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Well I'm back at school for my second week, feeling like I'm slightly more in control although I have to take this thing a day at a time I think.
By the end of last week I had adopted a take no prisoners attitude towards teaching, they were all gonna listen or I was gonna take their phone, magazine or book off them and make them stand up and speak to me in English right then!
While this is good in theory and sometimes in practise the old language barrier is provong that its easier for them to squirm out of trouble than it is for me to make it clear that that is what they are in! That and the fact that I hacve been told outright that I cannot fail them, there is no point in setting homework as they wont do it and other than hitting them punishment and consequences are unheard of here!
After school Friday I hopped on the local bus to Kalasin (the nearest other place with interns in it) the bus journey was invigorating, bumpy, feezing aircon and many boxes of livestock on the roof reminded me why I wanted to come to thailand in the first place, because anything goes here! - Well... unless your a teacher! humph!
2 and a half hours and 100THB (about 2 piound fifty) later I was feeling positive and as if maybe I'd just had a bad week but things would get better.
My fellow interns met me off the bus and we stopped by the seven eleven to stock up on Sangsom and Hong Thong to see us through our first weekend as teachers.
Patrick, Eamer and Jenny all live together with their own studio flats right next to each other, as Kalasin is a smaller town than mine there is a much more welcoming atmosphere to it. We went over the road for some Caw pad Gai (chicken with rice) and ate our meal to the sweet sounds of the proffesional entertainment/kariokee that seems to take place in every restaurant around here. After some food we chilled out at theirs and put the world to rights! It was nothing short of a massive relief to find that their schools and kids were very similar to mine!
Saturday was spent in a much bigger city down the road doing some shopping finding books written in English and enjoying a hamburger! Once we were back in Kalasin we chilled out for a bit then hit a local bar with some of eamers younger Thai work collegues.
A great night was had by all and a lzy sunday morning followed by some joint lesson planning which took the stress right out of my sunday night!
Ive been in school all day today but havent taught any lessons as there is a big schools competetion being held here. The kindergarten classroom assistants are babaysitting my 6th and 5th year classes with some word searches that I supplied. I spent my morning watching the english students compete and am happy to say most of Jenny and Love's students won including my favourites burina and EQ! Another english teacher from a school just outside SN was here to, a nice guy called Scott, hes just volunteering and has been in a group of three untill recently but now is on his own for the next month untill he heads off on holiday! Hes given me some tips on the best places to eat (other than BIG C of course (think Walmart)) and we'll prob meet up one night for a beer, hes a lovely younger guy from Margate so its a shame hes not here for longer!
Anyhow I';m not sure what else to write other than I'm giving this my best go and am going to try and attack my lessons with a calm and relaxed attitude, the ones who want to learn will the ones who dont wont and I can but do my best! I to I are now over in Thailand and in Bangkok due to many many complaints from interns who are unhappy about either their school, town or living situation. I to I have informed us that they were under the impression that no one would be placed alone or if they were it would be somewhere with a western presence (well I prove that wrong!), no one would be in a malarial area, noone would be anywhere against government regulations (some people are placed on the cambodian border where there is trouble at the moment) and that we would have 24/7 support. Having heard the situation some of us are in and given that we paid for an internship and not a teaching position they have sat up and taken notice and are now here observing AYC and trying to sort things out for thiose they can. I could ask to change places but I kinda feel that now I've got Jenny and Love (2 fellow English teachers) I would be letting people down if I left.
I'm gonna give it some more time I thinkm it will click, and when it does, its gonna be amazing!
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