Interviewing Foreigners
Being interviewed in the street by English students
Taking to the streets and talking to complete strangers is something no Thai student would do out of their own volition. It is clear that most – if not all of them – do it because their English teacher imposed it as a mandatory assignment.
I don't want to learn!
The biggest teaching hurdle: motivation
Motivation in the classroom, both from the teachers and the students, is essential for learning but it is a tricky balance to strike since the two are so interconnected; if the teacher loses motivation, so do the students and if the students lose motivation, so does the teacher.
Puppet talk
I had a great idea to use puppets in the classroom
At present my English Club members are working on a show that will last for 15 minutes and hope to present this at Christmas or on Children‘s Day. Try puppets in your own classes. It will make your teaching very enriching, so interesting, and really entertaining.
Teaching 'with' students, 'to' students and 'at' students
Sometimes I decide to just look on the funny side of trying to teach
I've been teaching in various capacities almost two years in Thailand now, and the differences between teaching students who want to be with you versus those who must be there are quite clear.
Notebook concerns
How to get your students to use their notebooks effectively
Friends of mind say that they give importance to student notebooks by grading them, giving stickers to those who have a complete set of notes , stamping them with positive comments - and giving points as part of their grade to those students who have complete, neat, and beautiful notebooks.
Teaching quality vs teaching quantity
What to do when the odds are stacked against you?
So apparently my current Mathayom 2 reading class didn't finish the reading book assigned in Mathayom 1. The result is that I've been told I must teach both that book AND the one I was assigned to teach... in one semester.
Help urgently required
Postbox letter from Jojo Tiger
I'm a teacher at the end of my tether with the situation I currently find myself in.
Things I'd do differently
How am I going to get the best out of my students next term?
It's the last week of school, and I find myself thinking of ways to conduct my classes better than I have during this term. It's not that I think I've done a poor job, but I know there's always room for improvement. Besides, I'd hate to get bored; a bored teacher equals bored students. Bored students don't learn.
Mid-term prep and a week in review
You have to go with the flow in Thailand
Here's another example of why you must roll with the tides here in Thailand, too. I spent a good two hours making a 40-question midterm for my Mathayom 2 class. My paperwork shows that the M2 class I have is divided into Science 1 and Science 2, but the curriculum is identical for both
Magazines with class part two
What I've learned from a school magazine project
What has topped it all off for me is the surprising ease that this potentially challenging project (getting students to produce a school magazine) has been thus far.
