell as I should of... I had three teams and the three teams were turning over a set of images each. Thus, the final score would have ultimately been the same. When I realised this I thought fek, I feked this right up...and calmly proceeded to say "Ok that’s enough practice! Now for the real thing haha! one set of images was then used between the three teams, which avoided identical scores! Phew... It also helped to waste some more time ; ) The last ten minutes of my lessons consisted of a short time wasting activity namely 'hangman'. God I love that game =)

After the class's all the teachers were hurried to the main hall and sat in front of a big banner. It was a big promotional fiasco, gaining face for the school and company? After handing out a load of certificates to the students and being repeatedly blinded by a million camera flashes we were let out of the cage! We were free, until we got to the hall entrance, where we were, once again, asked to pose for some pictures. Hot, sweaty, relieved and blinded we headed back to the car.

In all, it was a good day, even if it did have its fuk-ups. It was a good experience and a learning one at that. Has it helped? Yes, it has helped tremendously. The first class was a nervous experience and I’m sure most, if not all, the teachers who went to the wat will agree with me.

Until next time ...

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