Started summer school today and it was rather interesting. As with many things in Thailand, I have to be flexible and able to adapt to different circumstances. Didn't know how many kids I was going to have or what subjects I was going to teach. I now know that I have about 11-12 kids (which could increase come tomorrow) and I am teaching a variety of classes ranging from Statistics to Algebra.
Its rather interesting how it works, but the kids are supposed to make up the classes they failed and use the summer school as a way to improve a grade, which makes sense to me. However, I was orignially going to have about 15 kids all day long for math, which is about 4 hours. Well, they also almost had me teaching science this summer since there was no one to teach science originally. We did find that the Language Arts teacher has taught some science before and could handle it.
Still, the schedule is not set yet, but we have improved upon it greatly. I am not 100% sure what exactly I will be teaching, but I'm working on that. The worst thing about all of this is that we don't have access to the library so I can't check out books for the students. I've been told that I can get books from the library with someone else opening it up for me. I'm not exactly sure how its going to work, but I guess I'm going to have to do a lot of independent study with the students. Presenting them with problems and having them find notes and information on the internet so they can solve the problems and get some practice with the stuff.
I think I'm going to have to assign a lot of projects to the students and hope things work out for the best from there. At least through projects I will be able to keep the students busy and they will be working towards something. Obviously, I've never taught summer school, so this is a different experience. The fact that it is in Thailand and unorganized only adds to the adventure.
Aaron
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
TAS
Visited some friends in Taiwan this past week and also had the chance to stop by a school in Taipei called Taipei American School. I was given a tour by the Associate Principal of the Upper School (high school) and it is a really nice school. They just hired a lot of new teachers in the math department, but they never know when they will need more. They are also expecting to expand the school to add more classrooms. So there may be an opportunity there in the future.
They have a very different schedule, which provides the students with a great deal of support. The middle school teachers teach a total of 2 classes per day, either in the morning or afternoon, then have the rest of the day for a group meeting with the other teachers at that grade level to discuss the changes necessary and how to adapt the teaching methodologies for each student. Pretty much, they sit and discuss strategies for improving student success and what they can do to help each student.
Its a very different approach, but it works very well according to the teachers. Not only do the students have an opportunity for extra help and more attention, but the teachers have a light load as far as teaching is concerned. It does have one draw back and that is the financial aspect of hiring more teachers for the school. The parents pay for extra help through the tuition cost of the school.
From my short visit, it looks like a really nice place to work. I also spoke to the HR department and dropped of my resume and other information. Hopefully things will work out, meaning they have a math position available when I am available and I can fit in. We'll see how it goes.
Summer school starts in a week. Not sure exactly how this will go, but can only wait and find out.
Aaron
They have a very different schedule, which provides the students with a great deal of support. The middle school teachers teach a total of 2 classes per day, either in the morning or afternoon, then have the rest of the day for a group meeting with the other teachers at that grade level to discuss the changes necessary and how to adapt the teaching methodologies for each student. Pretty much, they sit and discuss strategies for improving student success and what they can do to help each student.
Its a very different approach, but it works very well according to the teachers. Not only do the students have an opportunity for extra help and more attention, but the teachers have a light load as far as teaching is concerned. It does have one draw back and that is the financial aspect of hiring more teachers for the school. The parents pay for extra help through the tuition cost of the school.
From my short visit, it looks like a really nice place to work. I also spoke to the HR department and dropped of my resume and other information. Hopefully things will work out, meaning they have a math position available when I am available and I can fit in. We'll see how it goes.
Summer school starts in a week. Not sure exactly how this will go, but can only wait and find out.
Aaron
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