CCT Volunteer Duncan Brody Blog Post Temple School Wat Thong Gai

   I guessed before coming to Thailand that the story of this trip would be ‘not knowing anything and just going for it’. It turns out I was very right about that. Even the day just before my internship began I knew close to 0% of what I needed. All of the interns woke up on that 4^th Monday (1^st Internship Monday) and drove to the Arts Relief International house. From there, the twelve of us received our general orientation. Luckily, the teachers had a second day of orientation to accomplish a more specific understanding. Our orientation/group leader notified the three of us (ESL Teachers) that our internship was particularly challenging, and that it would require a significant level of resilience and preparation. Since we’re teaching multiple classes of varying age and ability levels everyday our lesson planning needs to be differentiated as well.

    You appreciate the work that goes into being a teacher rather quickly when you’re thrown in to the mix without any warning. I approached my first day of teaching without a knowledge of what speaking/reading/writing level any of the students were at, what my schedule would be, how many students I would have/what their names would be, where my school was or how I would get there. So, when day 1 rolled around I figured it all out the hard way. Here are the answers to all the questions that burned in my head leading up to the start of my work: I teach solo for 6 classrooms ranging in age from 7 to 15 (1^st to 6^th grade). Each class has around twenty students. I teach 2 to 3 of these classes each day (2 on Tue. and Thurs. because I study Thai at the University and miss the morning class block). Mondays are definitely the hardest because I teach grades 1, 2, and 3 all on the same day. The ability level varies from knowing basic conversations/directions/animals etc. to knowing close to no English (this includes letters and numbers). Telling these students what to do is nearly impossible. To get to work I take a twenty-five minute Uber each way every day. This is kind of a blessing in disguise because it gives me the opportunity to meet and have interesting 20 minute conversations with ten different people during my commute each week. I need to spend about 1-2 hours a night working on lesson plans, materials, or doing research of some kind to help improve the classroom.

     These logistics don’t even come close to giving an accurate picture of what my day looks like, however. When you line up the responsibilities and stresses in a list you wonder why you would ever do a job like this, but the reality is something you couldn’t replace with the world. Although I spend the majority of my day hearing little kids (and teachers) spouting out Thai words, one on top of the other, that I simply don’t comprehend, I have met some of the most colorful personalities I have ever known in my short two weeks at the school. The teachers seem to be obsessed with having an American teacher as a ‘play-thing’ to test their English on and tell jokes around, and the kids treat me like we’ve been best friends since birth. Although I give the 1^st – 2^nd graders a lot of flack for being difficult classes that are uncontrollable, the kids have the hugest hearts and are too darn cute to not love. My favorite class is the fifth graders, however. They are such a smart group, and they are all incredibly dedicated to learning and growing together. I’ve never seen such a special group of kids who care so much about their education.

    Something that I realized on my first day on the job is that you can learn more about a culture by witnessing one full day of school than from spending three weeks taking classes at University. As I walked around the school yard and saw the way that the children learn, spend their free time, perform standard daily rituals, and react to their peers and teachers, I became so acutely aware of what that means for the society they live in as a whole. School is where so much of your childhood is spent. These are the years that form the foundation for the rest of your life, and over half of the waking hours of everyday are spent here, learning your values and your desires. That is why I think that teachers are some of the most important people in the world to shaping what children grow to become.

CCT Volunteer Annie Kaplan Blog Post (Temple School Wat Khuang Singha)

Sawatdeeka World! Hi, I’m Annie Kaplan from Danville CA checking on during week three of her internship at Wat Khuang Sing School. I am a Comparative Cultures and Politics/ Secondary Education double major at Michigan State University who hopes to one day work as a history teacher in America. This summer I have decided to make a daring decision and work as an English teacher in Thailand. Both the country and subject were extremely unfamiliar to me which made this a big decision. It was not an easy choice and has not been easy thus far but I think it will all be worth it in the end.

Our group has now been in Thailand 5 and a half weeks. We took classes and went on excursions the first three weeks but since then have been fully immersed in our internship placements. Through these experiences we are all learning so much and will come away from these 10 weeks having absorbed so much through just living and communicating in a new space.

There are 11 interns in total, but at my school it is just my friend Sarena and I. Every day we Uber to school to begin a day filled with learning, teaching, and facing something completely different than what we are accustomed to in the United States. Our first week, in my opinion, was the biggest culture shock I have had in Thailand thus far. Everything is so different compared to my public school upbringing. Our school is a Buddhist temple school, meaning that it’s a government run school with very strict rules. The kids wear a variety of uniforms throughout the week, and sing and chant whenever there’s a transition in the day. Teachers are tough, but show so much dedication to their practice. My favorite part has definitely been the amazing cook at our school who is able to cook for 300+ people and accommodate my strict vegetarian diet! The most shocking to me has been that teachers do not stay in one room, it’s the kids that do. Teachers rotate grades and classes throughout the day bringing everything they need with them as they travel. While I saw this as unfamiliar, the kids take to their daily tasks with more happiness than I’ve ever seen. As a sixth grader, I liked school but nowhere near as much as some of the students here do. When I was in middle school, I was constantly falling asleep in class but the way teachers command a room engages the students unlike any I’ve ever seen.

I am placed with P.4 through P.6 which are the oldest kids at the school. They are learning a range of subjects from clothing to daily actions to common English phrases. Making the transition from studying social science education to English education has been strange but there has not been a moment where I felt that I didn’t know what to talk about. Part of my time at Wat Khuang Sing is spent teaching, and part is spent observing how to be a good teacher. Structuring lesson plans and building activity blocks are skills I am working on with my mentor teacher, who is showing me different ways to engage students and present lessons. We rotate from PowerPoints to flashcards to working out of the book, a sure fire plan to keep students focused.

Games are another strategy used by the English teachers here which has been one of my harder tasks to tackle. Something about explaining a game in a foreign language just makes it a tad bit harder for both the kids and myself. There have been moments where I have gotten up in front of them to teach and the level they understand of the words coming out of my mouth has been zero. So yea, it’s been tough. I’ve been stressed and exhausted and overwhelmed but there’s something tremendously uplifting about seeing the smiling faces of my kids every day.