So I haven't written in awhile--surprise, surprise. Since I wrote last, there's been a few big things that have happened.
At school, we got a schedule change because the M4, M5, and M6 students all leave school at 11am on Fridays to go to military training. This means the whole weekly schedule gets revised. As a result, writing is no longer its own subject. I do have a co-teacher again, which is good, and it's Bence, so that's a win! However, I now only teach every third class because the other times the class is devoted to reading. So for two of every three weeks, I go to class and stand there, bored, as Megan and Bence teach reading (which they admit is boring too). Plus, I keep getting extra, inane tasks that take me out of the few classes I do have to do work that is pointless and tedious and makes me hate SG and my job. Needless to say, for awhile there I was in a bit of a funk about being here and I was wondering how I was going to make it through a year of this. If it would not have been for feeling like I was letting Bence and my students down, I might have tendered my resignation and left in October after the first semester.
Then, I met Gaston, the love of my life! Haha. Basically, I finally went to dance class one Sunday with Amanda. It was Contemporary Ballet taught by Gaston. For an hour and a half I was so happy! I didn't think about school at all while I was there, instead I was having fun and mostly thinking about how to correct all of my body position issues that I have from not having danced in a few years and never having trained really well. I never realized how much I missed dance class because I just sort of faded out of it. But, during that first class I remembered how much I love doing it and how much joy it brings! To watch Gaston dance, he does the routine all out every time, smiling and performing to himself in the mirror. It's a little bit funny, but mostly he looks so gosh darn happy you just want to jump in and do it too! Since that first class, I have been going to five classes a week, four nights of the week, three of which are with Gaston. I am going to have absolutely no money, but it is worth it because I am mentally and physically much healthier than I was three weeks ago.
Gaston, whom I LOVE, by the way, is a tiny, noticeably gay, Argentinian man in his late 30s or 40s who speaks fluent Spanish(obviously), English, and Japanese, and a little bit of Thai. He is amazing! For more details about all of the reasons I love Gaston, you can see Meg's Facebook wall because I update her pretty regularly.
In summation, school this year is more frustrating than last, but two super small, gay men are keeping me here and happy! Haha!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Another Sample Journal Entry
This week's theme is "My City"
City my will must a city at have Environment at good and will abundant full a with tree. City will must have people not much and not too little and will full a with shop and Building.
*Sigh...*
(P.S. I promise a proper blog post in the upcoming days because it has been awhile.)
City my will must a city at have Environment at good and will abundant full a with tree. City will must have people not much and not too little and will full a with shop and Building.
*Sigh...*
(P.S. I promise a proper blog post in the upcoming days because it has been awhile.)
Sunday, June 17, 2012
A Sample Journal Entry
This is a pretty average (quality-wise) journal entry from Primary 6, the level of kids whose journals I check AND correct the spelling/grammar of.
The Leader
The leader is a person to the best in anything. It was a guide of history, guide of shoping or The Leader of guide. It was a Significant in the anything to do.
The Leader in the dream. I was be The Leader class. It was very hard to do it. The Leader was a Top in the class.
The Leader has a spirit to be a leader.
-Anonymous P6 Student
...And that's why it takes me forever to grade.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Life at School
I've been back now for a little while, so I figured I'd fill you in a little, though not much has happened since my last post.
The gecko made a triumphant return last night. At least I'm pretty sure he did. I never saw him; I only heard him. He had made himself scarce since early in the week when I enlisted two of the guys on my floor to get him out of my bathroom. That was a comical event; let me explain:
As I said before, the reason I find Mr. Gecko so problematic is that he is far too big and animal-like (rather than bug-like) for me to conceive of beating him to death, but he is also quick and squirmy and reptilian, so I really don't want to touch him, and, consequently, I get scared when he darts across the walls in proximity to me. Because of all this, when I saw him again one evening, I decided to get some fearless men types on the job. Ryan and Devin came courageously into the bathroom, making all kinds of comments about a woman asking men to do "man's work." The next minute or so consisted of startled squeals and childish giggling, and in the end, all that was accomplished was the gecko took refuge in hiding behind the toilet where he lay in wait to make his escape by way of the pipe shaft sometime later.
Essentially, they did exactly everything I had managed to do on my own except more femininely in their utterances. Hilarious.
As far as school goes, my classes are going well. I get to teach a lot which I like. I hate that I have to use this book created by the St. Gabriel's Foundation which SUCKS! Not only is it poorly manufactured (some students' brand new books shed pages), but it looks childish, the exercises and examples are frequently stupid and/or suspect, and certain things it says are simply wrong; not to mention the sprinkling of grammatical errors. Sigh.
But I digress, my classes are pretty great. My co-teacher, Master Worawat, is very nice and is pretty good at controlling the classes. The classes themselves--that is to say the students,--being largely unchanged from last year, are still hit or miss with regard to behavior. The same classrooms are given to chatty rambunctiousness and those that were well-behaved last year are again that way. Overall, I think it's better, owing most probably to a few factors: 1) I knew exactly what to expect coming into this year (e.g. what is good behavior by the Thai classroom standard and what is actually bad); 2) the students know me, at least to an extent, and I them; and 3) I have many fewer classes this year, so my patience is tenfold what it was in later periods on long days last year.
