Respectful Students

Made it to the school earlier than usual, skipped breakfast, and had my morning coffee. They have only one size at the little coffee hut so I am learning to downsize everything I consume. I talked to another teacher before class and learned there are more than one agency that are employing foreign teachers at our school. It appears that BFITS teaches the intensive English classes and SINE teaches the beginner classes.

I am glad I was employed by BFITS because the SINE teachers teach two more classes per day (7 total) on average than I do. Morning classes went well and I started losing my voice because I’m not used to talking so much and to so many kids. I have approximately 35 to 40 students in each class and to be honest, I have not had any behavioral problems. Additionally, when a student addresses a teacher, they don’t call them “Mr.” or “Mrs.”, they call me “Teacher”.

Another unique aspect of class life in Thailand is they assign a “class leader” who takes care of behavior issues and knows who’s absent. I have quickly learned to rely heavily on the class leader for everything because if the students aren’t listening to me; they will listen to the class leader. Before class starts, they stand and welcome me to the class and at the end of the class they thank me for teaching. I love it! During my breaks in between classes, there are not a lot of responsibilities except for preparing lesson plans, grading, creating tests, and making sure attendance is up to date. Once I got in a groove, I have found there is time to relax, gather my thoughts, and prepare for the next class. My school day ends around 3:00-3:30pm and I had lost my voice right around my second class which left me feeling a little tired.

Once I arrived to my apartment, I changed then walked down to the “chicken man” and ordered some chopped chicken. I also ordered two grilled squid on a stick, yellow corn smothered in a sweet butter, and had myself a great dinner. Afterwards, I went up to my room, watched a short documentary on Amazon Prime and ended up falling asleep for the night.