Educating is an experience

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Three months in! Do I still enjoys teaching English ... YEP! Do i still think the kids here are absolutly insane ... YEP! So not a lot has changed.

Work for Sunrise has got busier since I have arrived. We now have contracts with 6 different schools so our schedule has picked up quite a bit, and with more schools means more planning of lessons which is a bit of a pain. Each school has a different feel to it, in some you feel comfortable - the kids are nice, noisy but still doing their work. In other schools however it feels more like babysitting a bunch of young kids with ASBOs. They kick, punch, scream and run amock around the classroom, disregarding any attempts by myself or the Vietnamese assistant to calm them down. Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it, because for every one child that is there to annoy you, there are ten more there just to make the class worthwhile.

After three months I still get welcomed with the biggest smiles, hugs from some, others hold my hand ... and the occasional creepy grope. They still have this weird fascination with tapping me on the backside when i pass, or trying to poke me in the stomach.

In the high school there are two types of teen. The ones that want to be there, and the ones that don't. One thing I totally disagree with here is that they ask the class if they should keep a teacher. If a class say an english teacher is boring then the school will quickly ask for them to be replaced. It is a joke that a few classes, filled with kids that don't want to learn can dictate the future of a teacher. Even if they LIKE the teacher, and they are still learning and playing games, sometimes some members of the class will always be bored ... surprise surprise it is school after all.

A major change in my work with Sunrise is that now we have 4 teachers, and the company needs me to work with them to create a decent schedule every week. Luckily most of the time I don't have to chase people for their work to be ready. With each new teacher means a long week for me, letting them observe my classes, observing their lessons, showing them how we go about planning lessons ... but with the extra money I get as Team Leader it's usually worth it.

For the past two months I have been taking evening classes in the Maritime University. I am still teaching primary school aged children, but the classes have specially selected children which are tested to be at a certain level before they can be in the lesson. Mostly, they are the children of lecturers at the University or of mature students here. I absolutely love my evening classes here, the children are so eager to learn and focused, and yet they are some of the funniest children that I have met in Vietnam. Their standard of english also means that I can have a few jokes and general conversations which is a pleasant change to the usual BORING ... "Hello, how are you?" that I experience a hundred times a day.

The University classes are great for me, not only to get more experience, but also because it is a great way to help me save money. Working three classes a week means $330 in my pocket at the end of the month.

This month Vietnam celebrated "Teacher's Day". That's right, a day dedicated to Teachers. Thanking them for their work. The amount of flowers we had decorating our living room was insane, but thats what you get having four teachers under one roof.

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Comments

[Pauline cole]

Love the photos and blog.