I get to teach too! But now it's 2011!

November 1st...2011,  new semester began at Wat Po Wai School in Surat Thani..... and I get to teach too!  So the first day, I got to introduce myself to the students... "What to say?  How to introduce myself?" .........  Needless to say... put in front of a group of students, and I'm NOT at a loss for words! 

Okay.... I was a bit of a ham on my first day.....doing some interactive communication with the students..... and the students laughed along with my antics...  this is a big school with kindergarten through the equivalent of 10th grade. 

I've put on a new hat.... from my 2010 adventures.  I'm now living in the south of Thailand, helping Friends For Asia expand its international volunteer program from Chiang Mai in the north.... to Surat Thani in the south.  We have two Irish volunteers currently (November 2011) teaching at a school here in Surat Thani.... so in my free time, I decided I could do some teaching at another school in the city.

Using art to teach English vocabulary

FThe day before Christmas, I improvised a bit on my lesson at Wat Chetupon temple school.  I combined a drawing activity with English vocabulary.

As I drew a scene on the board, the novice were to follow my lead and create their own picture.



The novice drew some very detailed and creative pictures .





The room was quiet as the novice drew their own masterpieces.




The attention to detail was amazing.




Once I got the lesson started, I soon realized the novice were much better artists than I..... so I invited them to the board to draw.





Adam, a Friends for Asia volunteer from Australia took over from me and then taught the lesson.





Oh what fun!



Santa?  Santa's sleigh and reindeer too?  Well, t'was the day before Christmas..... even for these young Buddhist novice! 



Adam takes over from me

Teaching a lesson the day before a holiday can be a challenge!  So to make it a little more fun, I combined art and  English vocabulary.  Whatever I drew on the board, the students were to do the same on their own sheet of paper. 

First I drew five mountains, then two rivers, and so on, and and so forth.

Once the students got the hang of what was happening, I turned the teaching over to Adam, a Friends For Asia volunteer from Australia. 

Another story from Chicken Soup for the Soul

As I asked the "Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why" questions, Adam, a volunteer from Australia assisted me at the whiteboard.

Word Association with the monks

This Word Association activity was a new addition to my lesson plan at the Buddhist University.  Basically, I wrote lists of 20 words.  One monk read a word on the list, the other monk responded with the first word that popped into their mind.... associated with the word they'd just heard.

Although a game, this challenged the monks to respond quickly, using their English vocabulary..... and it was fun for them too!

Expanding on the teaching time lesson to include reading, writing and speaking

From the basic lesson of how to tell time using a clock, I expanded the lesson into include a reading and writing assignment relatedto the daily activities of a novice.



In this activity, the novice were to read and write in their notebooks, the paragraph I'd written on the board.  Then they were to fill in the clock, with the time they did specific activities as a novice.



Grammar - Small and Smallest

Teaching grammar - part of the core curriculum in Thailand.

This was more of a challenge for me than it was for the students.  Trying to teach grammar, with novice who have limited English skills...... however, the students did get the concept.