Teaching Thai Style

As a primary ed student, the teaching aspect of the project was one of the main pulls for me. Teaching is something I feel reasonably confident in doing, obviously I am only a trainee, but absolutely love working with children and have really enjoyed my teaching placements as part of my course. However, teaching in Thailand has come as a big shock to me!

When I applied, I think I was incredibly naive in the level of English spoken in the school. In my head, the English teachers had a high level of spoken English, and children would be able to understand my instructions. Maybe this is the case if the schools are in the city, but in my village (in Thailand's poorest region), it is not reality.

I think that in hindsight, it would be more effective to teach English to the English teachers as opposed to the children. What's the saying - catch a man a fish he can eat for a day, teach a man to fish he can eat for a lifetime. Something along those lines anyway! But I definitely think that if I am only here for 8 weeks, teaching the teachers would make a bigger impact than teaching the children.

I am finding it a struggle to communicate with teachers as to what they want me to actually teach the children, so doing it a bit freestyle! Classroom management is incredibly difficult when children have no idea what I am telling them to do, and I have had my fair few lesson flops now where I have an activity planned, but no amount of gestures and pictures can get the message across to the children. For some lessons, I have the English teacher around who can translate a little bit into Thai, for other lessons it is me in control and I usually end up singing at the children.... I am not sure what they think of me!

My first day at school was a bit embarrassing (classic Caroline style). I was handed a microphone to introduce myself to 1000 students and 80 teachers. To cut a short story even shorter, I misheard the headteacher, and instead of answering the question "Are you single?" I thought he wanted a sing-song. So started singing heads, shoulders, knees and toes (with actions)...in front of the whole school...No wonder the answer to his original question is yes, yes I am...not surprising ha!!

The Primary end of Kiawnum school

Play area

The teachers in the school are some of the friendliest people I have ever met, they buy me fruit as I said once that I liked watermelon - I am now given bags of it every day! They do everything they can to help me settle in and make sure I am happy in the school, and even though on the whole they don't speak English, they always have a smile on their face and look pleased to see me.

I am becoming a local celebrity in my village, everytime I wobble along on my little pink bike I am met with shouts of "Hello Teacher" which I find very strange but sweet.

Teaching here will definitely have an impact on my teaching back in the UK - I am already becoming very aware of my word choices and how I phrase instructions - useful when teaching children with EAL back in the UK! There are some differences, mainly that Thai teachers often (mostly gently) hit the pupils for class control, and children sit in rows so there is limited group work - something which is greatly encouraged back home. I tried to get children to talk to their partners for one activity and it did not work at all!

One of the English displays

Another aspect which is different is that back home, we are encouraged to ask children high-level questions in order to develop their understanding, but here I have found that asking very simple, often closed, questions is the most effective way of engaging the children and ensuring they know what they are doing.