Herro Teacha Kayra!!

 *cracks knuckles* Ahhh... finally. I am officially a Thai English teacher!  Today's students were wonderful. However, it should be noted, they will let you continue for ten minutes past the end of class to save face rather than interrupt you and tell you to dismiss them.  Ooopsies.  That was the 3rd period.  Thus, I was 10 minutes late to my 4th period, and probably half of them decided to run off and play around campus rather than wait for me.  My bad.  Can't say that I blame them, I would have done the exact same thing.

Definitely buying a watch tonight.

For a secondary school and considering it is the 2nd semester of the school year, I am a little dismayed by some of their skill levels in the English department.  We reviewed the alphabet and numbers in a couple classes today, not going to lie. But then again, I am picking up where a tired old teacher left off, and I have a feeling he gave up on a few of these classes months ago.  The classes are organized by grade and then by skill level, and in true Thai fashion, the levels change half way through.  For example, Matayoung 1, 2, 3, and 4 (so ages 12-13, 13-14, 14-15, and 15-16, respectively) are then broken down into groups of 8 where 1 would be the highest skill level.  But once you get to Matayoung 5 & 6, so 16-17 and 17-18, not only is English no longer required, but also the system reverses, just because they like to fuck with us, I am certain. So then my group 1's are the poorer students whereas my 5-8's are the exceptional ones. Go figure. I have many students in each class that hung around afterward to ask me questions and get some clarification.  In those moments, I was already sooo proud! It is always nice to know that you have at least a couple of kids who want to learn. More power to them!

Tonight I am going to try to work my way through the previous teachers notes and his lesson plans to see if maybe I can surmise where he left off.  However, I already tried going through his journal, and for the most part he didn't even make notes about the "lesser" classes, how frustrating. These are the classes who need it the most, and where I need the most help figuring out where to begin.  I feel like for those classes it won't hurt to just go back to basics.  Start fresh with a new teacher who hasn't already given up on them.  As for my more advanced classes, I have a lot of resources from Xplore Asia and from another teacher here, so I will try to think of the ways I learned Spanish and create some lessons loosely based around those guides. Mostly just winging it, however. ;)

The good and bad part is that I only see the kids once a week. Good because it makes my job easier as far as planning one lesson each week, with obvious consideration to skill level.  Bad because I am warned that they do not practice at home, and a lot of what you did last week will be lost by the next week.  I have found that if you literally walk up to them and MAKE them write things down, they will... so.... Lots of notes on the board, and those who want to learn will write it down as well, and those students will be able to build week in and week out.  That's all I can hope for after all.