Yaaaay! Only one more day of teaching then I'm off to the beach. Unfortunately I only get the Monday and Tuesday off but any time off is good time. It's been quite a good week with school. I've only had one impossible class and I punished one boy by making him to press-ups (this is kind compared to what some do). Unfortunately I kind of forgot about him and he ended up nearly passing out but the wee shite won't be annoying me again.
So my approach for the rest of the week was to not care if the kids are naughty. Sometimes it's the only way. As a result, I've been having some good laughs with the kids. I have one class who are all boys. They were really naughty my first lesson with them and my Thai teacher wasn't there so I told the head of department. The next week they were moderately better. The keep getting more and more obedient as the weeks go on and so I let them play games in the last ten minutes. This week I had the best class I've ever had with any of my students. Not because I was teaching them so well but because everything I asked them to do they did and there was not a peep out of them except to speak English. This is virtually unheard of here because all the kids never shut up.
2/16 are my babies. They're the only class I see more than once a week and there are 20 rather than 40-45. It means I can call them by their nicknames rather than by their numbers and I can build up more of a rapport with them. The teaching really is hard work but I think I'm less stressed about it since Romy and I went on strike. I suppose because a bad teacher is better than no teacher. At least I make the kids laugh.
Romy and I haven't been brave enough to ride the bike yet. We need someone who knows what they're doing to teach us. I'm never scared on a bike with someone but they are big heavy chunks of machinery and I'm just scraed I'm not strong enough to ride it. At the same time Thai people are tiny and they can do it so I should be able to. Anyway, that's the update on school. Can't wait to be relaxing on the beach.
2 comments:
Have a great time on the beach. One of my (lost in cyberspace) posts was that I was sure the kids would grow to love you. Sounds like there are fear too many of them for you to become a total deity but you seem to be making some ground. Weather here is crap. Wouldn't go near a beach. Dad xxxxx
My 2/16s do love me and I have other classes with kids that are angels and really sweet. The children show respect by telling me that I'm beautiful and they love me. I've definitely made progress with most of my classes but I have 2 particular classes that are just impossible to teach. It doesn't help that the Thai teacher is never there.
I keep hearing about the floods in England. It's meant to be the rainy season here but it rarely rains. I think it rains in Bangkok more often but in Lop Buri we don't see much of it or it will rain in the night. Schools finished for day so we're waiting on our pay packs and then heading straight to the beach. What you doing for your birthday?
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