Bangkok Diary

Student Teaching

2009-10-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

So I had a unit where I allowed my students to teach the lessons. I didn't give them must guidance, kind of let them go at it and try for themselves. Even during the lessons, I didn't correct much of what they were doing or saying, let them try some things, make mistakes and figure it out for themselves. Wanted to see how they would handle things on their own. I learned several things from this activity about myself as well, and I feel it was a great activity.

First, I noticed that only one group out of 12 or so, used any form of technology. One group in all my classes made a powerpoint presentation for their lesson. It was a really good powerpoint presentation as well. So I was impressed with that. Most of the students decided to use a lecture-style teaching approach. This allowed me to relaize how these students view the activities in my class. They obviously think that the only way to teach math is through lecture, and I think my teaching style has caused this view.

So I am currently looking at ways to get away from the lecturing-style so much and try some new things. Mix it up a little so the students have different activities and utilize different intelligences in a lesson. Also, I'm starting to realize that I do not need to use the exact book lessons in succession to show and display the concepts. I have learned this from my principal as well. He said that the text should be a supplement, not the source of information and lessons in the classroom. Currently, I am starting to look for ways to implement different concepts and then summarize a little later with the book or get some practice from the book.

Things this year are still busy. Just starting to get different ideas and other things like that. The prep and work for these ideas is keeping me busy. Looking for ways to get the same ideas across to the students while at the same time diminish my workload and not kill myself so much. Just need to change things up a little and make adjustments.

Aaron

China Trip (Finally)

2009-08-23T00:22:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally got the chance to put some pictures up from my trip to China. It was a good trip and I got to see a lot of great things. When I tell people that I went to China, they ask where. I tell them Wuhan and Xi'an. They seemed shocked that I did not go to Bejing, Shanghai or Hong Kong. I guess its similar to going to America and not going to New York or LA. Probably like a foreigner going to America and visiting Indianapolis or Cincinnati. Hey, just had some things I wanted to see.

Anyway, the first two pictures are of me (obviously) at Hua Shan. Hua Shan is a sacred mountain, one of 7 in China (I think that number is correct). It interesting. We left at about 7am, and it was a two hour ride to the mountain. Well, we would expect to get there around 9:30 or 10. But we stopped at some temple for a while and ended up not getting to the mountain until noon. Then we had lunch and didn't actually get going to the mountain until 1pm. You could walk all the way up or you could take a life that would take you most of the way up (three hour walk, one way, or a 5 minute lift). Problem is the line for the lift was over an hour.

We finally got to the top and could not see hardly anything with the clouds. Started walking around and it was hard and hot. The steps were steep and there were a lot of steep cliffs. Had to hold on to chains in certain places to simply make it up the steps. But it was still interesting. did not get as far as I would have like, or all the way around (the path makes a loop going up and down certain peaks), since we had a time limit to get down to the bottom and there was another hour long wait for the lift back down to the bottom. Still, it was a good day and a good experience.

The next picture is of the Bell Tower in the center of Xi'an. There is a giant bell in the tower which would ring when the farmers were supposed to come home from the fields. Xi'an was a very interesting city. I really liked it and even looked into international schools there. I think there was one, but it was very small and I feel I would have similar problems there as I am finding at ASB with the schedule and lack of resources. But it is a very neat city and a place that I would consider living if I could.

The final two pictures are of the Terracotta Warriors. This was a really cool thing and I am very happy that I was able to make it to see this. In fact, it was the main reason for me even going to Xi'an after Wuhan. I was very impressed with this and even got a chance to take a picture of the farmer who found the first warrior while drilling a well (though I wasn't supposed to take a picture). The pictures are of Pit 1, which is the largest pit. Pit 2 was not completely uncovered yet and Pit 3 was a lot smaller.

One thing I didn't understand about this was the fact that these were first discovered in 1974, but they only have three pits. There is a tomb of the emperor who built these and that has yet to be excavated. The tour guide said this is because of some rivers that run underneath and around the tomb which do not allow people to get in. I have a hard time believing that people cannot get into the tomb to excavate it or we have not found more pits. It seems odd, with all the technology, that more has not be discovered. The guide said they are looking, but I would think they would have found much more between then and now. Something seems a little odd about that.

Another thing about the trip that was interesting, the emperor (and I forgot his name) who built these warriors also built the Great Wall and they kept on saying how great of an emperor he was, uniting China into one nation. But in the same breath they talked about how mean he was and how he worked the slaves to death and trapped some of them behind or under the wall. Odd that he can be this great man, yet he can also do so many horrible things.

Anyway, it was a really good trip and I had a great time.

Aaron

Slick

2009-08-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have a student that just came in during a break to read me his summer story that he wrote for Language Arts class. He talked about going different places and traveling and what he did. The reason he wanted to read me the story is that he included me in it. I never saw him this summer, but he did go to America for a little bit and he's a pretty big wrestling fan (WWE). He told me the other day that Wrestlemania is might come to Indianapolis in a few years and that he will see me there. Thats what he put in the paper, that he can't wait to get back to America for Wrestlemania and visit with Mr. Aaron.

This is a kid who had some problems last year with different things and was/still is on medication for certain things. I don't know what the deal is, but I've really connected with him this year and he seems to be thriving on it. He still struggles in class and staying focused, but he has a little more energy and enthusiasm about himself this year, which is a good thing. I even started calling him "Slick" as a nickname and he loves it, gets a big grin on his face when I call him that and is happy.

He wanted me to come watch him give his presentation during his language class today, but I have classes and cannot make it. It does make me feel really good that he would come to me and ask me that. Makes me feel like I am doing something right, makes me feel that I am helping, like I felt with my kids that I coached back home. Been a while since I really had that feeling, and I like it, can't get enough of it. I hope I can build on this, because this is why I changed and went into teaching. This is the reason I am doing what I am doing right now.

Slick... thats one cool kid.

Aaron

New School Year

2009-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

Started the school year up again today. It was pretty hectic, as bad as last year if not worse. I thought we had planned for a lot of things before we left last year and had a lot of things organized and ready for this year, but things still are chaotic. This is attributed to several aspects,

1. Our curriculum coordinator/assistant principal took a leave of absence for the year. This forced one of the HS Social Studies teachers to take the assistant principal position and give up a few of his classes. So, even though we are extremely over-staffed, we were running around trying to find a social studies teacher. A few times people were placed there and then it was changed (for various reasons). Not sure how it will end up, but its crazy.

2. There is a new bell schedule for the school. HS is on a block, MS is on half-blocks/semi-block (most middle school classes are half a HS block, the core subjects have a full block one or two days a week) and I do not even know what Elementary is doing. Anyway, there are some teachers who teach both HS and MS, or all three. Trying to fit their schedule into the actual schedule is a mess. It is forcing the MS kids to not have the same class at the same time on a daily basis.

In fact, on the first schedule given to me, I had 7th grade for 3 bells on Monday and 3 bells on Tuesday, and didn't see them the rest of the week. It is better now, but still confusing with all the differences in the schedule. I've been told this comes from above and is something that has been decided well above the principal. I'll just smile and do my best to make it work and have some fun while I'm at it.

I know I am not fully prepared for the school year. I am teaching pretty much the same classes, but I am changing up the way I teach them a little and I could have prepared better for that. I was going to come in last week but got busy with MEDO classes. So I'm catching up a little the rest of this week and seeing how things are going. I'll try to prep a little more each day and go from there.

The classes are also much smaller than last year. Enrollment is down and I notice it in the classrooms. Right now, I have 5 students scheduled for my Geometry class next semester. I'm also team teaching Pre-Calculus with another teacher. That will be good because I'll be able to see his style and incorporate it into my style if I want. Hopefully it will make things better for me as a teacher.

I know things will improve, they always do. But I am upset that things are not going as smooth as I expected. I really thought we had things sorted out before the start. However, we do have a new principal as well and I think that plays into the confusion some.

Aaron

Summer School

2009-06-15T04:01:00.000-07:00

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

TAS

2009-06-05T03:32:00.000-07:00

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

Winding Down

2009-05-24T16:38:00.001-07:00

Its been a while, but the year is finally winding down. We are in our last week of the year, one more day of classes and then 3 days of finals. I feel the year went well for being the first full year of teaching. It had its ups and downs and I had to adjust quite a few times, but I do feel that I have become a better teacher over the course of the year.

I have already decided on some changes for next year and different approaches I will have in my classroom.

First, I am not going to allow anything other than English in any class. I came into this year not thinking it was going to be an issue and I was not as hard on the students as I should have been. I did have to buckle down in my 6th grade class, but the other classes I was not so hard on. Surprisingly, my 8th graders are the worst at following this and speaking English only. At the same time, they are my weakest class as a whole. Next year I am going to make a point of this from the start.

I think I am going to have my students maintain a portfolio/binder for the class next year. This will force them to be organized and have everything in order. Also, it will allow them to see what their grade is at any point in the year and they don't have to ask me all the time. I will give them a guideline for what the binder should look like and expect them to keep it up-to-date. I will also collect the binder at the end of each quarter to check and make sure they are keeping it updated.

As part of this, I am thinking about having them complete a reflection for each lesson, just a few lines. Possibly have them give me an example of where this topic would be used in the real world. This would allow them to reflect on their experiences in the class and also give the subject matter some importance and value to everyday life.

The first year is trial and error, we make adjustments and improve from there. I feel very good about my progress already this year and look forward to the chance to improve next year.

Aaron

Prom, 2009

2009-05-03T00:40:00.001-07:00

We had our Prom this past Friday and I was one of the MC's for the event. I'll start off by talking about the pictures and then the adventures of MCing. The first picture is of the official sign for the Prom, which was absolutely beautiful. They had it a the Hilton, which is right on the river. It was great and the place was absolutly beautiful.

The next picture is of some of the 9th grade boys. Though I don't teach them, I have gotten to know them fairly well. They are a good group of boys and I enjoy talking with them. The one on the left is Kabeer. His is the one who had a whole bunch of teachers over to his place for dinner one night and the first thing we had was alcohol given to us by the father.

Next we have Earn, who is one of my 8th grade students. He didn't want a picture taken with me, so I had to sneak one in on him. He's the one with the red shirt and black and white striped tie that is about half undone. That was the style for a lot of these kids, not a formal tux or suit but a more relaxed and unbuttoned look. I thought it was intersting. Also, it was interesting that Earn was there, as was one of my 7th grade girls (with her 9th grade boyfriend, which is currently an issue with her and performance in school) and a former 8th grade student of mine who left at the semester and was supposed to go to America to learn.

