This week has been busy so far-
On Mondays, we don't teach until the afternoon and so Denny (along with Arunrat and two education supervisors) took us to a primary school in nearby Udon Thani. They have heard of what SMSU is doing and want to get in on the student teachers as well. The students at this school were INCREDIBLE. First of all, this school has an advanced immersion program, where the students pay an extra 25,000 baht, but have an English teacher teaching all of their classes, starting in first grade. The difference in knowledge between Ban Maaken (our school) and this one was amazing. However, I LOVE our seventh and eighth graders and wouldn't trade them in for the world. This visit did put quite a bit of excitement for what SMSU can do in the future- I cannot wait to share my experiences with those back home and hopefully make an impact on their student teaching decision!
After we were done observing the school, as well as chatting with many "higher ups" within the school, we went out for lunch and then headed back to school. Mondays are always the hardest. This week, Ari and I thought we had a great plan. We were going to have the students work on ordering at restaurants in English, as our assigned topic was "food and drink". We split them into groups and were going to "play restaurant" by having them order food off a menu. This was a flop- none of the students understood what we were trying to do and didn't stop moving around to other groups. And giving directions in English was not an option, so we abandoned that technique. Instead, we had the students practice ordering a drink with their partner. Afterwards, we taught them how to order food (what to say) as a class. I then went around asking them for their favorite foods so we could make a huge list on the whiteboard. After each student had given a different answer, we had them write out their own menus for a restaurant. The restaurant was named "___their nickname___'s Restaurant" (Clever, we know). The students then had to add five foods and five drinks that they would share at their restaurant. The students were actually quite clever with this and some even added pictures. We then called on students by their nicknames, which they thought was hilarious, as we don't pronounce words the way they do. Some of their nicknames were simply English words. For example, today I met Boat, Bacon, First, Boss, Bas, Arm, Art, Fern, and even Beer. Some nicknames huh?
Monday night, I started not to feel so well and went to bed early. Tuesday evening was more of the same, but Arunrat had teacher friends over.. when I fell asleep at 11:30, they were still here yelling and laughing, so I'm not actually sure what time they really left. Wednesday, I woke up with a runny nose, a headache, and a terrible sore throat- I blame Ari; she was sick first! After class, I hopped on a public car and came home. Sleep was calling my name. And besides finishing Gossip Girl and chatting with Mark for a bit, that's all I did.
Today (Thursday) after school, Arunrat and Sirilak had a meeting and so I went home with Ari by public car to hang out, as we didn't feel like sitting at the school till five. We watched part of The Princess and the Frog (made my day) and then Arunrat and Auntie took me to Faroh Steakhouse. Yes, it was decorated Egyptian. Yes, that is how they spell Faroh. No, I'm not sure if they know it isn't correct. This, however, isn't uncommon- I had a student spell water "wetr" today. They spell the way they say it, which may not be how we, as English speakers, pronounce it.
Just a day in the life here in Thailand. Tomorrow, Ari and I leave for Bangkok to meet up with her parents who are coming to visit- should be a grand ole time!
Xoxo Kenzkeg
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