Saturday, September 02, 2006
The Graduate!
Happy graduation to me, Happy graduation to me... !
My class is finally over! It was tough work, but a really valuable learning experience. My last four weeks have been full of input sessions covering everything from grammar and phonology to blackboard management and using songs and chants in class. We also had more and more teaching practice and lesson prep time, culminating in this final week, when that's pretty much all we did. It wasn't unusual for half the class to still be working at nine o'clock finishing our lesson plans and materials, and helping each other make tapes. I met some really fantastic people in my class, and hope to keep in touch with them as they look for work in Thailand and further afield. I didn't take many pictures, but some of my classmates have promised to email some, so they're coming.
A couple weekends ago Trevor and I made our first border run. In Thailand you get 30 days' stay in the country (as a US citizen) without a visa, but then you have to leave the country. Most of the foreigners living here without work permits have to make regular trips to one border or another. We headed for Cambodia, the closest. Oi, our taxi driver, met up with us early on Sunday morning, and seemed determined to get us there and back in as little time as possible. We were back in Ban Phe by early afternoon, having seen the first 100 meters or so of Cambodia and dropped a bundle of baht on the Cambodian visa and the taxi. We're definitely looking forward to getting work permits/longer-term visas!
Last weekend I worked at an English camp here (TEFL International also runs intensive English camps for kids and Thai teachers). It was a really good time, and it was fun getting to know more of the Thai staff at TEFL. It was hard work though, and time I definitely could have used for some of my coursework. Monday morning of this last week saw us leaving at 7:30am for our teaching practice (an hour away). It was some good extra practice working with high school kids, though. Our last two weeks of teaching practice have been with 14-17 year-olds, in a school in the town of Maptaphut. I've always been a little uncertain how to work with that age group... after our initial teaching practice with 4th and 5th graders, I didn't know how I was going to do with the older kids. It was really great, though, and even though I still think I want to work with elementary aged kids, it was a good experience.
Next up I'm heading down to Phuket to meet up with Trevor. He was getty antsy sitting here in Ban Phe, and decided to head there to check out the surf scene. He read online that Phuket was the one place in Thailand with consistent surf, and it has not disappointed so far. He was in the water on his first day there, and has been meeting some folks from the local surf scene. It's definitely not big-wave stuff, but good beginner beach breaks, and I'm looking forward to giving it a try! Always open to new things and new people, he's been hanging out with Malaysian surfers and Thai boxers, and generally having a look around at the island we're thinking about living on.
I've been emailing back and forth with a few work opportunities here, but nothing very concrete just yet. Pretty much every school looking for a teacher wants someone ASAP, so with my work commitments here at the beginning of October, I don't qualify. Mid-October/November is supposed to be a good time to get hired. It's a bit different mentality toward finding employees - the process moves a lot more quickly than we're used to - but we're going with it.
More soon!
My class is finally over! It was tough work, but a really valuable learning experience. My last four weeks have been full of input sessions covering everything from grammar and phonology to blackboard management and using songs and chants in class. We also had more and more teaching practice and lesson prep time, culminating in this final week, when that's pretty much all we did. It wasn't unusual for half the class to still be working at nine o'clock finishing our lesson plans and materials, and helping each other make tapes. I met some really fantastic people in my class, and hope to keep in touch with them as they look for work in Thailand and further afield. I didn't take many pictures, but some of my classmates have promised to email some, so they're coming.
A couple weekends ago Trevor and I made our first border run. In Thailand you get 30 days' stay in the country (as a US citizen) without a visa, but then you have to leave the country. Most of the foreigners living here without work permits have to make regular trips to one border or another. We headed for Cambodia, the closest. Oi, our taxi driver, met up with us early on Sunday morning, and seemed determined to get us there and back in as little time as possible. We were back in Ban Phe by early afternoon, having seen the first 100 meters or so of Cambodia and dropped a bundle of baht on the Cambodian visa and the taxi. We're definitely looking forward to getting work permits/longer-term visas!
Last weekend I worked at an English camp here (TEFL International also runs intensive English camps for kids and Thai teachers). It was a really good time, and it was fun getting to know more of the Thai staff at TEFL. It was hard work though, and time I definitely could have used for some of my coursework. Monday morning of this last week saw us leaving at 7:30am for our teaching practice (an hour away). It was some good extra practice working with high school kids, though. Our last two weeks of teaching practice have been with 14-17 year-olds, in a school in the town of Maptaphut. I've always been a little uncertain how to work with that age group... after our initial teaching practice with 4th and 5th graders, I didn't know how I was going to do with the older kids. It was really great, though, and even though I still think I want to work with elementary aged kids, it was a good experience.
Next up I'm heading down to Phuket to meet up with Trevor. He was getty antsy sitting here in Ban Phe, and decided to head there to check out the surf scene. He read online that Phuket was the one place in Thailand with consistent surf, and it has not disappointed so far. He was in the water on his first day there, and has been meeting some folks from the local surf scene. It's definitely not big-wave stuff, but good beginner beach breaks, and I'm looking forward to giving it a try! Always open to new things and new people, he's been hanging out with Malaysian surfers and Thai boxers, and generally having a look around at the island we're thinking about living on.
I've been emailing back and forth with a few work opportunities here, but nothing very concrete just yet. Pretty much every school looking for a teacher wants someone ASAP, so with my work commitments here at the beginning of October, I don't qualify. Mid-October/November is supposed to be a good time to get hired. It's a bit different mentality toward finding employees - the process moves a lot more quickly than we're used to - but we're going with it.
More soon!