The last picture is of me (obviously) with Kelly (the MS Science teacher) and her husband Jared. This was just outside the hall and was an amazing room.

Now, to the prom (I want to make it clear that there is a distinct difference between the two campuses, Bangna and Sukhumvit). It was interesting because I was supposed to give awards to the Seniors and there are only a handful of seniors that I actually know, let alone know how to pronounce their names. I did mess up on one, but thats fine, no big deal, we move on. Its funny because the teacher from the other campus who MCed knew all the students and could say something about each of them and the award they received (most popular, best eyes, smartest, best dressed, etc. ). I felt like I was just up there and tried to say a few things about it, but didn't get it to work, so I felt awkward, but still got the job done.

What was more intersting was the royal court announcement. The Bangna campus did their royal court and had no problems. Right before I was going to go up and announce our winners for King, Queen, Prince and Princess, the student council president and vice-president came to me and asked me who the winners were. I told them and they said that none of those people were at the prom anymore. Instead, they chose 4 people right there to win. First, why do you leave the prom before the winners for the royal court are announced? Second, if you're up for the royal court, you should probably stick around just to see if you won. Third, I really don't agree with two people deciding who wins the royal court.

Next, we had Senior Videos that were shown on the projectors at one time during the prom. Sukhumvit showed theirs and it was alright. But then Bangna showed theirs and it was great. It blew Sukhumvits out of the water. Again, we have an example of how Bangna students are more motivated than Sukhumvit and care more about the school rather than think the school is just a joke.

Finally, some of the Bangna girls did a little dance performance on stage during part of the Prom. Let me say, they did an amazing job, especially since most of them were wearing 3-4 inch heels. It was great and they totally rocked. It was a performance they did from the talent show they had this week. Our campus had a talent show as well and some of our 10th grade girls did a little dance which really didn't involve a whole lot. The 10th grade girls at Sukhumvit are also known to be trouble and lazy, which they are.

Anyway, when these girls were finished and the whole crowd was going crazy, our 10th grade girls must have gotten jealous or something, or didn't like the fact that the attention wasn't on them, so they wanted to do their performance. The problem was that no one had the song they needed, so they really couldn't perform. I think they finally did find the song, but I wasn't in the room to see the performance. But I already know that it wasn't as good. Most of their dancing was in one place and didn't require any movement out of that place.

Though the prom was amazing, it was just another example of how different the students from Banga are versus the students from Sukhumvit. The Sukhumvit students have even called the Bangna students weird. The dancing was the thing that I found the most hilarious because it would be the same thing that would happen at home with this class of students. One group was up there having fun and just enjoying themselves and the other group didn't like the fact that they were receiving all this great attention, so they decided to do something that they rarely do, which is become motivated to do something so they could receive attention and praise.

Aaron

High Turnover

2009-04-30T06:06:00.000-07:00

One of the service department girls had her last day today. She was going to get another job at an apartment complex, being a secretary or front desk worker there, I'm not sure. I was talking to some of the other teachers about this, since there has been some heavy turnover in that department. The truth of the matter is that they are not treated that well. They are forced to come in on Saturday even if there is nothing to do. I have seen them just sitting there painting their nails on Saturday because they have to be at school.

One Saturday, they actually had to clean out a sewage drain or something like that. They took pictures and showed them to me the following week. I can see how there is a lot of turnover in that department. If they don't treat them well, they will eventually leave. It may not be easy for them to find another job without much free time, but they won't be at the school long.

On another note, it looks like I will be teaching a high school math class next year, even with the difference in the schedules for the middle school and high school. The middle school will be on 8- 37 minute bells while the high school will be on 4-70 minute bells. I just found out today that our numbers are dropping so much that there will only be one class in each middle school grade. So that would take up 3 of the 8 middle school bells. Giving me a high school class will take up another two and that would make 5 of the 8 total bells of me having a class.

I could handle that since I would have more prep time than I have now and I would be able to teach a high school class. It looks like it would be Pre-Calculus. I was tutoring a girl with geometry the other day and we got into some Pre-Calc material with Sine, Cosine and Tangent. I really enjoyed it and was having a blast with it. It's been a while since I've gotten into some of the material, but I'm sure it won't be too bad, like riding a bike.

Aaron

Silence is Golden

2009-04-27T06:42:00.001-07:00

Not sure if it is proper teaching practice or not, but today I taught a complete class without saying a word. We had a quiz on Friday, so we didn't have to grade anything. It was my quietest class, which has a few bright individuals but its very hard to get them to participate. I'm not sure why I did it, I guess I wanted to see what would happen and how they would react.

It was actually very interesting and funny. I handed back the quiz and then I started working the extra credit problem that only one student got correct. After that, I started into the lesson over solving systems of equations by using elimination through addition and subtraction. I started with just putting some equations on the board and using substitution to solve, which is what the quiz was covering.

The most interesting part is that it didn't take the students long to realize that I wasn't talking. But instead of speaking, they thought that they could not speak either. The students who speak the most in my class were using actions and not words. I even had students starting to raise their hands and hold up numbers for the answers or next line. In fact, I got more participation out of some of the quieter students than normal. One student in particular who usually struggles and doesn't say anything seemed to really enjoy it and actually answered 2-3 questions voluntarily.

Overall, I do think the lesson went fairly well and they understood the main concepts. I almost feel they were paying attention more because I was not talking and they had to see what I was doing on the board. It was good because I had to use actions more to emphasize things. I did write a few words on the board and pointed to them from time to time (ex. done?, fractions are bad, etc.).

I actually had a lot of fun with this lesson and not talking. I'm not sure anyone thought I could go a full 55 minute class bell without speaking, but I did it. I almost think the silence gave some of the students more confidence to participate. I did receive the snicker and giggles from some students when it began, but that was expected. For the most part, when the lesson got rolling, they were very attentive.

Aaron

Songkran Celebration

2009-04-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

Today, we had a celebration for Songkran, the "water" festival that is coming up next week. It was really interesting because the teachers were honored by sitting in front of flower pots and having the students come by and pour flower scented water and oil on our hands into the flower pots. It was a sign of respect and appreciation.

I learned that the Songkran festival started in relation to the zodiac sign Aries. It was originally a celebration to bless the farmers to have a good season and healthy crops. It started (and in some cities, still is) as a simple pouring of scented water on the hands or the shoulders for good luck and blessings.

However, this all quickly changed (mainly due to the westerners who now partake in the activities). Right now, the week of Songkran is pretty much a warzone of people getting blasted with water guns, water balloons and even fire hoses. Sometimes there is more than water in the ballons or water gun. My understanding is that the westerners got a hold of it and went overboard in an effort to have some fun and one gigantic water fight in the streets of Bangkok. I think some of the streets are alright but I have heard of certain streets that are absolutely horrible and you should avoid unless you want to get completely blasted.

I've heard stories of westerners setting up shop outside of buildings or at bars and blasting people as they walk by or come out of other buildings. I think the holiday itself has some very nice beginnings, but I feel the westerners have ruined it and used it for purposes that are not culturally relevant. I am actually happy that I will not be in town from everything that I've heard about it.

Aaron

Where Are All The Teachers??

2009-03-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while since I wrote on the blog. I haven't been feeling too well. I had a spell of dizziness and imbalance. I think it is due to the constant heat here and not replenishing my body with the necessary nutrients. I'm feeling better now, but I'm still not 100%. On top of all of that, the MEDO classes are keeping me busy and I'm trying to keep up with those. All in all, its been really busy the last few weeks. I think that may have something to do with me not feeling so well. I think I'm working hard and need a vacation. We have a long weekend next weekend and then the week off. So it will be good.

We have our WASC accredidation team coming this week to check out the school and make sure everything is going normal and well. Hopefully that will go well, we'll see. I'm not to worried about it, but they will be pulling teachers out of the classroom and asking to speak with them throughout the day. I really don't want to be one of the teachers to be pulled, but I have no control over that.

We had a carnival at school on Friday. There was an eating contest for the students, a dunk tank with teachers and a water balloon fight at the end. The one thing I noticed, and it is something I have noticed at other schools, is the number of teachers who were not at the carnival. I'm sure they were not in there classroom working, and they probably skipped out on the day. Most of them are older teachers who have been in the profession for a while. This really bothers me because it shows that these people are not teachers for the right reasons. They do the minimum they have to do to get by and refuse to go above and beyond what is required of them.

For me, we are here for the students, even though they may be spoiled and do not appreciate everything we do, we are still here for the students. If teachers are not willing to put a little effort into making these kids better people and making the school a better place, then they should really think about why they became teachers and what they are doing in the profession.

Besides that, I'm trying to keep kids from skipping out early and staying at the fair the whole time. What kind of example does that show when teachers are leaving early or not showing up at all? Some of these teachers complain about the students and complain about the way they act, but they are not doing anything to fix the problem. In fact, they are actually adding to the problem.

Off the soapbox, time to get some work done.

Aaron

Thai Cultural Workshop

2009-03-21T06:33:00.001-07:00

We had the second part of our Thai Cultural Workshop today. Again, these are the classes we need to take in order to keep our teaching license for next year. For this trip, we went to Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Thailand for about 700 years before Bangkok. It is a very historic city with many temples and old ruins.

The workshop went well and we discussed several aspects of Thai Culture and customs. I have to type up a formal report over these aspects. I will email the final report when I have it completed. For now, I will simply talk about these pictures that I have posted.

The first two pictures are of ruins from the old capital buildings or temples for the King. I'm not sure exactly what buildings these used to be, but I do know that they were important government builidings. From what the workshop leader told me, most of the buildings were diminished and turned to rubble from bombings and fire by the Burmese.

The next three pictures are from a temple that we visited. The first is of Buddha, or at least what I thought was Buddha. From what I've been told, this is actually an important monk, but not Buddha. I still like him and think he is a jolly man, so I will call him Buddha for my sake and because I cannot remember is real name.

The next picture is an actual Buddha. Apparently, this is one of the largest Buddha's in Thailand, for obvious reasons. You can see how big it is because of the people at the bottom of the picture. It is huge and pretty amazing.

