A typical school day

This is what my schedule was like yesterday at Daroonpat Bilingual School. Everday is similar. Not much changes, except that on somedays I teach geography.
6:30 a.m. Wake up and get ready.
6:50 a.m. Catch a taxi.
7:10 a.m. Arrive at school and sign in.
7:12 a.m. Walk to 7-11 and buy breakfast or eat something I brought.
7:20 a.m. Plan lessons or check email. I'm still sort of waking up at this point.
7:50 a.m. Students and teachers assemble for flag ceremony. Thai staff give announcements in Thai. I stand there, but I don't understand any of it.
8:00 a.m. The Thai national anthem is played. One of the students leads the school in singing the anthem.
8:02 a.m. Two students raise the Thai flag to the top of the flagpole. 8:04 a.m. Most of the students and teachers are Buddhist. They say Buddhist prayers facing the statue of Buddha. Buddha statues in Thailand are slender unlike the plump Chinese Buddhas. The one at our school sits with his legs crossed in a meditative postition.
8:10 a.m. More announcements. Sometimes one of the foreign teachers has to give an informal speech or lesson. For my last speech I asked the students questions about the World Cup. The time before that I made up a rap about the school. It was right before their school spirit camp (think pep rally not religious retreat), so I thought it would be good to come up with something like that to get them excited about the school. Some of them liked it. Of course, I didn't expect them to learn to rap. I said it too fast for them to repeat it.

We're keepin' it real at Daroonpat.
Learin' English, Thai, Math, and hip-hop.
Art, swimming, science, and geography,
Dancing, cooking, health, and even "Monopoly".
Teachin' you sports, it's Teacher J.T.
He says, "Let's have lots of fun, but dress properly."
And don't forget science.
Teacher Bill, represent!
Show us another mad experiment!
The doc is in the house. It's Dr. Nontiwat.
Follow his example. You can learn a lot.
So let's get excited.
Show some spirit for your school.
Let everyone know, that it's really cool.

(Dr. Nontiwat is the school director.)
8:15-8:30 a.m. Homeroom. Students have to present their contact books to the teachers. They write down their homework assignments in them. The teachers sign next to the assignments to check that they wrote them down. Then the parents sign them to show that the students did the work. It works well. It lets the parents know their kids have homework. Also sometimes I write notes about the students' behavior in the books. I usually make the students sit quietly and read or do classwork/homework. Sometimes the Thai assistant teacher watches them instead of me, so I can have more time to prepare for lessons.
8:30-9:20 a.m. English class for grade 6. This time I taught them about possessive pronouns. We played a game. I had students put things that belonged to them in my bag. I told them to put something that others wouldn't know was theirs. Then I had them reach into the bag one by one and pull out an object. The students guessed who it belonged to and they had to ask "Is this yours?" I had a few objects that were mine. One of them was a pink umbrella that I got as a gift. They didn't know it was mine. :) Then we did fill in the blank in groups from the book.
9:20-10:10 a.m. Math class for grade 5. I taught them how to multiply fractions.
10 minute break. Usually there is a sugary snack like a donut with a glass of milk.
10:20-11:10 Math class for grade 6. I taught them how to find the duration of time when given a starting time and ending time. Then I introduced them to speed, time and distance problems. They had to fill in tables and do some word problems. It was tough for most of them. But a few of them are sharp and they get it really quickly.
11:10-Noon I have a free period. I planned my next lesson.
Noon-12:50 p.m. Lunch. Fried rice with pork.
12:50-1:40 p.m. English for grade 6 again. I gave them a short quiz about possessives and then I taught them about pastimes and using "go" and "play" with them in sentences. Go swimming. Play soccer. Go bowling. etc.
1:40-2:30 p.m. Free period.
2:30-2:40 p.m. Home room again. Students write down their homework in their contact books. Then they go home or stay for an extra English class.
2:40-3:30 p.m. Extra English class. Our classrooms have projectors that can display what is on a computer screen. I showed the students some on-line short stories from the British Council website. The stories are animated flash programs with sounds and characters' voices. The students liked it.
3:30-4:30 p.m. I have free time until the end of the day when we sign out and leave.
4:30-5:30 p.m. I travel back home in a taxi.
6:00 p.m. Tan and I meet for dinner.
However, I usually go to tutor some kids with Tan. It takes about 30 minutes to get to their home. Then I tutor for two hours. After that Tan and I eat together around 7 p.m.
With a schedule like this on most days, it's no wonder that I get worn out. Sometimes Tan and I tutor on Saturdays too. And on Sunday I hangout with friends. So I'm kind of tired at the end of the weekend too. I come home and I usually watch mindless TV or play solitaire. I have cable so I don't have to watch Thai TV shows. I can't stand them. Well, this was a long post. If you read every word then you're probably my mom. Take care.

