Teaching English, Koh Samui, Thailand
12/1/08 - I had the pleasure of helping another teacher this last Saturday, in her class of 10, 5-yo's, for a 3-hr class. We practiced introductions, sang songs, used clay & blocks for size comparisons, worked in activity books and played games with numbers, letters, shapes, & colors! It was fun to be with them - they are eager, high-energy learners! With my background in health care & nursing, I would enjoy teaching medical English to adults too!
1/18/09 - Co-teaching (see pictures in the photo gallery to the right - "Teaching English"):
After Chuck finished his TEFL course at ‘Island TEFL,’ he & I started co-teaching at an elementary school a few miles away. We met with classes of 30+ students in grades 4, 5, & 6, several times a week. It almost goes without saying that they were all pretty cute! A few students did quite well with participation, while many seemed hesitant to speak or take part, even tho’ we used many group activities! They were generally energetic & half-heartedly enthusiastic & on the whole, quite well behaved – except for a few who had trouble staying on task or as one boy did, when Kirsten was visiting our classroom –- he put a plastic bag over another boys head & looked as if he were trying to strangle him. Kirsten, being a long-time TEFL teacher herself, immediately & effectively took charge of that situation – he was a model student the rest of the class!
The difficulty in being a temporary-volunteer teacher is probably similar to being a substitute teacher anywhere! It takes students time to trust you & there are always the ones to challenge your authority. For instance, during the first class, there was student after student who came up to us - - politely asked to leave (something said in Thai) I guessed it was to go to the bathroom. After a few minutes, they returned! Seemed like a lot of kids that had the same need at the same time?
All of our classes involved a warm-up song or game, group dialogue, individual dialogue, worksheets & games! They loved the timed & competition games! Phil & Jane, our friends from Tasmania, also co-taught these same students & used an award chart. We copied there idea & also found that the students loved the class teams competition – who had the most ‘smiley’ faces – individuals received a smiley face when they initiated an answer or finished an assignment ahead of others – contributed to the overall team success! Wonder if this works so well because this is a collectivistic culture? Does this still work in America’s individualistic society?
Although we enjoyed co-teaching in India, this confirmed that co-teaching works really well for us, especially in large classrooms. However, Chuck & I prefer to work with high school students, adults, & smaller groups or one-to-one. The classes we taught to resort staff was satisfying & fun – loved seeing them increase their comfort with English in a practical way that made sense to them! We enjoy, at this stage in our life, challenges & activities that compliment our personalities, values, and facilitate ‘whole-person’ growth – we are challenged to live our truth and to make a difference!