The final picture is of some bells that are right outside the temple. People would go by and ring them. I'm assuming its supposed to bring good luck to ring them in order. A lot of the culture over here is based on karma and good luck. They do things because they believe it will bring them good luck. Another example of this is we went to an elephant show after the temple and they had an elephant stand on two different stools and people would walk underneath the elephant because it was supposed to be good luck. Elephants are seen as sacred over here, a sign of the Buddhist religion. To me, this is ironic because the Thai people parade them around the streets of Bangkok like a side show, trying to get foreigners to buy 20Baht bags of food so they can feed the elephant.

A few things about the temple that I noticed while I was there. You could not where shorts, so I had to go in jeans and it was hot. Definately a little uncomfortable for me. As we were leaving, some Thai woman came after us screaming about paying to enter the temple. I believe this is really a load of BS because no one else has to pay to enter the temple, but because we are foreigners, they think they can take our money for being tourists. She was cussing us out as we were getting on the boat.

This is something I have noticed. Many Thai's see a westerner and they think, "They have a lot of money." Which, in comparison to the normal Thai person, we do make a lot more money than them. But they feel that because we are Westerners, they can exploit us for our money and its alright. I guess they justify it by saying that since we are not from their country and we have more money than them, its alright to try and take our money, whereas they would never do something like this to a Thai, because that would garner bad karma. Just something funny that I have noticed.

Aaron

Science Inquiry

2009-03-18T06:54:00.001-07:00

We had a Science Inquiry Day with the Bangna Campus on Tuesday. I was a moderator for one of the sessions. What happened is kids were asked to create a science project for science class and then they voted on who they wanted to present the project at the science inquiry conference. These pictures are from the conference.

The first is of a shoe that has a pocket on the outside. Two of my kids performed this experiment. They were trying to create a shoe pocket to hold items (keys, money, etc.) but they wanted something that was not intrusive and could keep the contents dry. The experiment was trying to find material that would was waterproof. They had several different types of material and poured 50ml of water on the material. After a certain amount of time, they measured how much of the water had dripped into a tray below the cloth. The third picture is of the two girls who presented and their materials.

The second picture is the poster of one of my boys who presented. His experiment was over soil compaction and if compacted soil could soak up as much water as loose soil. He placed some soil in a cup, poured water on top of the soil and used a stop watch to determine how long it took for the water to fall through the soil. Then he took the same amount of soil and compacted it by pressing down on it, poured water on top and used the stopwatch to determine how long it took for the water to fall through the soil.

The final picture is two of my students eating popcorn. A girl, not one of my students, had an experiment to determine which popcorn popped more kernals, Orville Redenbacher or Pop Secret. She popped 5 bags of each for the same amount of time and at the same temperature and then counted the un-popped kernals. As part of the experiment, she brought 6 bags of popcorn in for the conference and the students were able to eat the popcorn.

Overall, the conference went really well. I think the kids enjoyed it and had a good time getting out of class. The kids had to ask at least one question and some of them were asking the same questions as others or asking questions that were just answered in the powerpoint. I noticed this and used it as a learning experience today in class. I asked the students if they noticed that the questions were being repeated, only phrased differently and how some questions were answered less than 30 seconds before they were asked?

Many of the students, both presenters and non-presenters, noticed this. The presenters said it was annoying answering the same question several times and being asked a question they had just given an answer for 30 seconds ago. I told the students that they now have a sense of some of the frustrations that teachers go through. Some of the students understood this, some of them didn't. It was good to open their minds to a different perspective.

Aaron

Burned Out

2009-03-16T06:45:00.001-07:00

Its official, the third quarter is long and has taken a toll on me. I am pretty burned out from the whole quarter without a break. Not to mention the beginning of MEDO classes and trying to get started on exhibits. I truly think that next year will be much easier. At least I hope so. I feel that I am putting a lot of hours into this semester and its wearing me out. Comparing this semester to last semester I feel I am spending more time on the students and what they need. I recall giving the lesson last semester and then sitting at my desk getting work done and trying to stay caught up.

This semester I am giving the lesson and then answering questions and walking around making sure the students understand the concepts. This is good and I think it is improving the students attitude as well as my teaching skills, but it is definitely taking time away from preparing for classes and getting things completed. I have been in the last few weekends to get caught up on stuff for classes. Not that I enjoy going in on the weekends, but I don't have much choice. I have to do that to keep up with everything. Hopefully that will change soon. We have a long weekend coming up in early April and then I get a week off to come home. After that its just another month and then the year is over.

We do have the other half of our Thai cultural workshop this Saturday. I will write more about that later and send a copy of the report that I have to complete for that.

I've always been told the first few years are the hardest and most difficult for teachers. Hopefully that is the case and things will become easier as my career goes on.

Aaron

Lesson That Bombed

2009-03-04T05:51:00.000-08:00

Today, I tried a discovery activity with my 6th graders that required them to make a few connections with previous information they have learned about. Unfortunately, it failed miserably and I am concerned about how this will affect the students mentally. We were starting a lesson on the area of a circle and we had just discussed the area of a parallelogram.

I took a circle and cut it up into pie pieces, then placed them next to each other with opposite orientation (imagine the sides of two pie pieces running along each other, with the point from one piece touching the crust from another piece, then continuing that pattern, first piece points down, second piece points up, third piece points down, etc.).

By doing this, we form was resembles a parallelogram. The height is the radius of the circle and the base (or length) is half the circumference of the circle. From here, I tried to get them to see relationships and justify how we can derive the equation of a circle from this method. I even put all the equations they needed up on the board. But the students had a hard time seeing that if C=pi*r^2 in one equation, they could replace 'C' in another equation with pi*r^2. I tried and tried to get them to see it, but they just could not make the relationship.

I spent the whole class and all I got was a glazed look and many students saying they did not understand. There actually were a few students who said they understood what was happening, but most of them did not. However, most of the one's who did not understand were the weaker students and they often give me a confused look. I am beginning to think that it was to early for these students to see this type of activity. With the reactions to this activity, I feel they are not ready for understanding the reasoning behind where equations come from and how we develop them.

Now I am forced with a decision.

1. The activity is not something the students need for the lesson. Really all they need is to plug numbers into the equation and solve. So they really do not need to understand this activity to complete the homework. So if they were completely lost during this activity, which many of them were, it is not necessary for the completion of the lesson or quiz.

2. Part of the problem that these students had with making these connections is that they have not had to do that in the past. It has always been, "here's an equation, plug numbers into it and get a number back." If I accept this and move on without trying to clear up the activity, I am not helping them develop critical thinking and abstract thinking skills. However, I feel I could spend another two days on this activity and many of them would still not understand.

As of right now, my goal is to have the students come in tomorrow and make two circles with a compass, one to cut out and one to keep as a circle. Then I am going to have the students complete the same activity and hopefully they will be able to see relationships if they are actually engaged in the activity. If this doesn't work, then I guess it doesn't work and I will have to accept it.

At the end of the lesson, I was very discouraged. I wasn't sure if it was something I was doing or if 6th grade is too young, developmentally, to comprehend this activity. If its the case of development, then its still something they need to be introduced to because its going to show up later, so why not now.

As a side note, I have been extremely busy the last few weeks and feel that I need a break. I have spent the last 4 free Saturdays in the school working, prepping or grading for about 4 hours at a time. I feel that I am having a hard time keeping up and can't get ahead. I will say that I have also noticed that I am giving more time to working with the students, instead of presenting the lesson and then working on other things. I am presenting the lesson and then walking around and clarifying things with students. This is taking time from me working on class activities, but hopefully it will help the students in the long run.

Aaron

Staff Meeting

2009-03-01T01:13:00.000-08:00

We have staff meetings every Thursday after school. Recently, that has been focused towards our WASC Accredidation, which is coming up very soon. So its been rather lengthy and busy with all of that going on. One thing I noticed is that many of the teachers have difficult time settling down and listening to the principal when he needs them to pay attention and is saying something important.

I find this very ironic because I'm sure that all of these teachers have experienced this aspect with students not settling down and paying attention in class. The teachers probably complain and make a big deal about the whole situation. The problem is that many of these teachers are the same way and cannot settle down. The irony in that is amazing to me. When placed in a similar setting, teachers revert back to the same actions that upset them so much when performed by their students.

Aaron

BTN Conference

2009-02-28T03:11:00.000-08:00

Attended the Bangkok Teacher's Network Conference today with some other teachers from school. It was at a school called Bangkok Patana, which is a British curriculum school and is absolutely amazing. Its really not far from where ASB is located, but it has several soccer fields, 3 swimming pools and about 5 basketball facilities. The school is absolutely amazing to start with.

The conference was good. It started with students being keynote speakers and that was a little scripted, so I did enjoy it so much. The students were doing their best, but for the most part you could tell they were coached on what to say and other aspects of the speach. The most interesting and best student speaker was an 11 year old girl. The others seemed snobbish and spoiled.

I attended three different sessions. The first was over Multiple Intelligences and how to utilize them in the classroom. As you probably remember, this is an important subject for me and something I truly believe in. So this was a good session. Coming out of this session, I almost felt that I need to do more in my classroom. The goal is always to reach every student and ensure that each student understands the subject matter. However, the problem is creating lessons that allow that to happen. Thats the challenge.

The second session was over SmartBoard technology, which I was very interested in. Unfortunately, this one was possibly the worst one. All the information was things I already knew and could not currently apply because I do not have a SmartBoard. The session was really a very basic introduction and nothing special. It would have been nice to have some more examples. The presenter did go over a few places to find applets and stuff like that, but it still was not as good as I was expecting.

The last session was run by a Mathematician from a University in England. He was not a teacher, so he didn't have experience in working with kids. He did have experience working with college-aged students and his session covered the issues he noticed in college-aged math students, what they struggle with. Pretty much, it was the same things I find my kids struggling with, fractions and word problems. On top of that, he didn't have solutions for how to fix these problems, just that the students were weak in these areas.

I also found this session a little different because he was saying that he has math majors who are struggling with these aspects of math. My understanding is if they are in University, they should have this knowledge already (though in my past experiences, I have noticed that this is not always the case). But on top of this, he said this was something found in math majors, which to me is a red flag for either the quality of their educational advising team, allowing or placing students in a math major who do not have the basic knowledge, or their quality of students as a whole.

I did miss a few sessions that I heard were really good and would have liked to go to, but I went to the last two sessions. But that happens with every conference that I attend. My overall thoughts on the conference were that it was good. I go into these conferences with the attitude that if I can take one thing from this, if I can learn one thing from this conference, then it was worth it. After today, I felt like I need to do more for my students and reach out to them more. Hopefully this will give me a little more energy in the classroom as well. I have been feeling tired and unmotivated as of late. I hope this little conference will change that and give me a little jolt of energy.

