Moving Mountains

I survived the first day of school! We arrived around 7:30am to total chaos. 1,500 elementary students and their parents roaming all over.The first day of school warranted a huge assembly with many speakers, Jason and I included. When the assembly concluded, I scrambled around to find my first class which started at 8:30. One kind teacher pointed me in the right direction, top floor, first room. When I got to the door, someone ushered me in and quickly exited, I was on my own. My first class was 5^th grade English- 50 students jammed into a small classroom with few windows and fans. The only materials I had to work with were the black board, broken pieces of chalk and anything I brought with me, which wasn’t much. The school offered no text book and no curriculum for English classes. I did my best to quiz the students on their knowledge of my language and then tried to teach a bit. We ended the class happily with a game. I arrived late to my next class because I got lost. It transpired similar to the first, no one in sight to help or assist me and just a chalk board and 50 3^rd graders staring at me blankly. I did my best. The next class was 2^nd grade, and wow do they have energy. My voice was almost gone at this point but because they all insisted on talking and playing throughout the lesson, I did my best to shout every word, which I truly believe they didn't understand.

By 12:30 it was lunchtime. It couldn’t have come sooner. I was literally covered in chalk from head to toe and while rushing to the bathroom, I ran into Jason. We discussed how our days had been going so far. As he wiped chalk out of my hair and sweat off my face he smiled and said “this is easy!” He went on to explain that he has just 8 students. JUST EIGHT! I couldn’t get over it. He said he didn’t really have to do anything first period, he taught half the 2^nd period and his thai teacher assistant taught the rest. Then he had period 3 off. Unreal.

Lunch lasted an hour and then it was back to work. I was assigned to 6^th grade math. I have no clue what 6^th grade Thai students would be learning about and didn’t prepare anything. I stalled a bit in the beginning and just spoke about myself. I put some generic problems on the board and the students proved within seconds that they were well above the level of plus, minus, multiply, and divide. After almost 40 minutes passed, a thai teacher barged in with a math book for me. Wow, 10 minutes left to class and now I have something to go off of.

We were done with teaching around 1:30 but were required to stay until 4:00. I tried my best to clear my mind of the day's troubles and focus on lesson plans for the next day. I knew that I'd be facing all new students and all new classes the next day. I went on a search for the copier. I realized that if I could bring worksheets with me, I could keep the students busy for hours! I came to find though, that the copy paper was very limited. You can only make so many copies a day apparently, and well, I see upwards of 200 students a day so I was out of luck. I somehow conjured up 50 blank sheets so at least one of my classes could have a decent activity. I’m doing my best to stay strong, healthy, and sane. It's quite difficult J