Today I went solo. No Thai teacher with me in the 5th grade class as I attempted to introduce them to verb tense. Much of the challenge is not having the students academic history. What do they know? What should they know? I find a vast difference in individual ability in each class. There is a 5th grade Thai book about English in which I found a page of exercises introducing verb usage. Statements like, "I (meet)______ him at the office." The 5th grade did fairly well but it was brand new to the 4th grade. I figure at least they have an hour of hearing English and I think it is helpful for the teacher.
Ed, Shera and Shandah sat in on my last class today and I showed them around the school. The school had no clue that they will be ready to teach next week. There is no school on Monday because of some Buddhist holiday. It appears that two more volunteers will arrive this weekend. Such information is always a little sketchy. Shandah and I are hoping that she can teach the kindergarten and me the upper grades.
For this first time today I saw some computer education in the lab. A different teacher had the students working on an assignment rather than just playing games. Ed's an IT guy and is wondering if he'll have any chance to teach any computer stuff.
Ed, Shera and Shandah are going to Bangkok tomorrow for part of their orientation. I'll catch a ride with them and will not return to Ayutthaya until Monday because there is no school. I have a day excursion planned for Saturday which I'll report on later.
Several of you have asked if there is anything that they can do to help these students. I can't think of anything practical given logistics, etc. The reality is that these students are relatively well off compared to really poor students around the world. But there is something helpful you can do; give a gift to Lutheran World Relief who will make the best of the $$ you give. They've got a great web site www.lwr.org
A monk with really bad teeth was surfing the net in the lab today.
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