Aaron

Math Club

2009-02-25T04:54:00.000-08:00

We had our first math club meeting on Monday after school. A total of three students showed up for the meeting. It actually went really well. I bought some candy and chips and the kids really enjoyed the snacks. I gave them a problem of the week and they looked at it for a while and then came up with some ideas, but nothing concrete. I did have one student ask me for the problem of the week before Math Club. She can't stay after school on Monday's, so she is going to ask for the problem of the week before the club.

I did give the problem to some of the other students in class and I think it generated a lot of interest. We'll see how many kids show up. I'm not sure there will be many more this coming Monday, but we'll see. The word has gotten out that we are going to have snacks and possibly a Pizza Party sometime, which would definately bring the students into the club.

After looking at the problem of the week for a little while, we decided to play a game called tangram, where the kids are given different polygons and must complete certain puzzles or create certain objects using those pieces. Its a good way to develop problem solving and logical thinking. I think the kids really enjoyed that, so it may be a good activity to continue.

Overall, I thought it went really well. I think I'm going to continue to focus the problem of the week on Geometry because that is one of my favorite subjects and the kids need to be able to develop relationships between objects and spatial reasoning.

Aaron

Detention

2009-02-23T06:35:00.001-08:00

Recently, I have instituted a new policy for students who have not come to my class prepared or who have been caught speaking languages other than English. For these students, they must come to my classroom during the 20 minute break and at the beginning of lunch and spend the time working on a worksheet, usually involving fractions and decimals. The other part of the policy that I have instituted is that if they do not finish the worksheet they must return everyday until they do complete it. On top of that, they must have every single problem correct, and I will return it to them until they do have them all correct.

I know, a little mean, but these kids need to understand several things,

1. They need to come to class prepared. If they do not, there will be consequences.

2. They must be responsible for their decisions ans take responsibility for the results of their decisions.

3. They really need to learn how to work with fractions and decimals. Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing, etc. This is a major week part for many of my students. So by having them come in a practice, they will hopefully improve this aspect.

So far, in the week or so that I have instituted this policy, I have had a full class for both lunch and the break. I have 16 desks set up in the room and they have all been full. This is a pain for me because it takes from my lunch time, but hopefully it will solve problems down the road. I'm hoping that the students who are coming into detention realize that its not fun and they don't want to be there again. That way they do what they need to do and come to class prepared and I don't have to worry about them anymore.

I have no idea if the policy is working or not, since its so early and new. But I already know that there are students who already owe me two worksheets worth of detentions. So you know, each worksheet has about 25 problems and my experience is that it has taken most students about 3 partial lunch bells to complete it correctly. Like I said, it will be nice when these kids figure out how to come to class prepared.

Aaron

2009-02-23T05:49:00.001-08:00

Ok, picture time and explanation. First, I apologize for not sharing more pictures on here. The internet at my previous apartment was very slow and took forever to upload pictures, hence the reason there are not many.

So, I needed to have some alterations done on some clothes of mine. A tie was coming apart on the small end, the cuff on a pair of my slacks was losing thread and I have some holes in the pockets of some of my shorts. I asked a few people at school where I should go and they said that you can go people on the street who have sewing machines. They will fix it for cheap right then and there. Well, I was riding my bike to the store today and I just happened to pass on such sewing machine person. When I got back home, I decided to take the clothes down there and have him fix them.

From what I saw, he did a bang up job. Didn't take long and it only cost me 40Baht for all three items, which is a little over $1, about $1.30 or so. I had a camera with me so I figured I'd take a picture. He said it was alright and here is what he looks like. I'm not sure who the guy in the background is. He was giving me a dirty look the whole time like I was some crazy, dumb tourist or something. Little does he know that I live here. So I am a crazy, dumb local. The sewing guys was really interested in the camera and picture. I think I may print it out, frame it and give it to him. He did such a good job and I'm sure that he would appreciate it. I would doubt if this guy has any pictures of himself at all.

As the title suggests, the other two pictures show the Dichotomy of Rich and Poor in Bangkok. In the foreground is an abandond lot that is currently being occupied by who I would guess were construction workers. Yes, people live in those make-shift houses that are nothing more than metal siding nailed to posts. I'm not even sure the posts are stuck in the ground or not. The wind here is not that bad, so it may be that they are simply standing on the ground. But, if they are construction workers, I'm sure they probably know how to build a structurally sound building. At least I would hope.

In the background, you see several of the thousands of condo buildings in Bangkok. Very plush, very extravagent and probably too expensive for even me to live in. However, someone is living there, overlooking the poor people below them. Like I said, tin houses and high society right next to each other. And everyone seems to accept their place.

So you know, the construction workers probably make about 7,000-8,000 Baht per month. Also, so you know, I make more than that in 4 days. They are forced to live in places like this because they can't afford anything else. To me its rather sad. Also, wait staff make about the same amount of money. If you give a 20 Baht tip (60 cents or so), they are so grateful because that will probably feed them for a meal, maybe two if they know where to go. I am starting to see how many of these girls end up in the sex industry.

They may be young and working at a legit place and maybe going to school. A server (not a bar girl), 7-11 or a fast food place (which are considered good jobs for someone out of high school, high school kids never work at these places). But they see their friends with a new cell phone (or something else like that) and being taken to nice restaurants and treated nicely by some white man who has the money to spend, and these girls want that too, but at their current job they can't afford it. They can barely afford to survive, let alone treat themselves to nice amenaties of the world.

So they quit their legit job and school and then go to work at one of these places as a bar girl (so you know, bar girls probably make more money than most college graduates). She's making good money and having a lot of sex.

Its funny how the sociology of the culture over here is actually forcing the hand of girls entering the sex industry. You may not agree with the fact that these girls are forced into the industry, but 7,000 Baht is $200, for one month. Even though its cheap to live over here, its not that cheap. These girls are trying to improve their lives and the lives of their family, but at what cost???

Aaron

Parent Meeting

2009-02-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

I had a parent meeting with one of my most challenging students yesterday. This student has been a pain in the neck for the past month or so and we have butted heads many times. Most of this comes from this student being a drama queen and always speaking about how spoiled he is. There are some other personal issues with this particular student, but that is not for me to speak about.

I will say that this student has been very disrespectful and disruptive in class. I have held him after school many times because he decided to not work in class. One day, I had to kick him out of class because he wouldn't stop laughing. After class, I spoke with him and he didn't feel like listening so he started to walk away in the middle of my conversation. I got mad and yelled at him. That night I received a phone call from the father, saying we need to have a meeting. This is an Indian family and the father was very strong with his words and it was hard for me to get a few words in over the phone. In my short time dealing with Indians, it is my experience that they are very forceful with their words and often viewed as rude since they interrupt often and try to have their voice heard.

I had expected this meeting to be a very difficult one, based on my conversation with the father over the phone and my interactions with the student. Also, I had found out that the mother had been in to have meetings about the student before (since other teachers have had problems with him) and nothing seems to come from those meetings. In fact, Simon said that he has never met the father in the year and a half he has been at the school. I'm not sure if its a good thing that I brought the father in or not, but at least he is involved with what is happening and what his son is doing.

I was aware that this student has been causing problems in other classes as well and he is very spoiled. I have had to take two different cell phones away from him over the course of two days, one five minutes after the other. Also, several times I have had to advise him that mentioning how much his 5 maids do for him (clean up after him, make his bed, pack his bag, etc.) is not always a good thing, even in the culture at the school of well-off students. So there are some issues with this student and definitely a sense of entitlement.

Like I said, I had notes and was ready to defend myself with tooth and nail, because I thought this was going to be an attack on me. I had Simon in the meeting with us and allowed the student to say a few things. The student and the mother were on the attack a little, but not as bad as I thought. The mother said a few things about what was happening in my class (or what her son was telling her was happening) and I quickly disagreed with those statements. Not that I was rude, but she was not on the attack as much. The student was a little more on the offensive, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Overall, he felt that I was treating him unfairly compared to the other students, letting some go to the bathroom while I didn't let him go a few days earlier. I did take this personally, but was not too upset about it because I felt it was the only way the student knew how to defend the meeting and his actions.

As the meeting progressed, I had mentioned a few times that I may have been harder on the student because of expectations and amount of effort put into my class. The other students are working when I ask them, this student is not. However, I did not have to say everything I was expecting to say because the father was actually coming down on the student and taking control of the situation. This also made the mother more humble and quiet, and she didn't have much else to say once the father began scolding the son for some behavior problems. Which again, I feel led to the student attacking me more as a defense mechanism.

Overall, it was a good meeting. I think we did get some things out in the open and I am extremely happy the father was able to make it in for the meeting. My goal was to make sure that all people involved were at the meeting and there was no miscommunication. I think I achieved this during the meeting.

I did have a few meetings with the parent of another difficult child earlier and the mother was very supportive and scolding of the child's actions. It is refreshing to know that to this point, the parents I have had to deal with have been very supportive. I have heard horror stories about parents taking the side of the student and not agreeing with the parent. I'm sure I will run into this in the future ( I actually already have with the mother of this student), but for now, I'm happy with the supportive parents I have been dealing with.

Aaron

Good Year For Math

2009-02-17T05:07:00.000-08:00

Our principal just returned from 3 weeks back home in America and Canada going to job fairs and recruiting teachers for next year. I spoke with him a little about it and he said that this year math teachers were having a hard time finding jobs, whereas English teachers were able to write their ticket where ever they wanted. This is unusual, because math teachers are usually the ones who have the upper hand on all of this. Last year, at the job fair, there were about 1,000 jobs available and about 650 teachers. Simon said this year there were 1,000 teachers and about 650 jobs. He said the economy is absolutely horrible and so many people are wanting to come overseas to teach, or need to come overseas because they are getting laid off or afraid of getting laid off.

I guess I chose a good year to come over and start my international teaching. It would be really hard to go through the whole interview process and job fair to not come away with something. I think Simon did a really good job over there. I know he is working towards changing the attitude of the school and I think he is trying to bring in the type of people that will help that.

Speaking of the attitude of the school, I actually discussed my concerns about connecting with the students and taking the failures personally. Simon reassured me that this was normal and I should not take these aspects so personal. He said some of it is due to the culture of the students that we have, who have maids and do not have to lift a finger for the rest of their lives if they do not want to. I know that has something to do with it, but it still is difficult to remove myself from the situation and not take it personal. It is something I think I am going to have to learn how to adjust to, else my education career is going to be a very difficult and challenging experience.

