Profile Placement

We had to write up a profile placement for WorldTeach so I thought I would share it with everyone. It's a pretty comprehensive view of what I'm doing here.

**I also want to add that I AM SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY AND GRATEFUL THAT MY MOM AND AUNT MADE IT TO NAKHON PHANOM LAST WEEK. SEEING THEM WAS BETTER THAN TRAVELING FOR TWO MONTHS......okay maybe not :). BUT. seeing you guys made my month! And just think, you got to be a part of history by seeing all the happenings in Bangkok! For those who don't know, KK and Mom came up here for just three days, but I was able to show them everything of importance. They were able to meet most of Haley's host family (who has become like my family), eat some wonderful Thai food, see my humble abode, and just hang out with me. We stayed at a hotel on the river and got to walk in the riverbed of the Mekong, as it's still fairly dried up...we are just now hitting the rainy season. Thanks for coming guys and see you in about 5 months!

Community

I live in the capital city of Nakhon Phanom province in Isaan, Northeast Thailand. There is a population of about 30,000 people living in this city. The ‘downtown’ is fairly small and just 1 km walk or bike ride from my living arrangements at the school. Despite being classified as one of the poorer provinces in the area, we have electronic stores, restaurants, hotels, and all kinds of convenient stores. There is also a bus station, a police and fire station, as well as numerous government halls and a provincial library. Most of the shops and restaurants are within a few square kilometers and border the Mekong River, which Nakhon Phanom resides on. It’s a beautiful place to go for a walk or hang out with the locals and it’s always much coolor on the water. While Nakhon Phanom literally means ‘city of mountains’, the land here is quite flat, with the mountains actually being across the river, in Laos. Many of the people here are store owners or have food stalls in the nightly night market, which is a central attraction for the town.There are also a lot of local farmers who come in daily to sell their goods in the town. It’s a big enough town that I haven’t explored all there is to explore, though it is also small enough that I run into at least 10 people I know when going to the night market or running errands in town. It’s an incredibly friendly town, and wonderful place to live.

Host School

I work at Nakhon Phanom Wittayakhom (high school), which has about 2500 students this year. There must be around 100 teachers, though I’m not sure of the actual number. It is one of the bigger schools in the area (perhaps the biggest) and draws a number of students from the surrounding villages.  Our school boasts the first English Program in the area, complete with English immersion and foreign teachers, though I work in the general program.  In the general program, there are 10 Thai teachers, Kara (another WT volunteer) and I, and Vince (a foreign teacher from Australia). On campus, we’ve got three three-story academic buildings, and one four-story academic building. There is also a swimming pool as well as a driving range that is open to the public when school isn’t in session. Many of the teachers live on campus, and the teacher housing is on the periphery of the campus. There are also two free standing buildings devoted to the English Program.  We’ve got running water and a somewhat reliable internet connection. There is air conditioning available in the English Program office and in the administrative offices. The food on campus is quite cheap and very good. Besides lunch, the vendors in the canteen sell food for breakfast and snacks throughout the day.

Teaching Assignment

I have anywhere between 30 and 52 students in my classes this year. Last semester I taught Mattayom 3, which is the equivalent of 9th grade in the US. This year, I’m teaching M. 4 (10th) and M. 6 (12th). The curriculum was changed this year, so I’m only able to teach my M.4 students once a week but I’m able to teach my M.6 students twice a week. It gives me a total of 19 class hours per week so I’m usually teaching 4 classes a day. Our school day goes from 8:00 to 4:00 and I’m generally finished teaching by 2:30. Every morning we have morning assembly in which we sing the school song, raise the Thai flag, and pray to Buddha. Any announcements that the school has are made at that time and the English Director takes this time to translate the announcements as well as let us know of any upcoming events. The semester’s generally last about 4-5 months with the first day of the Thai school year occurring on May 17. There is a month break in October, and the second semester begins in the beginning of November. The end of the school year usually falls in mid March. The levels of the classes differ significantly between grades as well as within the grade. Most of the students are advanced beginners and the higher grades are at an intermediate level. However, interspersed in each class are several students who still don’t know how to read or write. In each class I teach, I’ve got a Thai co-teacher with me, which helps immensely. In the beginning, we had some trouble with the Thai co-teacher’s actually staying in class with us, but it’s gotten much better this semester.

