{"id":4717,"date":"2012-12-12T19:10:03","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T03:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/?p=4717"},"modified":"2012-12-12T19:10:03","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T03:10:03","slug":"phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/","title":{"rendered":"Phom saawrn pasa an grit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4719\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/img_6501\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4719\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6501-1024x402.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6501-1024x402.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6501-300x117.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6501-624x245.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Insight on the profession of teaching from a thirteen-year-old:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;In the present, I&#8217;m still a student.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t have special life or any money, but I&#8217;ve a lot of occupation in my dream that I hope one of them it will be the best that I can do it.\u00a0 When I was young, I saw my teacher teached many students in my class.\u00a0 She&#8217;s always smile and looked happily, so my first dream is &#8216;teacher&#8217;.\u00a0 Then I growed up, I think this dream its too easy for me.\u00a0 I changed my heart to be teacher to another occupation.\u00a0 Now my future occupation that I hope it&#8217;s a tour guide.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well\u2026.shit.\u00a0 My job is too easy for a thirteen year old to even consider.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve been on the job for six months, so maybe it&#8217;s time I do some thinking\u2026.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ok, so a tour guide handles large groups of people at a time.\u00a0 I have fifty students in each class room, twelve classes a week. Check.<\/li>\n<li>Next, a tour guide has to impart information to his or her tour group.\u00a0 I do that!\u00a0 That is, whenever class isn&#8217;t cancelled because, &#8220;Teacher, we go dance,&#8221; or whenever students aren&#8217;t forty minutes late because, &#8220;Teacher, we do sit-ups&#8221; (Both legitimate excuses in Thailand, but neither of which my students are able to elaborate on).\u00a0 Check.<\/li>\n<li>So a tour guide has to handle dealing with many different scheduling issues.\u00a0 Sometimes, I&#8217;m told that my class is cancelled, then it&#8217;s not, then it is, then it&#8217;s not, then it is, then it&#8217;s not, then I show up and no one is there, and finally a passing student shrugs and says, &#8220;No class today, Ajarn Maxwell&#8221; (Not an exaggeration, just a Wednesday).\u00a0 Check.<\/li>\n<li>Tour guides need to be responsible for their tour group, and keep track of their whereabouts.\u00a0 With fifty students in a class at a time, this can be tough, but I do my best.\u00a0 Like that one time\u2026.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;Teacher, I want go play soccer.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;Thats great, but we have a listening quiz today.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;I want play soccer!&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;Well you can either take the listening quiz, or you can go play soccer and get a zero on your listening quiz.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>&#8220;Ok, I go play soccer<\/em><span style=\"font-style: italic\">!&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I knew <em>exactly<\/em> where he was the whole time!\u00a0 I could see him playing soccer on the field outside our window.\u00a0 No one gets out of my sight.\u00a0 Check.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-4750\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6517-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6517-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6517-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6517-624x935.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So I think I could definitely make the switch to tour guide if I ever truly get overwhelmed with teaching.\u00a0 But calling teaching &#8220;too easy?&#8221;\u00a0 Maybe this particular student hasn&#8217;t noticed me sweat through two shirts while trying to save a lesson plan which I expected to last forty-five minutes, but which actually lasted only six minutes.\u00a0 (&#8220;Ok. So\u2026.now\u2026.I want you\u2026\u2026to draw\u2026Yes! Draw your favorite sport on the back of your paper, please!&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>Teaching is tough.\u00a0 Teaching in Thailand is\u2026well it&#8217;s something.\u00a0 It&#8217;s strangely easy to become responsible for six-hundred thirteen year olds here.\u00a0 Basically, if you show up, are white or Filipino, and speak English, you can get a job as a teacher.\u00a0 Having a TEFL or TOEFL certification doesn&#8217;t seem to be completely standard or necessary, but it helps.\u00a0 \u00a0 If I hadn&#8217;t been awarded this teaching position by Princeton in Asia and Prince Royal&#8217;s College, I would have gone straight into the University of Puget Sound&#8217;s Masters in Teaching program.\u00a0 I decided I would use Thailand as my testing grounds to see if teaching was right for me.\u00a0 A bunch of tiny, Thai guinea pigs if you will.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t feel too bad about this idea, since many teachers here in Thailand are not considering teaching as a career, but are just along for the ride.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4736\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/img_5335-4\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4736\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5335-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5335-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5335-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5335-624x416.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I had taken several course in Education while at UPS as an undergrad, and was beginning to consider and build my own personal pedagogy.\u00a0 Soon after this personal development, I stepped off a plane and was slapped out of my Liberal Arts fantasies by the reality of teaching in a foreign country.