I also had a meeting with the parents of a student who I have been struggling with over the last few weeks. Simon was in the meeting with me and I will discuss that meeting in another post tomorrow. The meeting went better than expected and the father was supportive, despite my concerns.

Aaron

Math Club and Frustration

2009-02-16T04:56:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start a Math Club at the school. This is mainly going to be geared towards my middle school students who want to learn a little more about math and find some interesting things that are math related that they may not have known about. I thought about this after seeing my strongest 8th graders become bored after slowing the pace of the class considerably so the more challenged students have a chance to succeed. I used to cover 1 section per day in that class, but now I'm covering a section in about 3 days or so.

There are many reasons for this, but the main one is that some of the students in that class cannot handle the faster pace (or Algebra at all). So I tried to slow the pace and break the sections into smaller sections, teaching one concept at a time and giving them practice on that concept. It has had some mixed results, but overall I think it is working (I do feel sorry for some of those kids because they don't have an option but to take Algebra, there is no other math class in 8th grade, I remember when I was in 8th grade, Algebra was the most advanced class and there were 2 classes below that, but due to the size of the school, these kids don't have that option).

Well, I offered a little extra practice to the strongest kids in 8th grade, saying that it would help them down the road and I feel that if they kept the pace they are currently at, with no additional challenges, they would only be hindering their mathematical progress. After thinking about it, I decided that I shouldn't limit it to just those students. So I decided to tell all my classes about it. Not sure how many will be showing up, but its going to start on Monday of next week, February 23. I'm thinking about giving a problem of the week and rewarding the first person to give me a correct answer, with full explanation, possibly with candy or something. I really hope this gets the kids a little more excited in math. My supervising teacher in the TTT program was the head of the math club, so I may email him and get some ideas as to how he handles the club.

I voiced some frustration to the school counselor this morning. I honestly do not feel that I connect with these kids as well as I did back home and I feel that I am not doing a very good job as an educator because I don't feel they are learning very much from me. I get very frustrated and take a lot of this personally because I feel it is a reflection of my teaching ability. I remember the great teachers I had in the past and I want to be like them, someone who inspires students to achieve their best, someone who makes things interesting and connects with students. I do not feel that I am succeeding in many of these aspects this year. I don't feel my students are very motivated and I feel that it is my job to motivate them, but I am not getting out of them what I expect.

The counselor just told me that he thinks a lot of this has to do with the fact that we have a heavy population of "well-off" students who don't care about school and who will eventually get a job somewhere or marry into another rich family and not having to worry about anything. That could be true, and it would explain why I am having difficulty connecting with so many of the students. Growing up in SE Indiana, I had to work for what I was given, everyday of my life I had chores to do and something to complete. These kids don't have that, and its a totally different culture. I did speak with the middle school science teacher and she admitted that she is having a little difficult time connecting with the students as well, compared to back home. That makes me feel better, but part of me still feels that I should be doing more, making more of a difference in the lives of these kids. Inspiring them to want more and try harder.

When I don't see this happening, I feel that I am failing them as a teacher and I do take it very personally. There are a lot of things that could play into this (I'm a new teacher, different culture, might not be as bad as I think it is) but its still hard to accept the fact that these kids are not changing their attitudes.

I did have to institute a new policy for some of the students who were not coming to class prepared. If they don't come to class prepared, they have lunch detention in my room and they have a worksheet they must complete. I held 4 students after lunch for about 20 minutes today, and they didn't finish the worksheet so they will be back tomorrow. The worksheets are over decimals and fractions, things all my students need help on, so its some practice. Hopefully this will teach them responsibility as well as some math on top of that. We'll see how well this practice comes about.

Aaron

Sports Day

2009-02-12T04:23:00.000-08:00

We had a sports day on Wednesday and overall it went well. We traveled to the other campus which has more space and is out of the city a little. The first problem we had was of our high school students, only about 5-6 actually showed up. We don't have a huge high school, but there are about 80-100 students, maybe. For that few to show up is embarrassing. I guess they thought they did not have to come. Probably didn't want to get sweaty. What was the worst part about it is the other campus had almost 100% attendance. I was embarrassed for our campus. But I definately feel there are differences in the students at the two campuses.

The students at the other campus seem to have more school pride than our students. I'm not sure why this is, but I feel it is due to a combination of different type of students along with a staff that is more proud of the school. Since my campus is downtown, there are a few teachers there who are teaching just so they can make enough money for late night extracurriculars (I'm pretty sure you know what this means, but if not I can elaborate later). These teachers really don't have much school pride and are happy being at a school that isn't very strict with them and their teaching style. Its similar to what is seen at schools back home in the states, teachers arrive at school as late as they can and leave as early as they can. The only difference is that back home the teachers are still working to pay for a house or a car. Here, they are working to pay for their social activities.

A lot of the kids had a bad attitude going into sports day. They were saying that its not that fun and they don't want to go. The effort put forth by some of these students throughout the day was less than inspiring as well. I couldn't help but be upset with how lazy some of the students are, which is somewhat of a cultural and somewhat of a socio-economic characteristic. These kids have a sense of entitlement that they have never had to really work for anything. So when we try to get them to come out and exert some physical strength, they don't feel like it and the effort shows.

I know back home, sports day was the best day of the year. I loved sports day. It was a day to take off of school and run around doing what kids do; run, jump and be loud. It was great. Here, its more of a burden and a hassle than anything else. I did get some pictures from this day, and I will send them after the fair pictures are completed.

I was speaking with another teacher at lunch the other day and he made a very good point about the sense of entitlement these students have. He said, "If I had maids cleaning up after me and taking care of everything for me, how would I know any different. I would probably act the same way because someone was always doing things for me and I didn't have to do anything for myself."

This made me step back and think about the lives of these students. The most frustrating thing for me this year has been the constant fight to motivate these students and the constant complaining to get them to do anything. Yes, this is something that all teachers must face, but I notice it so much more over here than back in the states. Having heard this quote from the teacher, it does make sense that these students have poor work ethics because they have never been held responsible for anything they have done before.

I'm trying to teach my students a little responsibility in the class, not just math. I had a philosophy on coaching that went something like this, "If that only thing my athletes learn from me is how to run faster or jump farther/higher, then I have failed them." I feel the same way about my classes. If all these students learn from me is how to add or subtract numbers better, then I have failed them.

One way I'm trying to teach them responsibility is through a group project I had my 6th graders complete last week. I graded them and 2 of the 4 groups scored less than 50%, the other two groups were about a 75% and 80%, so the grades were not great. I gave them the grades and told them I would like them to write a reflection on the project and the group activity. They don't know this, but if the reflection is strong, I am going to change the project grades so that it does not negatively affect their grades. I wanted them to know the grade as a shock value and see what they wrote in the reflection, to know how they really felt.

I want them to know that sometimes with groups, the workload is not fair and they need to be responsible to ensure that everything is getting done and completed to the standard needed. Some students did more work than the others in their group, some accepted what others did and did not check the work. The result was a grade that was lower than they expected. I want them to think about this and tell me what their thoughts are on the project. Hopefully, they will grow a little and realize some things outside of the realm of mathematics from this reflection.

If one student can learn an important lesson from this project and reflection, then it was well worth it. I know, a little long, but I had a lot of stuff to talk about.

Aaron

Chinese Culture

2009-02-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting with the mother of two of my students the other night. They are either Chinese or Taiwanese, I'm not sure which one. The father is no longer around so its just the mother. The boy is in 7th grade and the girl is in 6th grade. The boy isn't too bad, he does need to be straightened out a little, but overall he is not bad. The girl is a little trouble-maker and I have to keep a constant radar on her and what she is doing.

The reason I called the meeting is because both of them had dropped their grade in my class dramatically over the course of about 2-4 weeks. By dramatically I mean about 20 percentage points. What bothers me the most is that I emailed the mother because both of them were doing so well, especially the girl, and I wanted her to congratulate them. The girl ended up failing in my class last semester and she had around a 77% when I emailed home. But since the email was sent, her grade began to tank. I was so dissapointed because it was almost like she didn't want to be recognized for doing well.

I simply wanted to call the meeting to bring it to the mothers attention that her children's grades were starting to drop in my class. I thought she had the right to know and felt that I had the duty to tell her. Well, she was more than appreciative and she was very supportive of me, which made me feel good, but one thing she said during the meeting disturbed me.

We had met about the girl before, with other teachers who she has, and some things came out and the mom found out the girl had been lieing about school work and receiving extra help from teachers. During the most recent meeting, the mother said that after the last meeting, she hit the girl. She blatantly came out and said that she beat her after the last meeting, and then she said that it was part of the Chinese culture and she can do that. As if there is nothing wrong with beating your kids.

Now, I believe that kids need to be corrected and I feel spanking is an acceptable form of discipline, if used sparingly and correctly. But the way this mother described it, there was a lot more than spanking involved. But she was very open about it and admitted it without reservation. The special services teacher was in the meeting as well and we talked afterwards. She told me that in America, she would turn her in, but its a different culture over here.

I am shocked at the fact that it is acceptable and that the mother was so open about the beating. But like the special services teacher said, its a different culture and more accepted in Asia. I've actually even heard of Chinese or Taiwanese teachers actually hitting students in class. Not foreign teachers but native teachers.

The main aspect of this that made me feel bad was that the whole evening, I couldn't help but think that me calling the meeting caused that girl (and maybe the boy as well) to get hit that night. All I wanted to do was bring up a concern to the mother, but there were some other things that I brought to her attention (disrupting class, talking to other students, etc.) that I felt she should know about. I felt bad because I know those kids probably got hit when they got home, maybe even before they got home. Not really something I want to be responsible for. It causes me to question how quick I will be to call another meeting with this parent.

Aaron

National Anthem

2009-02-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

Every morning, at assembly, the school lines up for the playing of the Thai National Anthem. I did receive an English translation of it earlier in the year, but I do not know what I did with it. One line that did stand out for me is a line about how Thai's are caring and peaceful people but will fight to the death if they need to. I thought this was a rather interesting combination of ideas in one line.

Anyway, the reason this is interesting is I know how big of a discussion it currently is in the US to say the pledge of allegiance, with the word God in the pledge and everything. But over here, there is no problem with standing and honoring the country. There are several underlying ideas here that allow certain things to be the way they are.