Living Arrangements

I live in a house on campus with another volunteer. It is a one story house that is divided into two separate rooms. They aren’t connected, so we each have our own front door and our own (western) bathroom. Our kitchen is outside, with a sink, refrigerator, and a propane tank to serve as our stove. We don’t have hot water, but it’s really not needed as most of the time the weather here is hot and humid. We do have a western toilet that flushes though, which is a luxury here. Our rooms came furnished with a bed, two desks, and a dresser. We are located on the outside edge of campus, but right next to one of the EP buildings and the girl’s bathrooms. It’s just a minute walk to get to our office and to the academic buildings on campus. We also have several water filter systems on campus, which we use to fill up our water supply. School is considered to be in town and is just a kilometer outside of the main cluster of stores and restaurants. It’s also about a kilometer to get to the hospital/doctor, in the other direction.

Language Issues

For the most part, learning Thai has been a lot of fun. Fortunately, there are a fair amount of teachers at my school that speak English well enough, and my English Director speaks great English. When I arrived in Nakhon Phanom, I knew a couple key phrases, but that was it. I was an absolute beginner. Thai is a tonal language so it takes a little while to get the hang of it and you will undoubtedly make a few mistakes. There have been many times in class when I’ve attempted to say something in Thai and I hear a collective gasp go through the room as all the students go ‘ohhhh, teacher!’ – then I know I’ve said something wrong! At this point, about halfway through the year, I know enough Thai to get by in daily life. I can talk to the market vendors and have brief conversations with my students and teachers. I know about half of the letters/ the writing system, so I’m working on that more these days. I find that the more I try to speak Thai, the more receptive (Thai) people are of me. Just making that little effort to speak their language goes a long way.

Greatest Challenges

During my first semester here at my school, we didn’t have class on a regular basis and that was possibly the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with here. The students were practicing for something called ‘Dream School’, which took up almost all of their free time and class time. Dream School is an achievement/ recognition that looks at all aspects of the school and is judged by officials all over the country. We had several dress rehearsals, and preparations could take weeks. Needless to say, both the students and the teachers (myself included) got stuck in a cycle where we weren’t used to actually having class. Weeks would go by when I wouldn’t see a certain class because of practices and holidays. It was difficult to motivate myself to make lesson plans and worksheets when 50 % of the time, the students wouldn’t show up to class. I also hadn’t taught before this year and felt a little out of my element.To top it off, about half of my students were not going to be returning to school the following semester, so they had the mentality of 2nd semester seniors. Despite this, it was a great year and I enjoyed my students. Their graduation day was harder for me than I anticipated and I found I was going to miss them much more than I thought!

Greatest Rewards

It’s hard to say what my greatest rewards are, because the smallest things make the biggest difference. One of the things that Thai students learn at the beginning of their education is that when someone asks how you are, the response is always “I’m fine, how are you?” The first lesson I taught last semester focused on greetings and synonyms for the word ‘fine’. When I came back to school this semester, my old students came running up to me and thought really hard about what they wanted to say before shouting out, “I’m great! I’m wonderful!”. It’s such a small thing, but we worked on that for a long time and I was always correcting them. When the students remember what we’ve worked on, it’s such a wonderful feeling.

Another thing that’s been wonderful about living here is realizing that I have my own little family here. Whether it’s the students, the teachers, or other volunteers, I know that I’m taken care of.  While it’s not a direct reward of teaching, it’s certainly a reward of putting my time and effort into living here. In just 7 months, I’ve made a life for myself.