Teachers are among the most respected professionals in Thailand. Every school year, there is a day called Wan Wai Kruu, which loosely translates and “Day to Pay Respect to Teachers.” The students spend days practicing, preparing the school grounds and creating the small offerings they give. On Wan Wai Kruu, the students gather in an assembly, and each student, class by class, comes up to the teachers on stage, kneels and wais to the teachers. They give them the flower offerings they prepared and the teachers give them blessings and encouragement for the coming school year. Check out the video to see what Wan Wai Kruu looked like at my school this year.
Tag: students
Creating Collaborative Classroom Agreements
After observing my co-teachers and how they teach for a bit, I finally agreed to make my way to the front of the classroom and work alongside them this week. But I didn’t get started teaching just yet. First, we needed to set some agreements for the classroom.
First Impressions of Teaching in Thailand
School started about three weeks ago here in Thailand and I have spent my time at the school observing. (I wasn’t at school for the second week of school because of the student and teacher camps that I had.) Here is a collection of my initial reactions and observations.
Back to Back English Camps for Students & Teachers
True to Thai form, I was told that I was going to be hosting a teacher camp for matayom teachers just over a week before the scheduled dates at end of day on a Friday, with no further information other than maybe 50 teachers and four days long.
Graduation and Welcoming Ceremony
After swearing in, we newly minted volunteers got right down to business with the Counterpart Conference. We spent the next couple days getting to know our counterparts a little bit better, communicating our expectations of each other, getting on the same page as far as Peace Corps policy and for the TCCS volunteers figuring out what co-teaching and lesson planning together meant in real time. more “Graduation and Welcoming Ceremony”
Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: Life Skills Afternoon
After a Saturday well spent and feeling pretty productive with the Teacher Training Camp, we came to our technical training on Tuesday feeling like there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
But sometimes that light is a train.
more “Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: Life Skills Afternoon”
Peace Corps: Visiting My Village and School
So after 7 weeks of training we finally found out where we would be working for the next two years. Apparently the announcement is a 50 year old tradition that is a bit of a surprise so I won’t describe that here in case any future Thailand volunteers are reading in the future. more “Peace Corps: Visiting My Village and School”
Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: English Camp
I’m super behind on blogging, but I had no Internet at my house and the Internet at the library was often overloaded with other volunteers in the same situation as me. Short update: I’ve officially been sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I am at my site. But I’m going to keep this chronological and get you lovely readers up to speed that way. Also check out the Thai Theater post, as I have added pictures. more “Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: English Camp”
Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: Practicum
As part of the training for the Teacher Collaboration and Community Service program, we get to spend eight days over two weeks working with a real, live Thai teacher and teach real, live Thai students in a real, live Thai school. I think that this is especially exciting after lesson planning for imaginary students. more “Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: Practicum”