I am teaching an after school TOEFL study course on Mondays and Wednesdays. In typical SG fashion, I learned I would be doing this the same day as it was to begin. Fortunately, the material for the class is all pre-prepared, so I just had to familiarize myself with it.
The class is a little rough. Because it is an extra period after the school day AND it is not a voluntary study course, but instead mandatory for all M6 students, at least seven eighths of the class doesn't want to be there and doesn't care what I have to say. However, I've learned just to work through the practice exercises with the seven or so students who sit in the front and want to get something out of the class, while the remainder of the class does whatever they feel like in the rest of the classroom. That seems to be working pretty well.
My teaching the vocabulary practice is super funny, though. I can't simply tell them in Thai what the words mean for the obvious reason of my lack of knowledge of the Thai language. So, I have to try to explain what the words mean through synonym or more extensive definition. This is harder than it sounds because you have to use synonyms that are simpler than the word given. Very frequently I can come up with more sophisticated synonyms for the words, but my students have even less clue what they mean. Not infrequently am I then forced to rely on gross approximations of word definitions, extensive explanation and example, and, from time to time, drawings and gestures. There are also times when I simply admit defeat and tell them to look it up later (or right then on their iPhones). What's nice about this whole vocabulary debacle is that both the students and I find a satisfactory amount of amusement in it, enough to make the studying-for-a-standardized-exam process a smidgeon more enjoyable (or less miserable, depending on your personal philosophical outlook).
The final thing I'll write about today is the awesome fun of political demonstrations! Currently the Parliament is set to vote on some sort of Amnesty bill which, if passed, would grant amnesty to all of the previously imprisoned Red Shirt activists (from back in the Yellow Shirt power days). Effectively, that would mean good ol' Thaksin could come back to Thailand, regaining the billions of baht he had stolen and was forced to give up when he was exiled and never having to spend a day in jail. Needless to say, the Yellow Shirts "no like" and so today, the day of the vote, they decided to stage a demonstration (arguably a protest) near-ish the Parliament building which is a mere few blocks from our dear St. Gabriel's. Beginning around noon today parents began taking kids out of school and the school was officially closed at 2pm today, all because of this political demonstration. My personal guess is that the mass early exodus from school was inspired more out of fear of the traffic ramifications of closed streets and additional police units than out of any real concern for the safety of their children while at school. In fact, shy of one siren, I have heard no sound indicators of any kind of disturbance from the norm and my window is open.
Anyway, we'll see how this continues to play out. Just know that whatever you may hear from the international news, things are fine; I'm completely safe where I am at school. In fact, I'm confident that I'm just as safe as I have always been anywhere in Bangkok, with the singular exception of the area directly in front of the Parliament building, actually in the protesting crowd, attired in yellow; then, I grant, I might be less safe than I'd have been a few months ago, similarly attired, in the same spot.
The gecko made a triumphant return last night. At least I'm pretty sure he did. I never saw him; I only heard him. He had made himself scarce since early in the week when I enlisted two of the guys on my floor to get him out of my bathroom. That was a comical event; let me explain:
As I said before, the reason I find Mr. Gecko so problematic is that he is far too big and animal-like (rather than bug-like) for me to conceive of beating him to death, but he is also quick and squirmy and reptilian, so I really don't want to touch him, and, consequently, I get scared when he darts across the walls in proximity to me. Because of all this, when I saw him again one evening, I decided to get some fearless men types on the job. Ryan and Devin came courageously into the bathroom, making all kinds of comments about a woman asking men to do "man's work." The next minute or so consisted of startled squeals and childish giggling, and in the end, all that was accomplished was the gecko took refuge in hiding behind the toilet where he lay in wait to make his escape by way of the pipe shaft sometime later.
Essentially, they did exactly everything I had managed to do on my own except more femininely in their utterances. Hilarious.
As far as school goes, my classes are going well. I get to teach a lot which I like. I hate that I have to use this book created by the St. Gabriel's Foundation which SUCKS! Not only is it poorly manufactured (some students' brand new books shed pages), but it looks childish, the exercises and examples are frequently stupid and/or suspect, and certain things it says are simply wrong; not to mention the sprinkling of grammatical errors. Sigh.
But I digress, my classes are pretty great. My co-teacher, Master Worawat, is very nice and is pretty good at controlling the classes. The classes themselves--that is to say the students,--being largely unchanged from last year, are still hit or miss with regard to behavior. The same classrooms are given to chatty rambunctiousness and those that were well-behaved last year are again that way. Overall, I think it's better, owing most probably to a few factors: 1) I knew exactly what to expect coming into this year (e.g. what is good behavior by the Thai classroom standard and what is actually bad); 2) the students know me, at least to an extent, and I them; and 3) I have many fewer classes this year, so my patience is tenfold what it was in later periods on long days last year.