Prathom 3/2 Class Photo 

Goodbye School

This will be my last week to work at CD school. I will miss the students and teachers. Amy and I had dinner with the family of one of my students. I tutored their oldest son and Amy tutored his younger brother. It will be sad to say goodbye. I hope I make as many friends at the next place that I work. I'm still job hunting.

Today Tan and I went to Ice's graduation ceremony. The ceremonies are always held a long time after students have graduated. Chris and Derrick also went. Chris is a long time friend. I met him two years ago. He's Thai. Derrick is a new friend. He is an exchange student from Holland. Ice and her family invited us to have dinner with them to celebrate.

Tomorrow's date will mark 14 months that Tan and I have been together. We will go out to eat and then watch a film from the Bangkok International Film Festival.

CD Thai teachers and a Chinese teacher at Ajarn Yai's house 

CD has 50th anniversary

My school in Bangkok had its 50th anniversary recently. It was marked with a preformance by students, teachers and even one of the royal family. I was very impressed with it. I enjoyed the segment where the kids did something similar to STOMP. While kids were banging on chairs and cafeteria trays, a girl entered with a microphone and began to rap in Thai. She was joined on stage by a break dancer. Other highlights included kids playing Thai xylophones while others students came on stage in costumes. They were dressed as monkeys from the Ramakian story. The story originally came from India and was called The Ramayana. Thailand has adapted it with wonderful, colorful costumes of monkeys and demons. They do acrobatic lifts and cartwheels. One of the royal princesses also showed off her ballroom dancing with a partner. I was glad to see that the students did a good job. They worked so hard, and it paid off.

a lizard lurking by the moat 

Monitor lizard at my school, not a zoo 

Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand

This post was the first email I sent after I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand to teach English:

Hello Everyone,

Sawat Dii, Krahp!
Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand.

This is my big e-mail that I'm sending to lots of people. I won't send very many like this. I will start updating my online journal soon. I have not talked with some of you in so long that you may not know what I am up to at the moment. I am currently in Bangkok, Thailand. I will be teaching English for the next nine months.

Here is a brief update of what is going on right now. I am having a blast! I graduated on Saturday, May 19th. Then I caught a flight on Wednesday morning and I arrived in Bangkok on Thursday at 10:30 pm local time. The time is about 12 hours different from Central Standard Time. I didn't suffer from jet lag too badly, but I don't want to go near a stinkin' plane again for a while.  It was so boring. The day after I got to Bangkok I went on a bus trip with some of the other teachers from the school. What a great cure for a plane trip, right? I don't know what I was thinking. It was a very long bus trip. They told me it would only be three hours. It ended up being seven hours. Oh well. It was fun. I got to meet other teachers before school started. The other teachers who went were mostly Thai. But two Australians came along too. After getting back from the bus trip yesterday, I taught my first day of school today.
The kids were hard to control. Some of them were well behaved, but others were just running around the room. I told them to sit down but either they didn't understand or they pretended not to. I had almost no preparation time. I was given a lesson plan half an hour before class.  But I did get some things accomplished.  I took attendance and taught some of them how to say "Hello, my name is ..." Fortunately, Namon, the lead teacher of the 2nd grade, came by and helped me get the class under control. Some of them started their homework and some even finished in class. One kid was very funny. He wrote his answers in a fluorescent pen so they would be invisible. Then, he showed me with a big smile as he lit up the letters with a special light. Another kid was a troublemaker. He got up on a chair, bent a plastic ruler and then launched it in the air at the ceiling. Later, I was talking to the class with a microphone. I asked each kid, 'What is your name?' He ran up and shouted, "JAPON!" into the microphone then he ran back and sat down. He is a very funny kid!
Well I'm going to write some more individual emails, but I won't be able to write everyone individually. Please be patient for a response from me if you write me an email. God bless you all. I will keep you in my thoughts.

I have a job this summer

This post was written during my senior year at Baylor University:

I am so excited. I am doing the Baylor in Thailand program. I will be teaching English in Thailand for nine months. I leave a few days after graduation and get back in March 'O5. If you're shocked, just imagine how I am feeling. I didn't even think this was a possibility two days ago. But I think God had plans for me. I really do. I was not on the list to go, but yesterday I received an e-mail that told me there was a spot available. I called Professor Mueller and I got it. Now I'm scrambling to get a passport and visa and a plane ticket. I'll let y'all know more details later.
I really am thrilled! You cannot understand how cool this is! I'll try to keep updating this blog while I'm there. Later.