\u00a0 There are several issues with being a Western teacher in the Thai education system.\u00a0 These issues can cause headache-inducing roadblocks for Western teachers, regardless of their actual interest in teaching.\u00a0 Now that I&#8217;m here facing these problems, I&#8217;ve had to contradict my personal pedagogy on many occasions.\u00a0 This is not by choice, but because in many ways I must fall in line with the Thai education system.\u00a0 I often find myself doing some deep lamaze-style breathing, repeating the country&#8217;s catch phrase, &#8220;Mai bpen rai,&#8221; (&#8220;No worries&#8221;), and moving on.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4741\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/img_5406\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-4741\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5406-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5406-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5406-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5406-624x936.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a>Lets talk grades.\u00a0 Thai students cannot fail.\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 They pass onto the next level regardless of their score in the previous.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve seen Thai teachers erase a student&#8217;s failing score and just write-in whatever is a barely passing score.\u00a0 Zero student accountability.\u00a0 This explains why my students, who are in their sixth year of English studies, often respond to &#8220;How are you?&#8221; with &#8220;Haha, yes Teacher!&#8221; (My face lives in my palm).\u00a0 I have no upper hand in situations where a student wants to go play soccer while I write a big &#8220;0\/10&#8221; on his or her test.\u00a0 But I don&#8217;t necessarily fight it, because this means one less student in an overcrowded class room.<\/p>\n<p>Fifty student class rooms.\u00a0 This is craziness.\u00a0 And as much as it pains me, I&#8217;ve had to accept that I have no option but leaving some students in the dust.\u00a0 Sometimes the choice is made for me, like when students who have no desire to listen to a 22 year old American explain what &#8220;grabbing a bite to eat&#8221; means, and decide to just not come to class.\u00a0 This allows me to really focus on the small portion of students in a classroom who are actually interested in learning English.\u00a0 It sounds awful to say, but sometimes I&#8217;m happy when students make that choice for me (I&#8217;m clearly not recruiting for the Dead Poet&#8217;s Society).\u00a0 At other times, I can see that a student is struggling, but I can&#8217;t always stop class to help.\u00a0 If I direct my attention at one student for too long, I quickly lose the attention, and then control, of forty-nine other students, and sometimes you can never pull out of that death spiral.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4765\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/img_5382\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-4765\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5382-765x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5382-765x1024.jpg 765w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5382-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_5382-624x834.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a>So what do I do?\u00a0 There are essentially no grades, huge classrooms, rampant acceptance of cheating, no expectations for students to show up on time, classes cancelled almost on a daily basis, and only fifty minutes of contact time with my students each week.\u00a0 I can&#8217;t take it seriously.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t hear me wrong.\u00a0 I seriously care for my students, and I love my job.\u00a0 But if I tried to hold my teaching to the standards I expected to have when I left university, my hair would turn gray within a week.\u00a0 And besides my personal well-being, I would make no progress with my students if I tried to combat these conditions that come with teaching in Thailand.\u00a0 The system isn&#8217;t too serious, so the best way for me to make progress is to go with the flow, and grab student interest where I can.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve adopted a strategy of not teaching very technical English, but instead making my classroom a place where hearing English is just comfortable.\u00a0 We play games, do skits, and listen to songs.\u00a0 Rarely do I lecture, and if I do, it&#8217;s not for more than ten minutes.\u00a0 As long as I&#8217;m creating a slight association between English-speaking and the relaxed environment of my classroom, then I feel accomplished.\u00a0 And the more I foster this comfortable classroom atmosphere, the greater the response I see from my students.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve spent the last three weeks teaching my students to say something other then &#8220;I&#8217;m fine,&#8221; when asked how they&#8217;re doing (&#8220;I hate when you all say that, you sound like robots!&#8221;).\u00a0 I told them that &#8220;fine&#8221; was a boring word and I wanted to hear how they really felt.\u00a0 A sign came to me that maybe I was a little bit successful with my teaching strategies when one student ran up to me, hugged me, and said, &#8220;Hello Teacher, I <em>know<\/em> you are fine.&#8221;\u00a0 Cheeky little bastard!\u00a0 Well, I didn&#8217;t mean to teach them sarcasm, but I&#8217;ll take what I can get.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4768\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/img_6553-2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4768\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6553-1024x640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6553-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6553-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/12\/IMG_6553-624x390.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Insight on the profession of teaching from a thirteen-year-old: &#8220;In the present, I&#8217;m still a student.\u00a0 Don&#8217;t have special life or any money, but I&#8217;ve a lot of occupation in my dream that I hope one of them it will &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/12\/12\/phom-saawrn-pasa-an-grit\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-max-honch-12-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}