I am teaching an after school TOEFL study course on Mondays and Wednesdays. In typical SG fashion, I learned I would be doing this the same day as it was to begin. Fortunately, the material for the class is all pre-prepared, so I just had to familiarize myself with it.
The class is a little rough. Because it is an extra period after the school day AND it is not a voluntary study course, but instead mandatory for all M6 students, at least seven eighths of the class doesn't want to be there and doesn't care what I have to say. However, I've learned just to work through the practice exercises with the seven or so students who sit in the front and want to get something out of the class, while the remainder of the class does whatever they feel like in the rest of the classroom. That seems to be working pretty well.
My teaching the vocabulary practice is super funny, though. I can't simply tell them in Thai what the words mean for the obvious reason of my lack of knowledge of the Thai language. So, I have to try to explain what the words mean through synonym or more extensive definition. This is harder than it sounds because you have to use synonyms that are simpler than the word given. Very frequently I can come up with more sophisticated synonyms for the words, but my students have even less clue what they mean. Not infrequently am I then forced to rely on gross approximations of word definitions, extensive explanation and example, and, from time to time, drawings and gestures. There are also times when I simply admit defeat and tell them to look it up later (or right then on their iPhones). What's nice about this whole vocabulary debacle is that both the students and I find a satisfactory amount of amusement in it, enough to make the studying-for-a-standardized-exam process a smidgeon more enjoyable (or less miserable, depending on your personal philosophical outlook).
The final thing I'll write about today is the awesome fun of political demonstrations! Currently the Parliament is set to vote on some sort of Amnesty bill which, if passed, would grant amnesty to all of the previously imprisoned Red Shirt activists (from back in the Yellow Shirt power days). Effectively, that would mean good ol' Thaksin could come back to Thailand, regaining the billions of baht he had stolen and was forced to give up when he was exiled and never having to spend a day in jail. Needless to say, the Yellow Shirts "no like" and so today, the day of the vote, they decided to stage a demonstration (arguably a protest) near-ish the Parliament building which is a mere few blocks from our dear St. Gabriel's. Beginning around noon today parents began taking kids out of school and the school was officially closed at 2pm today, all because of this political demonstration. My personal guess is that the mass early exodus from school was inspired more out of fear of the traffic ramifications of closed streets and additional police units than out of any real concern for the safety of their children while at school. In fact, shy of one siren, I have heard no sound indicators of any kind of disturbance from the norm and my window is open.
Anyway, we'll see how this continues to play out. Just know that whatever you may hear from the international news, things are fine; I'm completely safe where I am at school. In fact, I'm confident that I'm just as safe as I have always been anywhere in Bangkok, with the singular exception of the area directly in front of the Parliament building, actually in the protesting crowd, attired in yellow; then, I grant, I might be less safe than I'd have been a few months ago, similarly attired, in the same spot.
Friday, May 25, 2012
You Know You're in Thailand When...
1. ...you break a serious sweat trying to make a rubber band ball. (Side note: it's harder than you'd think.)
2. ...you go to 7-Eleven three separate times in one day.
3. ...your students get sent home early due to political demonstration a few blocks away.
2. ...you go to 7-Eleven three separate times in one day.
3. ...your students get sent home early due to political demonstration a few blocks away.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Things I Miss About America
This too hopes to be a continuous post.
1. Pandora. Internet Radio.
2. D.E.B.s (Delicious Espresso Beverages).
3. Hulu
4. Netflix
5. Clean air
6. English
7. Having a kitchen
Day-to-day Thailand Hilarities
This post endeavors to chronicle some of the everyday absurdities that I encounter.
1. Students in 6/7 designed jackets for their class which include a sort of crest/emblem which portrays a Panda (symbol of China and 6/7 students study Chinese language) riding a DINOSAUR. Specifically, a T-Rex.
2. A large, billboard size, poster reproduction of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" at our school is mislabeled "Creation of God," thus being wrong on three levels: first, it is the incorrect title for the painting; second, it is an incorrect description of the event depicted; and third, it is fundamentally contrary to one of the essential beliefs of judeo-christian monotheism. Well done, St. Gabriel's College, a Catholic high school, well done.
3. There is a painting of Santa Claus in the Staff Canteen for absolutely no reason.
4. There is a sign in every bathroom stall of the women's teacher "toilet" reminding users, "Do not step up to the toilet," complete with accompanying cartoon of what not to do.
1. Students in 6/7 designed jackets for their class which include a sort of crest/emblem which portrays a Panda (symbol of China and 6/7 students study Chinese language) riding a DINOSAUR. Specifically, a T-Rex.
2. A large, billboard size, poster reproduction of Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" at our school is mislabeled "Creation of God," thus being wrong on three levels: first, it is the incorrect title for the painting; second, it is an incorrect description of the event depicted; and third, it is fundamentally contrary to one of the essential beliefs of judeo-christian monotheism. Well done, St. Gabriel's College, a Catholic high school, well done.
3. There is a painting of Santa Claus in the Staff Canteen for absolutely no reason.
4. There is a sign in every bathroom stall of the women's teacher "toilet" reminding users, "Do not step up to the toilet," complete with accompanying cartoon of what not to do.
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