My First Week...

Hello hello again. Well, I have made it through my first week without any accidents (that sounds funny) even though there we times I thought there would be. In my first week, I taught a total of 11 classes and finally came to the realization that (as my friend Ms. Evers put it) this is teachers heaven. When talking to the other teachers in the English Program, they have all told me that they know I realize it is totally different from what I am used to, but I have to adapt and just enjoy your freedom. "What is the point of complaining when you get paid for teaching 2-3 classes a day? What is the point of complaining when you can leave whenever you are done and still write down that you clock out at 4:30pm? What is the point of complaining when you can slow your lessons down to 1/2 the speed they are done at in America?" Lars asked me (Lars is a social studies teacher from Denmark). I have never complained about the hours, just about the administration not giving me materials I needed to prepare myself (which I commented about in my last post). So, after he talked things over with me, as well as a few other teachers around my age I work with, I have came to the comclusion that this is the sweetest job in the world. I have a sweet schedule, and it gives me the opportunity to go and tutor for a minimum of B500/hour. Now, I can easily live on what I am making at the school, because I don't live really high off the hog. Do not get me wrong, I live well. However, the great thing about Thailand is that someone can live well withough spending much money. Transportation is cheap, GREAT (and healthy) food is cheap, a 2-hour bus trip to the beach at Pattaya is cheap...I think you are getting the picture. But, I am more than happy to teach kids (or adults for that matter) their ABC's 10-20 hours a week and double my income. Plus, it isn't difficult, it is just time. Can you say SAVINGS POTENTIAL?
Ok, I must apologize because I got a little off topic. Overall, the kids here are pretty good, except for M 2/1 class (9th grade). They are not very good at paying attention and they like to talk very much. THAT BOTHERS ME!! I got the pleasure of letting them know, in NO UNCERTAIN terms (as my father likes to say), that I really do not like my time being wasted. The good news is that in a class like this, there are always 2-3 "ring leaders". Luckily enough for me, when I was growing up, I was one of the ring leaders so I can pick them out faster than spotting a terd in a punch bowl:) These are the students who get to be the example. If their "calling" is to be the ring leader, then thier OTHER "calling' is getting to be my disciplinary example. What a lucky group of kids huh?:) With the teachers having Friday off, I only had them once during my first week so I don't have the pleasure of teaching them again until Wednesday. However, in their defense, there are students (in the USA) that I have had who are worse. The only thing that I would like to see more of is student-speaking confidence from all my classes as a whole. When I had them write, I must say I was impressed at how well they wrote (probably better than 50% of the students I had back home). The problem is getting them to speak up in class. The Thai culture is such a "shy" culture that they are afraid to use their voice. It is almost like pulling teeth trying to get a student to talk loud when I call one of them up to read. But, they better get used to it because that is how I operate. They are slowly getting better, but they just lack confidence in their speaking ability. I have told them I don't care if they mess up in pronunciation, or if I ask a question and they get it wrong, I just want them to sound confident when they are speaking.
I now want to focus on the school itself. The school consists of seven stories and almost 4,000 students. The school claims that you must score high on the entrance exam in order to be accepted to the school. However, corruption overcomes brain power. As a parent, your child will be accepted if you slip the principal B40,000 ($1,200) or so under the table. If you do not, it doesn't matter how well your child scores on the test. That money is above an beyond tuition fees. Everything is done here to look good on paper, even when it comes to teachers. Teachers are required to be at school between 7:45-8am...period. This is only because teachers need to sign in when we arrive. Take my friday schedule for example, I don't have a class until 12:40pm. But when I come and clock in at 8am, I can leave and go tutor and then come back (without the knowledge of the administration). Also, we teachers ALWAYS clock out at 4:30pm. Even if you leave at 3pm, you still clock out at 4:30. This was told to me by the head of the department. When I asked him why we did that, said it ws so if the principals check the logs, it appears as though we are here until that time. Again, it is fine as long as it looks good on paper. Now, I am not trying to run the school down. Overall, this is a very good school and actually one of the best Thai schools in the country, but the bottom line is M-O-N-E-Y it is quite interesting to learn about how things are really done here.
As far as the staff is concerned, they are wonderful. I came to work at Nawamin School at the right time. The school year for the students ends the last week in February and the staff has to come to school during the month of March, punch in (so it appears as though we are here) and then can leave. On Tuesday the EP staff had a New Year's party (yeah, I know it sounds wierd) at this really nice restaraunt/karoke bar and it was a lot of fun. We all got gifts for being part of the staff and got our picture taken with the principal. All the foreign teachers received towels ("I would like to thank the academy for this award...haha) and a yearly planner and the I have to say the meal was AWESOME! None of the Thai staff was brave enough to start doing karoke so we, the foreign staff, felt it was out duty to get the party going. The group consisted of Lars (from Denmark), Alexis (from Malaysia), Briggs (from the Phillipines), and me. We sang "I Will Survive" and got a score of 97%. We though that since we did so well we should form our own group and now call ourselves "The UN" (United Nations). After we did a few songs, more people started to go with it and it was a lot of fun. I don't remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did when I watched our EP principal (a 60 year-old Thai woman) sing "Country Road" by John Denver. That's right...Mr. Sunshine On My Dang Shoulders JOHN DENVER! Can you believe it...JOHN FRIGGIN' DENVER! Well, I think that story is a good way to end this post since I have written a book. Thanks for the continued comments I am enjoying them very much...even yours Harvey:). Ohh, one more thing, if you are following this blog, can you please do me a favor and ACTUALLY sign up to be a follower? It takes less than five minutes. Thanks, I appreciate it. Until next time, remember that John Denver isn't dead...he just went home:)