New Home

Video Tour below

I had no predecessor or contact with my school because I am the very first American, actually the very first foreigner, to ever teach at my school. The lack of information exchange led to a have lack of expectations about my new home and my new school. I had no idea how to even imagine what this experience would be like, but as I sit out on my balcony in the second floor of the old kindergarten building watching 24 adorable 5 year run around in the playground that is my front yard I am very pleasantly surprised.

It is very hard to explain my new home and my new school to those who have not visited Thailand, because everything about this experience has been very uniquely Thai. My home for instance is the traditional classroom building- A cinderblock first floor frame with shudders for windows and a wooden second floor. As you guessed the glassless windows implies I do not have air conditioning. I do not have hot water or internet either.

But it is very easy to overlook what I don’t have because I have been blessed with so much!
The school turned this classroom building into a mini home for me, and I use the word home very intentionally. The care that went into supplying me with all the necessities and comforts truly is appreciated. I have a kitchen with a 2 liter hot water heater (which I also use to heat my bucket shower), a microwave, a sink, a refrigerator, and all the utensils and glassware I would need. I have a bathroom with a western toilet and a cold water shower hose above the sink (there is no shower stall, but rather the whole bathroom is three inches sunken into the ground with all the excess water running into a central drain). My bedroom was supplied with fresh sheets and a newly bought pillow, and adjacent to my bedroom is a changing room stocked with a closet, a drying rack, and a plethora of hangers.

The living conditions are very simplistic, but the privacy (of sorts because right now I have three kindergartners waving hello to me), the warmth, the safety, and the locations could not get much better. My school is right in front of a gorgeous red and gold plated wat ( a Thai temple)which I have the keys to unlock and enter if the gate is ever closed and parallel to an amazing noodle shop. Roughly 100 meters down the dirt road is a traditional Thai market. Today I went about bought banana custard kanoms (desserts), red curry noodles, and pomegranates, but there is an assortment of raw fruits and vegetables, hot dishes, take-home dishes, clothing, and of course formaldehyde fish (apparently a specialty ).

The amazing part about being in Lumpang, and Thailand in general, is the small community atmosphere I have encountered. I feel like I have three moms, five aunts, two uncles, and hundreds of younger brothers and sister. Everyone treats you as if you are a part of their extended family if not treating you like you are their daughter. For instance there is one teacher, the Thai cooking teacher, who insist that I call her mah(mother), and the best part is she invites me to eat lunch with her – the meal her and her students have prepared in the prior class.
I wish I had pictures to better explain my living conditions and my school; however I had the unlucky experience of breaking my camera in the first month of moving abroad. Fortunately after many phone calls and persistent pressure from my mom, Nikon is repairing and sending me a camera. When this happens I will update my blog with many pictures in order assist explaining this crazy beautiful experience.

I could not end this blog without giving details about the reason I am here: teaching. I was told I would not start teaching until next week, but this is Thailand and details are never concrete. So I walked into class and my co-teacher said “introduce yourself and begin a lesson.” Thankfully I had taught in Bangkok and had a general outline of a successful introductory class. I started the day with five facts about myself: My name, where I am from, how many brothers and sisters I have, how old I am, and what I like to do on the weekends. We played a drill game on vocab and sentence structure, roleplayed how to ask question and give the answers, practice dialogues speed-dating styles, and created a flier about ourselves using the five facts taught throughout class.

Today I taught my highest level students- three blocks an hour each of 9th graders. Like any class there were some students who comprehended the lesson and students who did not. There were students who were shy. There were students who drew in class. There were students who were loud and students who were extremely excited to meet a foreigner.
Unlike any class in America there are not strict class changes. I am supposed to dismiss my class at half past the hour and receive my next class at half past the hour and there are no bells. Clearly the value of time is not a priority. The first class I accidently dismissed 7 minutes late, but my students for my second class did not arrive until forty past the hour. The general system is that teachers aim to finish a lesson in an hour, but if you take an hour and ten minutes that is ok your students will just be late to their next class. The students wait in the outdoor hallway on bench until the teacher is finished with the class.
THIS could take some getting used to.

Also unlike a class in America I am not really giving the class grades. My goal is to improve the student’s conversation skills, encourage their interest in learning English, and provided cultural understanding of America. I can assign work and grade it, but I do not record these grades and give a final grade at the end of the year. Their English teacher who focuses on grammar and vocab will observe their participation and understanding and use it as a percentage of their final grade. So although I am a teacher who makes lesson plans and tries to increase my student’s knowledge there are no concrete results/scores I am technically trying to receive- a very interesting concept compared to the goals of my American peer teachers.

So in order to create a goal for students and myself, I must define result in my own terms without using grades (a-f) or number system (1-100) which is going to be a very complex concept. If I had the time and the resources I could evaluate my students and aspire to have them increase their comprehension from their current level, but I teach 14 different classes with 20-24 students in each class from 4-9th grade. This is at minimum 280 students…. So all I can say is: I don’t have this evaluation process figured out just yet. What I do know is I can broaden my student’s horizons and open the door to world. I can become a part of their community, and help them understand cultures outside their own.

In the month I have been here I have realized the more I travel the more I learn that the values and priorities of Thais (or any culture) are different then my own, and I can respect and understand them without compromising my own American values. Perhaps mutual understanding is one the best ways to promote a more peaceful world, but I guess that was the vision of Senator Fulbright when he created the program. Assisting in spreading this concept may be a better way of evaluating my teaching outcomes over the next year.