Reah (my Filipino teacher neighbor) was the one who brought me to school and was showing me around, and she took me upstairs at this point to find my new office. We found the biology faculty. but they said there was no desk for me...awesome. So at this point we just went and found pee Neat, who then tracked down pee Mam (the head of the sciences department). What ensued was a whirlwind tour around campus with introductions to tons of different "important" people. I don't doubt they are important, but I don't really understand who they all were, and I certainly don't remember most of their names. I was relieved to learn, however, that not only do the teachers not know all their students' names, they don't even know the names of a lot of their fellow teachers! So that takes some of the pressure off me.
Anyway, we continued the tour around school but really made not progress in getting me actually settled in. I am very thankful to Reah for her prodding--without it I doubt I would have ever gotten a schedule or a desk. In the end I was told to take pee Mam's old desk in the biology department (she has a new one in the "Discipline Room"--super odd). As for my schedule, it has been worked out that half of my classes will be taught by me alone, and half will be co-taught with a Thai teacher. Rhea was a bit surprised by this since she co-taught all of her classes last year, but I think I will prefer to teach alone. Anyway, I will be teaching matthayom 1,4, and 5 biology (so 7th, 10th, and 11th grade) as well as matthayom 2 chemistry (8th grade). There is still a chance I will have to pick up a physics class, but it isn't on my schedule yet. All told I only have 12 class periods a week (there are 9 in a day), so it is a pretty light load. I have more this week because I will be subbing for pee Mam's classes while she is in Chiang Mai with family. Also, even though 12 doesn't seem like too much right now, more of that will be filled with planning for the co-teaching sections. Reah has 16 sections this year, but they are all individual.
As for actually teaching today, I did 3 sections. Literally a few minutes after getting my schedule, pee Mam had a M.4 class that she wanted me to co-teach. Now let me just say that I hadn't had any chance to look at materials, see what they had done, or anything like that. We just went into a classroom of 50 students, she had me introduce myself, and we hopped right in. At least for this first class she spoke some and I spoke some, but it was kind of jarring. I really didn't know what was expected of me. Take for example the greeting at the beginning of class. This dialogue is copied from another web page, but it is exactly what happened today--every Thai student has this interaction drilled into them from a young age. However, I was not familiar with the proper response, so I stood there kind of confused.
Pee Mam had to explain it to me later, but it was a bit embarrassing and the class laughed a bit. The other thing is that all the teachers use microphones to be heard over a class of 50. This makes sense, but it can be both unwieldy and create a sense of distance between you and the students, especially with the squealing noises the microphones make. With my second class I didn't use the mic, and my throat hurts now, but I think it was worth it.
When it came time for the second class (a two-period class), pee Mam introduced me, told the class to behave, and left for Chiang Mai. EEEKKKK! She will be back Monday, so I get to cover her lectures until then. Luckily, it is basically the same lesson and and extension, just taught to different classes. As for the lesson, today we were discussing ecosystems, producers/consumers, and food chains/webs. It was interesting. I think for the most part it went ok, I just need to be sure I speak very slowly and clearly. And while Thai students are usually quiet/well behaved, the flipside to that is they are very hesitant to answer questions. I try to make it clear that it is ok to be wrong, I just want people to volunteer to answer, but they are just so shy. The Thai teachers have the same problem, even when they have been teaching for 30 years. So I ask for volunteers, and if I don't get any, I call out a number...thank GOD they all are numbered!!!! Even when they are called by number, sometimes they are too scared to answer, so they answer in a group, or I get someone else. The did like some of the interactive stuff though--drawing food webs/chains on the board. When it is just me in the class I hope they will get used to me enough to be more comfortable, and not quite as scared to volunteer ideas. We shall see.
So class went pretty quickly. I have 6 classes tomorrow--3 of my own, 3 of pee Mam's. So I will be busy. I did go after school to grab some whiteboard markers. Funny thing: the whiteboard looked like a blackboard, I looked for chalk and didn't see any, so assumed there wasn't any. Finally the class captain told me I could write on the board and brought me a marker. When I asked pee Neat where I could buy markers she acted quite surprised--"the students prepare the room for you, you don't need to get markers!" I explained to her that I liked to have spares in case any didn't work, so she took me to the school supply store. She is also driving me to Tesco Lotus tomorrow during a break in classes so I know where it is--that way I can get there on my own once I get a bike.
The school day officially ends at 4:10. I have to say, by that point I was pretty tired even though I had only taught a few classes. I had been running around trying to get my schedule and books. Yeah, the whole promise of a curriculum and book for every class? So not true. I still have no idea what I am supposed to teach my M.1 students. I have a vague idea that it is supposed to be parts of a cell and the use of a microscope, but I could be confused. And I think my M.5 students are going to be learning about plants, but then pee Mam also mentioned biotechnology? Color me confused.
At the end of the day I popped down to the English office (pee Neat's) only to find that yet again everyone was eating. The Thais eat constantly. No joke, this was the third "snack" during the school day, and those were just the ones I had encountered. And that isn't including the random cookies/snack bars thrown at me at undetermined intervals. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome. I just had no idea there was that much of a food culture. I knew food was a big deal, just not quite like this! I did get to try som tam, and it wasn't super spicy so I lucked out. Turns out that the biology faculty doesn't like spicy food very much, so when I eat with them I am pretty safe :D
Anyway, I think that is probably all for now. I am sure I forgot a ton, but hey, I have some time to tell you all about it. Think it is time to collapse for a bit now. Goodnight!
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