1. I mentioned how Americans are lucky and take for granted their freedom of speech. Not that there isn't freedom of speech in Thailand, but I would say that freedom of speech over here depends on the subject of the speech (some may argue this is happening in the states right now as well, which maybe it is, but not to the extent as in Thailand). But it is this freedom of speech that allows Americans and America to essentially tear itself apart and divide the country.

Since America has the right to argue and critic everything, people have formed differing opinions about almost any aspect of life. If someone doesn't agree with something, they usually speak up and argue their case. However, in my opinion, this is allowing for many historical and proud aspects of our culture (such as the pledge of allegiance and religion in schools) to be questioned. Which I think is devaluing our morals and values.

2. Since Thailand has strong socio-economic classes and individuals are not able (or not allowed) to improve upon that, they accept their lives for the way they are. This forces people to not question things. It can be bad, since independent thinking and a desire to improve ones self are not important. It also keeps the power where it currently is in the country.

The positive of this is that no one is questioning the greatness of the country and everyone is very patriotic to the country and the king. They may not always like the PM, but the country and king are always a subject of great loyalty.

I know this post may not be very organized and clear (I have had several students come in and ask questions, thus disrupting the thought process), and I probably missed some things I wanted to say, but what I wanted to describe was this...

The nature of the American society has allowed for more independent thought and freedoms, while also allowing for and leading to a less patriotic and less grateful country as a whole (I think anyone who travels outside of the US will admit that Americans are ungrateful. Thats the way the rest of the world sees us too). On the other hand, the nature of the Thai society has hindered independent thought and self-improvement while preserving the loyalty to king and country.

A double-edged sword in many aspects.

As a final thought to this, can you truly miss out on something if you never experienced it in the first place?

Aaron

Bargaining at the Night Market

2009-02-01T05:21:00.000-08:00

I went to the night market tonight after going to mass. It was the Sunday Evening, or as one of my friends from IU would say, the "last chance" mass. The night market was rather slow tonight. I think it is a combination of several things.

1. It was Sunday night and there aren't as many people out at the night market as on other nights.

2. I went fairly early, 6:30 or so. The night market opens about 6pm and closes about midnight. So many people probably won't even show up until later.

3. With all the problems from the last few months, tourism is down and I think this is hurting the markets and other aspects of Bankok's economy.

I did pick up some Thai silk and a wooden elephant, both of which I had to bargain for. This is something that I am rather uncomfortable with, since I don't enjoy haggling or arguing over price. I would rather see a price, pay it and move on. But they tell me that bargaining at the night market is expected, so I engaged in some bargaining.

I'm not sure if I got a good deal or if they still took me for a ride, but I do know that I talked down the lady selling the silk from about 4oo Baht for two pieces to 225 Baht. Again, its possible that I overpaid with that still, but I feel I did alright with the bargaining there. It translates to about a $5 difference.

For the elephant, I'm pretty sure they still got a steal off of me. They were asking 250 Baht and I talked them down to 175 Baht. A couple dollar difference, but I still think I paid a little too much for that item. Still, its not like it was really expensive anyway.

It was interesting seeing all the vendors and activity, as slow as the market was. There was a stage with performances, a beer gardens with food vendors set up all over the place. I could imagine the place would probably be really busy at times, but this was not the time. I will email the pictures to Dr. Cheryl and send the items through the mail.

Aaron

ESL

2009-01-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

Obviously, our school has a high percentage of ESL students, which makes teaching a little challenging at times. Honestly, I do not believe I am doing enough in my class personally to adapt to the high number of ESL students. I do try to make certain modifications, but overall I am not sure I am doing enough. I speak to some of the other teachers and here what they are doing and it makes me wonder if I am doing enough.

However, I will say that the middle school science teacher did give certain ESL students the exact copy of one of the exams, went over the questions and answers with some of these kids and they still failed. Hearing this, I am not sure if more modifications would help the situation. On a similar note, the language of mathematics is rather universal and tranverses languages. I have had a few ESL students who could barely speak English at all and they come into my class and ace an exam mainly because they are smart and they have practiced the problems before.

I have noticed that I must slow my speach down considerably. At times I will catch myself speaking as if I were teaching a group of Indiana students and running syllables together. Teaching at an international school has definitely forced me to be knowledgable about my annunciation.

Aaron

Sukhumvit Fair

2009-01-21T01:32:00.000-08:00

We had our big school fair this past weekend, the Sukhumvit Fair. It was a really good time. There were a lot of tents set up with food vendors and games for the kids. My job was the late shift MC. I had a lot of fun with that and received a lot of compliments for the job I did. Pretty much, I was on the main stage talking in between the acts by the kids and other people. A lot of the performances by our kids were really good. I was shocked and very proud of the ones who went up on stage.

I also found it very interesting that they had beer stands at the event. The fact that people, let alone teachers, can drink alcohol on school grounds blows my mind. But for everyone there, it was no big deal. After the first shift of teachers was done with their duty, they just gathered around a table and started throwing them back. Kids running all over the place as if its no big deal. Definitely a cultural difference, because I would never imagine drinking alcohol at school or in the presence of students and their parents.

We had a in-service day the Friday before the fair. Teachers from both campuses were there to help set-up and get prepared for the fair the following day. Our school service staff also showed up and helped set-up for the fair. By service staff, I am talking about the people who work in the copy room, supply room and secretaries. It would be similar to the secretaries and book store workers back home.

The one difference was the teachers were allowed to go home around 2 or so, while the service staff stuck around and continued to work well past that. I'm not sure what time they finished, but I imagine it was late. I do know that these individuals often come in on Saturdays and work as well. In fact, during our 3-week Christmas break, the service staff only received 1 or 2 days off work.

If I were part of the service staff, I would get really upset at the teachers for not putting as much time and for having to come in on Saturdays. But that is part of the culture over here. They are told by someone above them (socially, economically or in their job) to do something and they don't argue. I have come in on Saturday to get some work done and I sometimes see them sitting around not doing much of anything. Not that they are lazy, but because there is nothing to do with no teachers or students around.

I truly think part of the reason they have to come in on Saturdays and work such long hours is because by making them do this, the people 'above' them can maintain the social order that is established. It may seem far-fetched, but I believe that it is a way of controlling a lower class. By forcing them to work those long hours and many days, the upper-class is in a way, keeping them in their place and not allowing them to search for avenues to improve their social or economic status, either through education or job searching.

I have no research basis for this, but its simply theory that has come to me through my observations.

Aaron

Young School

2009-01-17T23:46:00.000-08:00

After speaking with the schools Communications Director, Paul, I discovered that the High School part of our campus is very young. The school itself has been around for 25 years, but it was always an elementary school and not necessarily a high school. Paul told me that last years graduating class was the first class to go all 4 years of high school through ASB at the Sukhumvit campus.

From my understanding, the parents of the students in the elementary school asked if the school could include a 7th grade one year so they could keep their kids at the Sukhumvit campus, which has a good location in the downtown area. The parents repeated this annually and eventually the school developed a high school. The main reason is that the parents did not want to send their kids out to the Bangna Campus, which is a little bit farther out from the city.

Having heard this, I can understand now how the school can be having some issues and why certain aspects of the school are the way they are. I had thought the high school was much older than it is, but this new information makes sense now. It also would explain why the elementary classes are very large and the middle school and high school classes are much smaller. I've been told that the students will come to ASB for the elementary program and then go to another school for middle school and high school, due to the fact that we have a strong elementary program and it can prepare students for speaking and studying English.

I also believe that there are going to be problems with any school that has high turnover like ASB has (which is actually an issue not just at ASB, but at any International School). The contracts are two years long and many people will put in their two years and then go back home or to another International School. This creates problems with communication and developing a consistent educational setting.

Our principal is an example of this. He came here on a two year contract from Canada and is going to complete that contract at the end of this year. He has done some great things at the school and helped develop the high school program into a more reputable and challenging setting. My concern is what happens when he leaves? Will the new person just come in and change everything and the school start all over? I was talking with Paul about this and told him the turnover would not be as big of an issue as long as their is communication between the people leaving and those coming in.

As long as the people coming to the school knew, this is where we were, this is what we've been doing and here are our goals that we had established, I think the transition would be much smoother. Now, I understand that everyone is going to have their own spin on things and ideas of how to handle certain aspects of the educational setting and environment, which is fine. But as long as there was some consistency between these transitions, the school would still be able to thrive.

I have already decided that when I leave, I am going to ask for the contact information for the teacher coming in so I can introduce them to the school and the students a little. Not that I want to tell them how to teach, but I just want to give them an introduction as to what I found works well, what I've found does not work well and some information about certain students or classes. I'm assuming the person coming in to replace me will be a brand new teacher right out of college. The new teachers at ASB are usually straight out of college. I think the teacher will appreciate this information, I know I would have.

Aaron

Cooperative Learning???

2009-01-15T17:18:00.001-08:00

I decided to put the classes in groups this semester. For the most part, it is having very positive results. However, there are a few instances where the students are not utilizing each other to help complete the assignments. If there is a group with 3 girls and 1 boy, the boy says absolutely nothing. This is the case in my 6th grade class. I'm working on ways to get around that and solve this issue.

But I have seen certain student's grades jump since the beginning of the young semester. Hopefully this trend will continue.

I am currently evaluating the pacing of my Algebra class. The 8th graders as a whole are very weak and I believe that most of them should not be in Algebra. What is the most frustrating is the fact that many of them give up when they see a word problem. They don't even write down the information that is given to them. So, I am going to break the sections down into more detailed sections. Explain part of the lesson and have the students practice that concept on a few problems, then present another aspect and have them practice that.

Finally, I am going to spend a day on the word problems in the lesson. But this time, rather than have me work the problems I am going to call the students up to the board one at a time and have them write down the information that they get from the problem. That way, they are force to at least write down what the problem gives them.

Too often, I have asked students questions and all they say is, "I don't understand." Then I start asking leading questions and they give me the same response. I think that class is very dependent and needs to be forced to figure things out for themselves.

Aaron

MEDO and Athletic Events

2009-01-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

Just started MEDO classes this past week. I am a little stressed about the whole thing right now, but I'm sure it will get better. The main thing that upsets me is the fact that I missed the whole weekend with the fact that I do not have internet at my new apartment yet. I didn't get on the internet at all and the instructor put information on blackboard Friday morning (over here). Some of the activities were due on Sunday night at midnight. Since I didn't log on until Monday morning (back home), I guess I'm going to be a little late on some things.

