So far, teaching has been outstanding. Originally, I thought it would be an interesting aspect of this experience but that I would enjoy the traveling and living in a different culture a lot more. I'm not entirely sure that that is the case though. While I can't go so far as to say this experience has me wanting to be a teacher when I return home, I do feel like it's one of the best things I've ever done. I really love being in front of the classroom.
Sure, there are some classes that are a real pain. My first Matium 3 class (the same age as freshmen in high school) on Mondays is terrible. I leave the class very frustrated every week. It seems that no matter what kind of lesson I plan, they don't pay any attention and they just continually talk amongst themselves and do whatever they want. Sometimes it feels like I'm trying to teach a pack of monkeys. I think in the future I'm going to need to be far stricter with this class than with any others.
However, these annoying classes are certainly just a small minority. Most of the classes are just great. I've established a very good relationship with all of the Matium 6 classes already. Teachers are extremely well respected over here but I knew that it would be awkward to require these students, who are only a few years younger than me, to treat me the same way they treat the teachers who are in their 60's. While they certainly are respectful towards me and do as I say, I allow the class to be far more casual than most other teachers probably do. They know that they can relax a little bit in my class and we will have fun. I actually feel like this helps me get more accomplished with them than if I was extremely strict.
I've also established a pretty good relationship with most of my Matium 3 classes. Some, as I stated before, are not as good as others but most of them are outstanding. The one that really sticks out to me is M3/3. As I wrote in an earlier post, Matium 3 goes from 3/1-3/12. Supposedly, the lower the class number, the less intelligent they are. Obviously, this is not a system that would be totally accepted in the U.S., but it's the way they do things here. In turn, many of the teachers here would have you believe that the lower the class intelligence, the more poorly they behave. While this seems understandable, I find that there are certain aberrations; 3/3 is one of them. They are just a great class. They actually speak fairly good English and they really get into all of the lessons I plan. I find myself looking forward to 4th period on Thursday every week.
Overall, school has been great. Many of the teachers I work with are awesome. They love talking to us Westerners because they all love practicing their English (and most of them really need the practice). The students, for the most part, are great as well. I have yet to walk down a crowded hallway without hearing a few students say "hello teacher" or (out of a few of the wise asses) "yo teacher." Often times the students will bow to you as you walk by (this is called a "wai" in Thailand).
One of the things I found amazing is how many days off we are given. I've now been teaching for almost five weeks and have yet to have a full week of classes. Each week there is some event at school or some national holiday that requires an off day. I love teaching but I'm certainly not going to complain about a day off here or there.
One of these special events took place last week. The entire English department chaperoned Matium 5's visit to a Thai culture show. It was one of the coolest things I have done so far. The show was amazing. The stage was absolutely enormous. There were over 150 people in the cast. The best part was that there was no speaking. You didn't need to understand Thai to follow the show. After a brief introduction in Thai and then in English, they did not speak again. The first act of the performance showed the four main regions of traditional Thailand. The second act showed the three areas of the Buddhist afterlife. At one point a full, flowing river appeared on stage and stayed for the remainder of the performance. I thought it might be a little shallow pool until an actor actually dove in and then three boats went speeding down it. It was pretty incredible.
As I'm sure is clear, teaching has been pretty great. I really have enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. However, I have a lot of days off during the month of December so there will be plenty of new posts as I continue to visit new parts of the country over the next couple of weeks.
I've been asked by a few people about my address. I'm told the easiest way to get things here is by sending it to my school. That address would be:
Connor Hickey
English Department
Suksanareewitiya School
76/4 Moo 3.
Bangbon, Bangkok 10150
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