A teaching room of your own
It's not just about having a space to teach; it's about creating a hub for learning, laughter, and lifelong memories.
Starting out as a floating teacher meant I didn't have a proper classroom for the first two years. It was like being a nomad in the world of education, but it taught me to adapt like a pro.
My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 6)
Getting to school on the first day of term proves to be troublesome.
The van arrived in a stinky black mist of dust and diesel fumes. It wasn’t the shuttle bus I expected either. The beaten-up minivan was probably 20 years old. The school's name was embossed on its sliding door but with a couple of letters missing.
Ghosts in the teachers room
Postbox letter from Steve Bold
This is the story of the ghost of an ex-English teacher who hunts the Principal of a Thai school.
Who do you work with?
Recognize any of your colleagues from this list?
Nothing more than a playful poke at some of the teaching characters we've all worked with down the years.
The teacher's diary revisited
One teacher's descent into madness. Now updated for 2011
The diary is the heartbreaking four-week journal of Mr Jim Elmdon - a teacher who came to Thailand and failed miserably. Keep a box of tissues handy.
Why?
Standing up for the teaching profession, and the complicity of silence.
“Someone wrote on your blog that you are 'dangerous'. I say you are a neurotic loose canon and a liability for a school, working with children”
The courage of Arpaporn
In defense of exclusion, discrimination, and xenophobia
I would like to say that my latest writing assignment given to my grade 10 and 11 classes has given me hope; but I can’t. While some of the writing showed ‘glimmers of hope’, at least in my eyes, many of the opinions my students shared unfortunately matched the biased, ignorant, and bigoted statements made incessantly by many Thai adults.
The anatomy of a teachers room
What goes on in that cramped, airless little room?
For all those who have ever taught in Asia - laugh along at 'the anatomy of a teacher's room' from the water-kettle that's never full to the pot-plant that always needs watering.
The teacher's diary
One teacher's descent into madness
The diary is the sad and heartbreaking four-week journal of Mr Jim Elmdon - a teacher who came, saw, and failed miserably. Keep a box of tissues handy.
Language school stereotypes
Those terrors of the staff-room
With apologies to Stan, who knows it's nothing personal. A few of the characters you're guaranteed to meet in a BKK language school.