My responsibility, I just know what to expect now. Also, the time difference is a little of an issue. It might take a couple of weeks to adjust to when things are going to be posted and when they are due.

One aspect of the school that I recently thought was interesting, and it must be for all of Thailand as well, is the fact that many of the athletic activities take place during school hours. Our campus does not have many athletic teams, but the ones we do have play their games during class time. I thought this was interesting because I never saw this take place back home.
Also, being a coach, I have noticed that not many kids participate in the athletic teams of the school. I see these teams a great way to improve school pride. However, many of the students are not active in these teams and I feel the school pride suffers from that. There is a new PE teacher who does a lot of coaching and he has been doing a good job of building this up, but overall I would say the school pride here is weaker than I have experienced back home.

Aaron

New Semester

2009-01-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

The new semester has been interesting already. First, I have lost a few students who moved back to their home country. I thought some students had moved but then they show up a few days later. Also, I still have a few students who have not shown up yet and no one knows anything about them, if they are coming back or not, that includes fellow students.

I also have several new students in my classes. Its amazing the variation in levels of these students who arrive in my class. Some of them are well beyond the level of the rest of the class while others are well behind. One example is a student from Korea who is actually on a one month break from his school back home. From my understanding, he used to go to ASB, and every break he comes back and goes to school for the month, then returns back to Korea when his school starts up again.

The first day I had him in class, I was moving at my normal pace for the students, and he was answering questions without any leading questions, sometimes as I was writing the problem on the board. I felt happy that I finally had a student who was able to think at a higher level and was willing to talk in class. I do have a few students who can handle this material, Algebra in 8th grade, but they do not say much unless I pry it out of them. This guy is smart and he does not mind answering questions in class. I just chuckle every time he answers my questions because I know it would take the rest of my class about 2 minutes to process what I am saying.

As I say that, I still feel the school is doing these students a great disservice by offering only Algebra as an 8th grade math class. I remember when I was in 8th grade, Algebra was the advanced class and there were two other classes below that. Some of these students cannot handle Algebra at this grade level and no matter how slow I go in the class, they will not understand the material. I am pushing for two tracks starting in 7th grade, but I am not sure I will get it. I think the school is too small allow that and they feel that having two classes which are so small is unnecessary. I can see that a little bit, there is no use in have a class that is very small, but the kids who understand are suffering by going too slow and the kids who don't understand are struggling with the material.

Aaron

Christmas in Thailand

2009-01-05T23:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I spend Christmas in Bangkok. Went to midnight mass at the church I've been attending since moving here. I actually got there early on Christmas Eve and sat in on a Thai mass. It was interesting, pretty much the same as an English mass, just a different language. Both masses were packed. I got into a pew in the front of church and they kept cramming more people into the pew. No big deal, that was exactly like being back home.

The main difference was that it was still hot. At midnight mass on Christmas Eve, I'm sweating. I kept playing Christmas Carols on my computer to get me into the mood, but I couldn't help but chuckle every time Bing Crosby came on and told me, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." It doesn't look anything like Christmas over here right now.

I still can't believe all the Christmas decorations over here and the commercialism that has come along with the Holiday. I can understand the commercialism back home (I don't like it, but I understand it), but to have it over here in Bangkok is just ridiculous. I truly believe it has a lot to do with the fact that there are a large number of Westerners over here and most of them have a lot of money (or at least much more money than the average Thai).

Went on a trip to Laos with another teacher right before Christmas. It was a good trip. Laos is extremely cheap and I had a great time. I think we found a place to sleep for about $6 US per night and it wasn't that bad. Hot water, two beds and a fan. It wasn't the most elegant place, but it was all I needed. Came back and stopped at a city in Northern Thailand called Udon Thani. The interesting thing about that city is we were walking around trying to find some food and a political or royal caravan came through and the police shut down all the streets so this person could pass through. Everyone else on the sidewalk just stopped and observed the caravan.

I actually ran into one of these again later during the break after riding my bike around for the day. I didn't realize what was happening until a police officer started blowing his whistle at me and told me to get over. He wasn't really happy with me because I was still riding my bike and not standing on the sidewalk observing the caravan coming through. Honestly, I didn't even know anything was happening. Needless to say, the police officer was a little less hostile towards me when he got closer and saw I was a foreigner.

I haven't had any problem with the police here, but I've heard stories of them pulling people over for no reason, finding something wrong and then threatening to arrest the driver and take them into jail. All the police really want is a little bribe (200 Baht or so) and they move on there way. I can believe this too because I have seen the police lined up on the street and wave drivers over to inspect them for no reason. Its something different.

Aaron

One Semester Completed

2008-12-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well, after one semester I can say that I am looking forward to a break. It was a good semester, but it also had its ups and downs. A few things that caught my eye at the end of the semester.

First, I received a lot of gifts from students and I was very grateful for all of them. One student actually brought a bottle of wine to school and gave it to me. Again, the acceptance of drinking in this country baffles me. Students would never give a teacher alcohol back home, let a lone bring it to school. That was very interesting and awkward moment for me. But something I need to get used to, because I guess it happens over here.

Second, the finals schedule was rather interesting at the school. The students did not have normal classes. Rather, there were four hour and a half exam sessions for three days. Of course, students did not have exams during all the sessions. For those who didn't have exams, they simply went to a study hall room and got ready for the next exam. Which meant that for the last three days, I've only had students for half the time.

Another interesting aspect is the fact that students were allowed to leave when they were done for the day. Meaning, if a student had an exam first thing in the morning and then was done for the rest of the day, they could simply go home. If they didn't have any exams that day (which my 7th graders did not have today) they did not have to show up.

For me, it was nice because I was able to get some work done. But this was another shocking practice. I would have to say that I do not believe there is anyway this would be allowed or even work back home in the states. Nice that I could get some work done during the day and grade the exams, but there is no way it would happen back home. I think the liability of the issues would make sure it doesn't happen. Of course, Thailand is not a society that is as quick to file lawsuits and place blame on others like the USA.

Have a Happy Holiday Season!!!

Aaron

First Final

2008-12-09T20:20:00.000-08:00

Gave my first final exam this morning. I already have them graded and I can say that most of the scores are what I expected. There was one student who scored extremely high compared to his grades in the class. I was happy about that, it shows that the student actually studied and looked over the material (something that doesn't happen too often here, or in general for middle school students).

I did try to give an easier version to some of the weaker students, but it didn't really matter much. The students who scored the highest took the harder exam. I guess the strong students are going to be strong and do well no matter how difficult the exam. Looking at the grades, several of the weaker students who were given the easier exam, had the lowest scores in the class. The only three A's (out of 10 students) came from the more difficult exam.

I almost believe that making accommodations for certain students does not have a very positive effect on the grades and results in the class.

As a sidebar, I am trying to get a Smartboard in my class for next year. Most High School and Middle School teachers do not have these in their classrooms. But I would like to try to have one for helping me explain things and develop my teaching skills using technology. I actually would rather not get it until next year because I would like to have the summer to play with it and try out some of the options and resources I have for math. Which actually works out well, because I don't think I'll be able to get one by the next semester.

Also thinking of creating a website for my students and parents. I had several parents contact me (by email or in person) and tell me that their son/daughter told them there is no homework, quizzes or tests in my class. These are also the same students who have very strong F's in my class. So to combat this issue, I have decided to try to set up a website so parents have the opportunity to check the assignments with their children and do not have to rely on their child being honest.

Aaron

Gifts and Grades

2008-12-06T23:08:00.000-08:00

I've already received a few gifts from students for Christmas. One student gave me a nice set of christmas ornaments. It makes me think that I should go out and get a small Christmas tree. I might do that, they are rather cheap and only cost $4 or so. Another student has been paying attention and listening when I said I like chocolate. I received Belgian cookies, some of them covered in chocolate and some other snacks.

He gave me the Belgian cookies, and then a few days later, he gave me another set of snacks and cookies. I am very grateful and I enjoyed them greatly, but I feel bad because he is failing my class. I'm not sure about the culture over here and if the parents are expecting me to improve his grade because of the gifts or something. Not that I'm planning to do that, but its something that I'm not used to, receiving gifts from students. I guess it just doesn't happen much at home, or at least I'm not used to it.

Oh, he also gave me a 4MB flash drive, but he gave that to other teachers as well. I think I am the only one to receive the cookies. He's a good kid and has improved a lot over the semester, but he still struggles with the material. His English has improved greatly as well, and I think that is one part that is making the semester better for him.

Aaron

Grade Buying, WASC

2008-12-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

Despite all my concerns about having yet to be observed, I do understand why this is happening. First, there have been informal observations, when someone comes in the classroom for about 3-4 minutes to just see what is happening and how things are going. However, there has not been a full class long observation.

My principal was planning on starting observations in November sometime, however that is when he was informed that the procedures the school was following to continue to be accredited, were not actually the correct procedures. My understanding is this, the committee, WASC, did not give the school the correct paperwork (or decided to change their mind on what paperwork the school needed) and then recently said that we needed this other form. This is accurate and not something the principal is just making up because the committee admitted to this and said we did not have the correct paperwork. On top of that, they are now sending all new staff to perform school accreditation checks. Something during the last few years was not going well and the staffs they were sending were not up to par.

So, with all of this happening, our winter break coming up, the principal being gone for 3 weeks in late January/early February for recruiting fairs and the WASC committee needing the paper work by late February, my principal has been a little stressed and focusing all his energy on WASC. So I understand the issues.

I have also been told that the previous Superintendent of our school, who had to be let go, had some very strong connections with WASC and some of the people who make major decisions for WASC. Now, I am not saying that WASC is coming down hard on the school simply because ASB let that individual go, but it is a little ironic that he is let go and then the school suddenly does not have the correct forms or paperwork. I have no proof of anything, just observations.

Aaron

Gifts and Family Support

2008-12-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

Today, I come in to school and I am getting some work done. I had a student come into my room before school and he gave me a flash drive and a beautiful tin container of Belgian Chocolate Cookies. He said they were Christmas gifts. I was so surprised and felt great. Not to mention that I love all chocolate candies and cookies. This kid hit it right on the button. However, I do feel a little bad because he is currently failing my class. I'm not sure if he is expecting to get a good grade now or what, but I am not going to change grades for gifts.

