The Teaching.

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Tuesday (7/7/15) morning I'm up super early again but am finally able to go back to sleep. I sleep until almost 7 am and I'm so happy. The little things in life. We have breakfast and the a teacher picks us up. We're now just 3 volunteers so we are all going to the same school to teach today. It's a planned full day and I'm excited about it!

We drive about 15 and then arrive at a big school. When you enter there is an elaborate wall and gate. Some of it is made out of colored stone. Other parts look like a temple woth the white walls and decorative red and gold tops. The grounds are beautiful! There is a massive tree on one side and plenty of medium size trees to fill in all around. The area is U-shaped with buildings on the three sides and a large soccer field in the center. There's also a basketball court! We are taken into the main office room and it's sort of set up like a conference room. There's a class of students in the room already and as it turns out there is a visiting teacher. He's a retired guy originally from this part of Thailand who moved to the US as a young child. He studied at Northwestern and worked at ABC for many years. He's been spending more time back in Thailand and comes into the school when he can to help teach English. We bonded over Chicago.

We introduced ourselves to the students and they did the same. One of the ways they show respect here is that they stand to greet you. So the class leader says something in Thai, all the kids stand and then they say "good morning teacher. How are you?" To which we all had to respond with good morning, i am fine. Every class throughout the day did this. It was so sweet!

For all the classes today we are teaching the concepts of: on, under, inside, outside, left and right. This is far harder than ot sounds. The Thai language is so very different from English. And we're dealing with two very hard languages. Thai has something like 44 letters and then, well we all know how weird and strange English is...there, their, they're. I mean...the examples are endless and hell, most English-speaking people say things wrong all the time. As i look at the words and our Pooh bear and box, I realize the challenge we have. I'm hoping i can channel my 8th grade grammar teacher. Miss Brose...where ever you are, please help!

We start off the day with older students and it goes fairly well. By class 2, we have a great rhythm. We even have the kids laughing. We came up with a game where they have to listen to what we say and then show us what it means. For example, put the bear on the box. They would then stand there and you could see the wheels turning in their heads. They would then out the bear on the box. Lots of cheers, clapping and hi-fives were given! The Thai children are a very joyful bunch!

After the 4th class we had lunch. We ate in the cafeteria and sat at the teacher's table. The school was so sweet...they made a special lunch for us since we can't eat spicey food like the Thais. Lunch was amazing. The best part was the fruit. We had bananas, lechy and mangosteen (my new favorite!!!!). We get to know the teachers. There are two teachers that speak English. They ask us questions and are also very happy to have us around so they can continue to improve their English. We learn about them and their teaching. We learn more about the guy from Chicago. We watch all of the children, around 200 of them, sit so politely and clean up their areas. There is no mess left behind. So refreshing to see. They clearly respect their teachers and school.

In the afternoon we teach two more classes. One class the kids are in 3rd grade and we have to change up the lesson plan. We work on very basic things and teach body parts. I drew a person on the board and when i stepped back felt sorry for the children. Poor kids don't have a chance learning from my drawing. Art was never my strong suit! Ut we have fun with it and the kids have fun and overall the lesson works and they pick up on all the right things! The teacher drove us back to Tree Top and we had a really nice afternoon. It was around 3:30. I rode bikes with Amber and we went to check out the little market near us. They sold pre packaged snacks and drinks and fresh fruit. Plus all sorts of other things like cleaning supplies or farming stuff. I'm really just guessing here since i couldn't read any labels.

After a little siesta at Tree Top, we took a bike ride with a few of the local kids. We rode all around the village and stopped off at the private Catholic school in the area. Here we were able to watch the sun set behind the mountains in the distance. It was beautiful! Then it was back to camp for dinner and bed. What a great second day!!!

*please note, for photos please see my instagram page at Her Sole Abroad.

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