Teaching - Samut Sakhon, Thailand

So Stace and I have been teaching for two full weeks now and are really enjoying it. Stacy teaches Math to P1, P2, and P3 (basically first, second, and third graders) and I am teaching Health and Science to K1, K2, P1, P2, and P3. I am slowly getting the hang of the teaching thing and really love the kids...especially the little ones. It is hard in that they don't always understand what you are teaching and trying to teach Science to little kids has been a challenge. We start at 7:45 and go till 4:30 everyday, so we have a pretty long week. We only teach around 16 classes a week though so it's not too bad. On Wednesdays we have to arrive at the school by 7:30 for Gate Duty which is where we greet the kids and watch over them till school starts. The school itself is pretty nice. We get lunch brought to us everyday and all the teachers have really welcomed us. Our uniform consists of skirts everyday and then depending on the day we have to either wear pink or blue and purple on Thursdays. Mondays and Fridays are Blue, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are Pink and on Thursdays we ware Purple with sometimes having to wear Orange. We of course had very little suitable clothing with us and the shirts cannot be cotton or stretchy material so we have been shopping a couple times and lets just say we don't exactly fit into the more fashionable pieces. We are each homeroom teachers which means that anytime we are not teaching a class we are in our homerooms helping the current teacher and also watching the kids. One of my perks is that my homeroom kids have swimming lessons on Wednesday afternoons and since all my classes are in the mornings I get to join them at the pool and go swimming too.  I will get paid to lay in the sun and help the little ones learn how to kick in the water.

We are also getting to know our little city better. We found two places to eat at that have English speaking owners and this makes ordering possible. We also found a small bar just across the street that is pretty fun. But we have still been going into Bangkok to visit friends every weekend. It is only 40 min. to get there and less than $1.50 so it works out really well. The Red Shirt/Yellow Shirt protests in Bangkok have calmed down for the time being, but we shall have to just wait and see what happens.

~ Randi