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My class at the school
This is Grade 6, class 2. They were a bit rowdier than 6/1 and 6/3 Before I came back to Ao Luk last weekend, I first took the opportunity of going to Ao Nang and seeing the beach and mall there. They have a nice promenade all along the beach with several shops and restaurants. They also boast a Burger King and a Starbucks!
When I got back I met Matt and Mike who had arrived on the Saturday. They were friends from University and both about 21 or so. They are also teaching at the Primary school with me this week. They are both very nice and friendly people and we got on well. It is odd that they only booked their expedition at the last minute, so when I was already in Thailand they were still deciding where to volunteer.
On Monday the three of us walked down to the school, which is only about five minutes or maybe less away, with Jill. She took the first lesson and we watched and tried to learn. I am teaching the fifth and sixth graders who range from about 10 to 12 and Matt and Mike are teaching the younger students. It would be confusing if half the people here called them students and
Me and some students
I am at teh back near the blackboard - see my neat writing? the remaining half pupils, so students has it. Similarly we decide whether to use "flat" or "apartment" and other words that vary between the different brands of English and then try to stick with it. Ohterwise it would be confusing to the students (or pupils) because we have volunteers and trainers from Canada, USA, England, Scotland and Australia.
My first lesson was on numbers, so I was able to use some of the stuff I'd done on the Village Project. The teacher who normally teachers English to the higher grades is off work this week with a bad back, so I have to take the classes by myself.
The organisation at the school seems very good in theory but in practise anything can happen. Classes are often cancelled at the last moment and Matt and Mike told me that yesterday teh teacher who was supposed to be with them in the lesson arrived ten minutes late, on a motorbike with helmet and goggles and drove it right over the auditorium area where the class was taking place before dismounting and then acting as though nothing unusual had happened. And in Thai terms, I suppose it hadn't.
I
Me with some more students
I am the one in the white t shirt with the GVI logo! didn't have a class when Matt and Mike were taking a pre-schooler class of about 63 toddlers and helped out by joining in the Once I Caught a Fish Alive song and 10 Little Monkeys. They got the children playing a really good game called Ducks and Goose where on child goes around the circle of children saying duck as he reaches each student and then at some random time says goose and the student he or she says it to then has to try to run away. It was really good fun. The students did not know the words duck and goose so Mat, Mike and I tried to do the sounds - quacks and gobbles - my goose sounds a bit like a turkey but they probably don't have them here anyway, so that's all right.
My next subject is classroom objects and I have written a song, but have not used it yet about finding all sorts of classroom objects and then putting them all on the teacher's chair. I think I made it up. unless it is an odd childhood memory that has come back.
Yesterday I had four lessons and stayed at the
Cattle grazing
This is on the road where the base is, going towards the National Park. The cows all seem very thin, much like those of which Pharoah dreamt school for lunch with the teachers. Most speak very little English, so I'm not sure what I ate! Today I had just one lesson, so I have written my song out on a poster for tomorrow and I went to the National Park. This is just down the road and is really lovely. I went swimming in a rock pool by two big waterfalls which had been swollen by the recent rain and found it hard to swim back against the current. But I finally worked out that if I aimed half way between the waterfalls it would be easier and I came safely to land at last.
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