First Day of School

Sorry I'm a bit back-logged.  I actually wrote this post last Thursday which was the actual first day of school.  We're now on Day 3!  I'm hoping to get another post posted today or tomorrow about how things are going - spoiler alert, they're going really well :)

Anyway, here's last Thursday's post:

First day of school!  Today I had only one of my classes since the students had a school orientation in the morning.  As it turns out, there was a bit of scheduling confusion so I’ll be teaching P1, P2, and P3 instead of P2, P4, and P6.  I have pretty mixed feelings about this right now.  I love the little ones – they are just too cute to not like.  And I’m excited about the idea of teaching more vocabulary based lessons instead of grammar focused lessons.  That being said, I’m disappointed that I don’t get to teach any of the older kids.  Even though I don’t love the books for the older (P5, P6) students, I really enjoyed teaching the P5s in Chaiyaphum.  I enjoy coming up with games and activities that will be both fun and challenging for that age group.  It’s just possible to do more with them.

Of course, as I sat in the office today waiting for my class I was flipping through the books doing a bit of big picture planning and I was getting really excited about teaching numbers, and colors, and body parts (who doesn’t love learning the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”), and other fun vocabulary like that.  And even though some of the activities I’ve planned are repetitive for me (we’re going to be doing a lot of coloring), I know that they will have fun.  It’s nice that this age group is so easy to please and will be appreciative of simple activities. 

My schedule is a little wacky – I don’t have my classes at the same time every day like I did in Chaiyaphum.  I guess the variety is nice although it will probably make pre-planning Skype dates more confusing (sorry folks). 

Otherwise I guess I don’t have much to say.  I’ll post some pictures of the classroom and office, both of which are really nice.  And I will post again soon!  By the way, if you have any specific topics or questions that you’d like a blog post on I would happily take suggestions.  Just leave a comment below! 

Classroom

Office

Back of office - plus our own toilet!