Know your audience!

Postbox letter from Knox

We all know the concept of working both inside and outside "the box". The typical EFL/ESL classroom is the box. The teacher is the colored dot trying to operate within. It seems to me, in order to create more room for learning opportunities, the smaller the dot is, the more space there is to move about within those parameters.

Thoughts on gate duty

Postbox letter from Stuart

I think it's reasonable to ask foreign teachers to participate in something like this once a week as long as it's included in contact time or their contracted times.

Discovery Learning / Authentic Teaching

Teaching is not acting

I remember when the adjuncts were about to go off to class, some would say, ‘show time’. At first, I agreed with that sentiment - that teaching was putting on a show for students. I quickly realized, however, that I didn’t want to be acting when I was teaching, I wanted to be myself.

My thoughts on gate duty

It’s not a punishment. It’s not going to kill you.

Thai students actually really appreciate having foreigners there doing something such as gate duty. Moaning about it makes you look a bit pathetic.

Some teachers and schools DO care!

Postbox letter from James

While there is always time for fun and games, teaching anywhere, including Thailand, should certainly not be a "non-stop party" and by suggesting otherwise it trivialises the whole role of education

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.

The natural order of things

Not all students are created equal or should be treated as equal

In the best interests of the students who are capable, interested and who want to learn, some kids have to be left behind. That's why our school has streams.

Where do you stand on gate duty?

Do you approach those extra responsiblities with commendable gusto?

For those readers who have spent their teaching career cooped up in private language schools, gate duty is when a foreign teacher at say a government or Thai secondary school is told to stand in front of the school building – usually in the morning or at the end of the school day - and look like an asset to the institution.