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.
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.
As I said in my last post, I was finally called upon to do some more traditional work and do some trainings in conversational English. Only this time, I was given three days to find help and plan for 2 two-day trainings for 200 principals in total. Half of the principals would attend the first two days and the other half would attend the second two days. Seeing as it was Friday when I was informed and the training would start on the following Wednesday (and the trainers be at the hotel on Tuesday) I didn’t have an ideal amount of time.
After nearly a month after moving to site I was finally called upon to do some work in the traditional sense; my Saw Naw (supervisor at the Primary Education Service Area Office, equivalent to a school district) asked me to do a training in conversational English for some of the office’s directors. It would be around 35 people over the span of two days at a resort in a different district called Wang Nam Khiao.
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”
Just before we left for our site visit, we started to plan for a Teacher Training camp that we would put on once we returned to Suphan Buri. To say we are hitting training at a whirlwind pace at this point is almost an understatement. more “Peace Corps Pre-Service Training: Teacher Training”
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”
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”
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”