It's the Climb.

June 8, 2010

I finally got an official printed (nick)name roster for my 6th graders. Here are some more highlights:

"Few 1" and "Few 2" (who look very similar and sit right next to eachother)

"Yacht"

"Best" (who tries hard, but is ironically the worst)

"Cherry"

"If" (who is about as big as her nickname is)

"Poo" (not to be confused with "Pooh")

"Boss"

"Teeth"

"Job"

"Party"

"Dump"

"Cable"

"Cake"

"Film"

"Tug"

"Name"

"Oat"

"Mind"

"Sack"

"Bow Bow"

"New"

"Spy"

"Bee"

"Dream"

"Ball"

"Earn"

"Bank," "Bank 1," "Bank 2," "Bank 3"...

We were asked by the Director to be on "morning duty" today, meaning we stood outside the entrance to school and greeted the students as they walked in. Most of them were confused as to whether they were supposed to waii us (the traditional show of respect to teachers or superiors) or wave and high-five us. A few other Thai teachers stood outside with us and scolded the children who did not properly waii us. ...Little do they know I'm 21 years old, just graduated college a week ago, and spent all of 3 days getting teacher certified. Ha!

Upon arriving at school, we noticed that everyone, from the school Director to the canteen workers, was wearing pink. Outside the school gates, everyone else in town was also wearing pink: parents dropping off their kids, street vendors, average Joes driving there motorbikes through town. We quickly pieced together that Tuesdays are pink days. From Aj. Prakop, we now know that every week, Wednesdays are blue days, Thursdays are orange days, and Fridays are "traditional" wear days. Might need to go shopping....

Since today was my first official day as teacher (I was responsible for each class's lesson all on my own - Prakop mostly sits and grades papers in the back of the room all period), I was immediately struck by how very little my 6/4 class knows, and how advanced my 6/1 class is. For example, in the 6/1 class, the students absorbed the material (future tense - to be "going to" to do/be something) so fast that I pretty much ran through my entire lesson plan within the first 10 minutes. After a few moments of awkwardness, I improvised a new activity: I asked each student to plan an exotic vacation, and to write down in their English notebooks a To-Do list of what they were "going to" do before and during the trip. After a few minutes, a few hands shot up with questions... I came by their desks, but instead of questions about the future tense, I was asked (in perfect English), "Ajarn Caitlin, I am going to go to Canada; how do I spell 'Niagara Falls'?" and "Ajarn Caitlin, is this how you write 'Brussels'?"

For the 6/4 class, I only got through about a fourth of what I wanted to cover, which was especially frustrating since I only see these kids once per week. They are much more timid speaking English, and less well-behaved. On top of that, there is a greater range of ability within the class: some students seemed to more-or-less understand new material as I taught it, whereas others still struggle to say "My name is..." and don't seem as though they understand much of what I say. The 6/2 and 6/3 classes fall along the spectrum of 6/1 to 6/4 (although their curriculum guide is the same as 6/4's).

After school, at 17:30 (see how good I'm getting at using 24-hour time?), Aj. Prakop and her husband Aj. Hanou picked us up at the apartment. Anna, Emily, Nicole and I hopped into the truck bed (road safety? pshh) and off we went. Four Ajarn Farangs cruising through Nan... the gawks and rubbernecking ensued. Prakop and Hanou drove us just outside the city to visit some of Nan's most famous temples (or "wats"). At the first one, Aj. Hanou dropped us off at the bottom of a big hill. With Prakop, we climbed 303 steps to the very top, where a gorgeous temple and ginormous gold Buddha statue stood. From there we could see for miles and miles... swatches of rice paddies, golden temple tops peeking up from the green hills in the distance, the winding path of the Nan River and the Reservoir, clusters of city buildings... Every day I think to myself WOW - can't believe I actually get to live here for a year.

We went to visit a few more temples, grabbed dinner at a street cart, then headed back home... where I promptly fell asleep in the middle of lesson planning.

Things to note:

1. Stickers are my magic weapon in the classroom. Thai kids love them. I mean LOOOVE them. Even the shiest kid will perk up in class and volunteer for a pink smiley face sticker the size of my fingernail.

2. School director = perhaps a little creepy. Nicole is pretty sure that at lunch he asked her, "Did you sleep alone last night?" ...We hope that was just a mistranslation.