Kutchum

The thought of the 10 hour bus journey to Kutchum (my project) was worse than the real thing.  My partner – ocean – and I were given what seemed like the best seats on the bus with masses of leg room and reclining chairs.  I soon fell asleep and was later woken up by this Thai bus driver shouting “Kutchum! Kutchum!”

We were greeted by our hosts Pi Ann  and Pi Nat  who drove us to our house. It was very overwhelming at first when we arrived, everything is so basic, it really makes me miss home comforts – such as a kettle and a nice cup of tea. We are very lucky though, as we thankfully have a flushing toilet and a working shower.  

The next day; I started teaching.  We were taken to the school – a short walk from our house – and were immediately surrounded by children who shouted “teacher, teacher.”  We attended assembly and then taken to our classes. This week I have been co-teaching with pi Ann, who teaches Prathom 4,5 & 6 – upper primary. They are all very well behaved and I was shocked by how much English they know. Pi Ann is always organised with the lessons and gives me a brief plan at the start of each, which makes everything run very smoothly, before I know it an hour is over and it’s time for the next class. Most days so far I teach 3 hours from 9-12, all the teachers then meet for lunch 12 where me and Ocean try to make out the little Thai that we know. After lunch we are free to plan lessons/do what we want. On Wednesdays we organise a game for Prathom 4 and 1&2 and then on Thursday the same for 5&6. This week we played the fish game with Prathom 4 and made fortune-tellers with 5&6.

On Wednesday and Fridays me and Ocean also teach Prathom 1,2 and 3 together, which is much different from 4, 5 &6,  who remain seated at all times in the class. 1,2 & 3 are much more lively and like to do a lot of moving about – one boy even done a flip in the middle of our class! This first week we have been doing a lot of thinking on our feet , trying to fill the lessons with games and activities which incorporate a lot of student involvement to keep their attention. This next week we plan to get a copy of their text book to plan the lessons more thoroughly so we can organise lots of activities for them.

This first month we are only teaching in this one school – kutchum Tesseban school. On the 28^th of September, every volunteer in Thailand visits Chang Mai for 3 weeks to participate in a language course where we will attend 4 hour lessons of Thai a day. After this I will teach 3 days at the Tesseban and one day at a secondary school and the other at a nursery.

So far, so good on the teaching front!

The Tesseban school