Okay, let me backtrack a little....
As you probably already read, I spent three weeks in September/October living in Phuket while I completed my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Course. The course was made up of myself and 27 other students all between the ages of 22 and 30. Everyone was from the US except for two girls from Canada and two from the UK. The first two weeks of the course consisted of in classroom training sessions held in our hotel conference room from 9 AM to 4 PM almost everyday. Generally, we learned about different teaching models and techniques, lesson planning, and two sessions on Thai culture and language. I won't go into detail about the whole thing because it would probably bore you all to death. However, I learned quite a lot and I think the course has been useful to me, especially as someone without any prior formal teaching experience.
The third week of the course was teaching practice week where we had the opportunity to practice what we've learned and teach a lesson in front of real students (as opposed to just practicing with our peers as the pretend students). I think everyone can agree that this week was the most difficult and also the most useful aspect of the course. Everyday, we received feedback from both our instructors and our peers. The week was exhausting because we visited the sites during the day and spent every night preparing lessons and materials for the next day. I don't think I've colored so much in my entire life as I did that week.
Since the month of October is a break from school in Thailand, we couldn't visit any actual schools for our teaching practice. So instead, on Monday and Tuesday we visited the SOS Children's Village Phuket. This is an orphanage that was built as a result of the tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004 as a place for children to go who had lost all their relatives. At this organization, we taught children between the ages of 4 and 7. When we pulled up to the site and got out of the vans, we had about 30 precious and enthusiastic kids running towards us shouting "FARANGS!" This is generic term Thai people use to describe any Westerner, or it actually translates to "foreigner."
First day in the classroom, I was instructed to teach about the jungle. I was excited and ready to go.
Our class was divided into groups and separated into different classrooms where we would observe some of our peers teach as well. I was lucky to go second. For the most part, my lesson went as planned and the students were very attentive and willing to participate. I walked out of the classroom that day feeling pretty confident. However, it was obviously apparent that as each one my peers went, the children got less and less interested. But to be fair, I don't think a four year old shouldn't be expected to sit through language learning for almost three straight hours.
On Tuesday, my lesson was about food/cooking. Today didn't go as well as Monday. I got the unfortunate spot of teaching second last and the children weren't too interested in what I had to say at that point. It wasn't horrible, but it was great either. I think I spent more time trying to get their attention then I did actually teaching. Also, I should probably mention that this class was only 8 students. I'm thinking that if I can hardly handle 8 students, I'm not sure how a class of 40-50 will work out for me. However, I definitely didn't have it the worst. Despite the great effort from the poor girl that went after me, the kids just turned insane. Boys were sleeping, girls were slapping each other, and it ended with a dog-pile of students on the floor in the center of the room. It was a zoo, to say the least. I walked out of the classroom feeling a little unsure about this whole teaching thing. I realized that while younger kids are absolutely adorable, I'm not really sure if I would be a good match to teach them. Unfortunately, I had no say in the matter though, which made me pretty nervous.
On Wednesday and Thursday we visited a Juvenile Detention Center in Phuket. When we first found this out, we were all a little bit nervous and not sure what to expect. But our instructors explained that many of the kids at this center are there for situational reasons like stealing food so their family could eat. They insured us that we would be completely safe there and they were right. On Wednesday, I taught a lesson about occupations and Thursday I taught about weekend activities. Both of my lessons went fantastic and I finally felt like I was getting a good feel for teaching. I absolutely loved my teaching experience here. The students were extremely polite, well-behaved, and motivated to learn English. The students at this center were between the ages of 15-18 years old. I really, really enjoyed this age group more than I thought I would. I started to secretly hope I would get placed in a high school. Unfortunately, pictures were prohibited here, so I don't have any pictures from these days.
Finally, on Friday we visited a really unique organization in Northern Phuket called Youth Football Home Foundation which is run by a German expat. This is also technically an orphanage where they live, but the boys were selected to come here from orphanages across Thailand for their football (soccer) talent and train together as a team. I found these boys to also be extremely bright, polite, and at a very high English level. They travel around the world for football tournaments and are very advanced at English because of the opportunities they have to practice and learn when they travel. This day, I taught about camping and got through my lesson pretty quickly because their English level was so high. Once again, I really enjoyed working with the 15-18 year old age group.
This is literally only the beginning of the teaching adventure. Check back tomorrow. The stories keep getting better!
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