We got schooled

View from school.  You can see a bit of the Gulf of Thailand.

Although it may seem like we are just here for an incredible vacation, we have actually been in school all month.  From about 9:30am to about 4:30pm we have been in a classroom learning how to teach.  Class started a few weeks ago with "How to write a lesson plan" -- I almost quit halfway through the day.  Seriously couldn't handle it.  I spent some time drawing a very elaborate, super-branchy tree in a notebook.

I went back the next day with a SUPER positive attitude - I know I'm still a rookie teacher, and I have plenty of room for improvement!  Day 2 was not better.  Then they decided it would be a good idea to put all 95 of us in one classroom for a session on "Basic Classroom Management"- small screen, Powerpoint presentation, no air-conditioning...

On the positive side, at least I learned a lot about South African animals from a few of my classmates.  The springbok is my favorite.  I also learned that out of all the English-speaking countries, the US is the weirdest one.  We pronounce everything wrong and we have weird measurement systems.  (Zebra is not zee-bruh, but zeb-rah. Spread the word.)
 

School.  3 buildings, 4 floors, courtyard/parking lot

I survived the 3 week course, written exam, and 2-day English camp for Thai kids.  I learned a LOT at camp.  I taught 3rd and 4th grade, and these kids know about 5 words in English.  Lesson directives quickly went from something like "Ok, students, go back to your seats and listen carefully.  Now we're going to draw a picture of a time when we felt one of these emotions."  to something more like "Stop. Listen. Draw." while doing lots of dramatic acting and pointing.

Some 4th grade boys. They totally understood the emotions -
obviously the result of my incredible acting skills.

I enjoyed being greeted with students standing to say "GOOD MORNING TEACHER!" and ending class with another standing "THANK YOU TEACHER!"  I moved classrooms every hour, so this happened a few times.  They also asked my fellow English teachers and me for our autographs.  Standing ovations AND autographs?? Can you say  G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S.  (Did you sing that like Fergy? If not, you'd better try again.)

Third grade cuteness

Eric (my partner for day 2) and I walked in to some kids fighting in class - with fists.  But Thai teachers are allowed to hit the kids with sticks (really), so if you threaten to take them to the Thai teacher they start acting like angels.  We'll only use that until we have our own classes. Then, I'm sure we won't need to threaten them because none of us will ever have a problem with our students misbehaving. Ever.

Now we have a couple days to chill here in Hua Hin, and then we move to Hat Yai this weekend where we'll stay for the next 5 months unless they fire us.