My Job...

Hello to everyone once again. I am sad to report that my vacation is officially over and I now begin the experience of my first ever teaching job (in which I actually receive a paycheck that is), let alone a teaching job in another country. I am teaching at a school called Nawamin School. The full name is actually much longer, but if I cannot pronounce it, I am not going to type. I started on Monday and had to be in by no later than 7:45am (I arrived at 7:44 - holla atchaya boy!!) and have to stay until 3:30 pm. When I was told about the contract hours I assumed that I would have a schedule like I would if I were teaching in an International school or a school back in the good ol' U.S. of A. There are eight periods of 50 minutes and I would teach five or six periods a day and have two or three prep periods. Well, I was totally mistaken because I have the EXACT OPPOSITE of that! Yesterday and today, for example, I taught two English classes and have the rest of the day to "prepare". I called to my Thai friend Till after my first day was over and told him that I got really bored because I only had two classes. "Jon-a-tin," he said, "this is the way it is in Thailand, you don't teach many crass (class)." I was eating with some of he EP (English Proficiency) staff and one of the teachers is from Denmark and has been teaching social studies for over a year. He told me that at this job you will see that you have a lot of freedom to do other things. "They tell you that you need to stay until 3:30, but this is a seven-story school with almost 4,000 students. There are offices very close to the school that are always looking for tutors. Visit these places after school, tell them your schedule, and when you have a block of periods when you don't teach, go tutor, make some money and come back before your next class starts. Nobody will even know that you are gone." After hearing this, I started to wonder why I got so nervous on my first day.
Now let me talk more about the school. Here there are no breaks between classes. The first class starts at 8:30 and goes until 9:20. The second class starts at 9:20 and goes until 10:10...etc. Teachers do not take role. There is no set curriculum, so every teacher pretty much flies by the seat of their pants. Students are required to be at school by 7:45 for the morning flag ceramony followed by a 20 minute prayer session. It is cool to see a multitude of 4,000 students all at once. I am not taking any religious affiliation in this regaurd, but I am talking about the physical sight of it. Simply amazing. EVERY MORNING. FIVE DAYS A WEEK.
On my first day of teaching, as stated earlier, I was very nervous. I have wanted to do this for so long and the day is FINALLY here! I was at school on time, I looked sharp, and I was ready to teach. Oh wait...I don't have a single text book, or a schedule, or where the students left off in the text book. Excited nervousness soon turned to feelings of, "I am here to teach, but what do you expect me to teach them when I have been given nothing?!" I wanted to pull my hair out. If anyone knows me, and I mean ACTUALLY knows me, they will tell you that I am basically a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type of guy...EXCEPT when it comes to teaching students. When it comes to education, you MUST have a plan and for me, that means very detailed and drawn out (Thanks Dad:)) or your students will sense weakness and walk all over you (it is as if they are trained by Jedi to sense teacher weakness...Mr. Shaw, I am sure, knows what I mean by this). How am I supposed to have a plan when I have been given nothing?
About 10 minutes before my first class, I was given textbooks for my 7-12th graders and made it through my first day. I am happy that I was given the gift of a powerful voice because that is what I needed to control my students on this day. Overall, kids are kids. They are good kids if you smile at them and let them know you are a human just like them. Anyway, that is all for now. I will write again later what I did on my first day...I think I will have some time:) Until next time, always stay classy!