1st Day of Teaching!

What a week! And it's only Wednesday. On Sunday Melissa and I walked back to the Big C, by ourselves, to get the items we didn't have time to get (because we were waiting for Nong Noot) and then walked all the way back to our apartment.  We decided along the way to rent a scooter this weekend, to get around on because it is freaking hot here.  Like really hot.  Why did I come here again? Why didn't I go to somewhere with snow? Next time, I guess!

On Monday, we headed over to the school to "lesson plan" for the day. They tried to get us in the classroom but we were not going! We didn't have a schedule of where we were supposed to go or who we were supposed to teach!  "No! Lesson plan today, remember?!" We camped out in the technology room and got our internet passwords and went on Facebook for awhile.  Then another English teacher, Coral, who is from the Philippines (yeah, I don't get it either! Her English is not much better than the Thai teachers??) took us to get lunch across the street. Gotta love that fried rice! We decided on what we were going to do for the week and then called it quits, for the day!

Tuesday was the big day! First day of teaching! AH! We got our schedules and we would be teaching around 4 classes a day and all different levels.  In Pratom (Primary) there are 7 different levels in each grade. 1 and 2 are the smartest, (their words, not mine) 3, 4, and 5 are average, and 6 and 7 are the ones who need more help.  During the week I see each level of 4th, 5th and 6th grade, once a week, and there are 40+ students in each class! Crazy.  Tuesday I saw 5/3, 5/7, 6/1, and 4/4.  Their levels of English are all over the place!
I wanted to get to know their nicknames, (they have super long real names but usually go by their nicknames that their parents give them) so I had them make name tags, decorate them, and introduce themselves to me in English.  Sounds easy enough right? It was insane! Nong Lak wanted me to teach them super advanced English and I was like they don't even know, "write your nickname down!?"  This is going to be hard.  Some of the Thai teachers stayed and assisted me/sat in the back on their cellphones and some left.  It is really disrespectful to lose your temper or yell and scream in front of Thais so I was trying to remain calm and not yell, but when they are all yelling and hitting each other it is so hard not to raise your voice in order to get control! The Thai teacher would say one word in Thai and they would all go back to their seats and continue working but with me they were like, oh sub! Let's go crazy! I'm sure it will get better and easier but for now it was a hard first day! Mel's was even harder, she said her students were running around the halls and she taught to the wrong class for 10 minutes, whoops! The students did call me beautiful and thin all day so that was a plus!
Some nicknames of note:
There were a lot of Milks, some Beams, Poom, some Gifts, Gafield (like the cat), Kong, a lot of Ices, some Games, Toto, Ant, a random Mark and Jimmy, and this sweet little tiny girl named Gun. WHY?! There was also this rather grand boy named Jumbo, so mean, parents.

Today, Wednesday, I have 5 classes! We decided we are seriously adopting the Mai Pen Rai atmosphere and just going with it! Whatever happens, happens! Wish me luck! Love you all!