Should I stay or should I go?
Getting to grips with life as a teacher in Thailand
I flew in to Bangkok and spent four amazing days and nights there. I was about to head out towards Ubon to start looking for work when I was tipped off with a potential opportunity in the Si Sa Ket province of Isaan.
Things I won't do for work
They say that everybody has a price
Although most of my TEFL experience has not been in Thailand, there is still a long list of things I won’t accept in a teaching job. Talk numbers and cross my palm with silver because these are the things I simply won’t do for work.
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.
Win-win teachers
How to become a more valued employee
Whether in the staffroom, lunchroom, shop floor, barracks, or around the water cooler next to the cubicles, the main topic of conversation has always been how incompetent the bosses and management were.
Are you a crappy teacher?
Time to take the self-evaluation test
If you have evaluated yourself honestly and you have come to a conclusion that you are in fact a crappy teacher, what can you do about it? Since most of these things actually have to do with personal motivation, probably not a lot.
Three basic techniques in whole brain teaching
The class yes, the teach OK and the scoreboard
It is important to note that of course when introducing a new technique to class that they understand what is expected of them. In addition you have to practice the procedures with them and get them to the point where they can do what you tell them on command.
How did salaries drop so much?
Postbox letter from Ronald
What in the blazes has happened to the salaries in the Thailand teaching profession?
Classroom ice breakers
How to start your lesson off the right way
Summer classes begin soon and many of us will be working during our vacation. One of the problems we face is how to maintain student interest
The good, bad and the ugly
Postbox letter from Ian
I am lucky enough to be teaching some students that are, not only bright, but show signs of free thinking and a desire to expand their boundaries. I don't and will not pass every student, and if it costs me my job, who cares?
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”