The bad thing is the student would not be failing but he didn't turn a project in and some other assignments. He was a student who was struggling in my class at the beginning of the semester, but now he is picking up the material better and actually understanding. It also helps that his English was horrible at the beginning of the semester and he has been working at that lately and getting better. I do feel bad that he has been working hard but is still failing my class. But the reason he is failing is because of the missing assignments, not for lack of effort or ability.

I had dinner with a lady last night and she was discussing how she wanted to go to England and study for a few years. Then she told me that her mom and dad are completely opposed to her leaving Thailand. Her mom went as far as saying that if she goes, she will not be considered her daughter anymore. I heard this and was shocked. I was in a similar situation when I wanted to come over to Thailand, (middle 20's, single, no attachments) and I decided to do something that I would not be able to do later in my life when I have more responsibilities. I was (and still am) lucky enough to have the complete support of and encouragement from my family.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to tell my parents about a dream I have to move far away only to have them say that they will disown me if I do so. The way this was described to me, the parents are military parents and they are the classic Thai mentality that there is no need to leave Thailand or seek other things outside of Thailand. I relate it to the strong class system in Thailand. People accept the class they are born into and do not try to improve themselves (or they are not allowed to improve themselves). The mentality can be related here in the fact that the parents cannot understand why their daughter would want anything different from the life that she currently has and the situation she was born into.

Again, I am grateful for the support of my family and friends. Even if my mom is worried about me with everything going on and would much rather me be close to home. She will not tell me that and will never ask me to stay at home.

Aaron

Political Unrest

2008-11-29T17:39:00.001-08:00

I find it interesting how much of this situation is affecting the rest of the country. The protesters are absolutely crippling this nation and the economy which is heavily dependent on tourism. The problem is that this will affect the tourist industry for at least the next 6 months and maybe even longer. In speaking with the teachers who were hear for the last coup in 2006, it does not appear that I am in any danger. It would seem that this does not really affect Westerners. We simply continue on with our daily lives as if nothing is happening.

I also think its interesting that these protesters are allowed to overtake the airports and no one is really doing anything about it. Despite what the news may say, most of them are rather peaceful. But hidden in the peaceful protesters are the instigators with guns and violence on their mind. If you see them, the protesters have music playing and they are dancing like its one big party. I believe most of them are simply puppets and paid by the rich to be there for numbers. When something bad happens, the poor who are being paid are the one's who get hurt and so it looks bad for the government.

Today, I started to think of the long-term effects this may have on me. Right now, the only thing I can think of is my trip back home in April. It is possible that, even that far off, countries will not want to fly to Bangkok and therefore my flights or flight schedule could be changed or even cancelled. Its crazy that a flight 5 months away could be affected by this incident. I hope there are no changes, but its a distinct possibility that there will be changes.

In my opinion, the protests are more annoying than anything else. However, I would like to reiterate that I am safe and would have to search for danger in order to be in trouble.

Aaron

Protests and College Entrance Exams

2008-11-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

I will start with the college entrance exams. I was speaking with the school counselor and he told me of a college entrance exam of one of our seniors. This student did not have anyone proofread the essay before submitting it and only gave it to the counselor after submitting it via the website. The counselor told me the essay was very poorly written and that some of our 4th graders write journals better than this essay. I did not read the essay, but the counselor told me the girl actually used the phrase, "back in the olden days" in her essay. Apparently, this was also one of the girls top choices for a university.

I would have to say that this is just another example of how the academic standards at this school have been low in the past. If a senior cannot come through a school without being able to write a decent essay, then that student has not been challenged. From what I've been told, this is partially due to the fact that students have been allowed to fail a class in the past and move on to the next class without making up any work. This practice is currently changing. I truly feel this could be a very good school, but there needs to be some changes. I feel some of these necessary changes are underway as we speak and it is simply a matter of time until definitive results are visible, but we are heading in the right direction.

Now, onto the protests. For most of the protests up to this point, only Thais have been affected. However, now that they have shutdown the airports, it has affected the international community and the economy of Thailand, which depends heavily on tourism (not to mention the fact that I may not get my Christmas care package of Mom's cookies. Thats enough to make me go down there and break this thing up myself!!!). The way I see it, the PAD (the protesters) have been allowed to protest because no one wants to make anyone else mad and they all want to safe face (part of the Buddhist's culture).

But the army is not willing to disperse the PAD nor are they willing to overthrow the government, either result would lead to bloodshed, partially because of the money involved in both sides. The government is not willing to step down either, and therefore the PAD is not willing to stop protesting. So we are at a crossroads. The problem is, Thailand has done this before, the army set up a coup and an election was held, only to be back in the place that we are a year or two later. Its a cycle over here, some people don't like whats happening so they protest rather than allow the democracy to work out the kinks and change through elections.

Honestly, I believe this will end with more violence. I do not feel I am in danger, but I do believe that there will be major violence in Thailand before this is over. I keep telling my family that I am fine and in no danger, which is 100% true and I am not lying when I say that. Today, for the first time, I thought about what I would do if I had to leave Thailand for my safety. I think I would probably try to stay in Asia and maybe go back to Taiwan. Yes, I know, Taiwan and China currently do not have the best relations and that is another potentially dangerous place. But I enjoyed my time there and would like to go back.

But this is all contingent on the fact that I need to leave Thailand for my safety. Like I said, I don't see that happening because I am not involved in the Government and neither side really cares about me. The only time I have even seen a protester is when I was getting off the BTS and there just happened to be a rally on the street below. I didn't even go down there until it was over, just waited. I would literally have to search for trouble over here to find it.

As a final thought, I do find it interesting that the PAD is allowed to shut down an airport and pretty much cripple a nation. I cannot think of another country where this would be allowed or accepted. I feel that by doing nothing, the army is promoting this behavior, which is why it is happening now because it was allowed in the past. I am interested what other countries will do about this since it now affects the international community.

Aaron

Thai Cultural Workshop

2008-11-24T05:48:00.000-08:00

Attended a Thai Cultural Workshop last weekend at school. It is actually a requirement for continued employment at the school, and in Thailand actually. It was interesting and I learned a lot about the culture of Thailand. First, they are very proud that they have never been conquered or occupied by any other countries. Other countries around them have been under the control of other countries at some point (England, France, etc.) but not Thailand. This is a great source of pride for the thai people.

Part of this pride is shown through the support of their athletes. Thailand is not known as an Olympic powerhouse, but they do have a few sports in which the perform very well, such as boxing. When these particular athletes are participating in that sport, they are the center of attention and Thai's all over the country support that athlete. This pride is very strong and something I have witnessed first-hand while watching the Olympics this past summer.

Second, it would appear that even though Thailand is attempting to become a Democracy, and has declared itself so for many years now, it does not seem to work very well. It would appear that everytime someone is elected to office and there is a problem with that individual, rather than let the elections run their course, there must be a coup and a big protest. To me, this doesn't make much sense because it defeats the purpose and meaning of a Democracy.

One other aspect I have noticed about Thailand and its people is the overwhelming support for Barak Obama. Whenever I tell someone I am from America, they're first response involves Obama. It would almost appear that Obama is viewed as a savior by some people in Thailand, someone who will fix all the problems of the world as soon as he takes office. I am not sure it is so much that these people think Obama is going to solve all the problems, but rather a joy that Bush is no longer in office. Not trying to get into politics too much, but I would say there are many Obama supporters in Thailand.

Aaron

No Rice In The Lunch Line

2008-11-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was talking with a girl I tutor in math and she said something about her little sister being fat. I told her that her sister was not fat and that she should see the kids in the states. I told her about all the overweight kids in the states and how I believe it is because they eat nothing but junk food all day and the lunches provide them with food that isn't always good for them. I began telling her what type of food schools had and she was shocked that rice was not one of the options.

As we were talking about the lunch lines, I started to think that I cannot remember a time during all my high school and since working at high schools, that a school had rice as part of the meal. I think it would be a good thing for the students to have along with being cheap and easy to provide. I felt it was interesting because rice is something that is so common in Asia, but seldom used in the states. This girl could not imagine a day without rice, and students in the US hardly ever eat rice.

Just another cultural difference that I find interesting.

Aaron

Parent Observations

2008-11-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the school allowed parents to come in and observe the classes of their children. I thought this was a very interesting policy because I do not think that any school back home in the states would allow or promote this action. Not that I think its a bad thing, but I could definitely see a problem parent coming in to class and causing even more problems, either during the class or after the class.

I did not have any parents in my classes. I was a little happy about that, not that I care if parents come in and watch my class, but I would rather just have my class be my class and not have an audience other than the students. I understand that administration has the right to come in and observe me, and I think that's a good thing because they can provide feedback. But the fear I have with parents coming in and observing is the parent of the child who is struggling and then becomes a problem because they feel I do not give their child enough time or I am not doing enough to help out their child and then it becomes a problem for me and the administration.

Either way, I am still surprised by this policy and believe it is something that would not happen back home.

Aaron

Observation

2008-11-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

The math department head came into the end of one of my classes yesterday and was watching me explain something to the students. He was actually there to ask me a question, but he caught the end of my lesson. I was explaining the Trigonometric Ratios and why Sine and Cosine could not be greater than 1. He was impressed with the explanation and the way I was presenting the information to the students. I was having them explore the problem a little rather than just give them the fact that the Sine and Cosine must be less than 1, I had them discover the reasons for this fact.

I asked him if he could observe me in the future so I could get some outside feedback on what I needed to improve upon and what I was doing well. He said that he could do that, but the only class he has free would be during my 6th grade class, which is my worst class. I actually think that would be a good thing. I do not simply want to know how my best class is going, but also how my worst class is going. By observing that class, I will be able to see what I need to improve upon for other classes as well.

I do feel that my development as a teacher has be hindered by the fact that I have not received any feedback or been observed yet. I have no idea if I am doing a good job, if I need to change my methods or what is happening in my class. Therefore, I feel that I am not growing as much as a teacher as I should be. Again, though I do not necessarily agree with the mentor program in the State of Indiana and how the paperwork is set-up, I do feel that having a mentor to observe lessons is a good thing as a whole and can help develop a young teacher into a stronger teacher.

As it is right now, I feel that I am flying by the seat of my pants and have no knowledge of what aspects of my teaching need improvement.

Aaron

Teacher Appreciation

2008-11-15T21:10:00.001-08:00

Last night (Saturday), I went with some other teachers from the school to a student's house for dinner. There were about 10 or so teachers here for the party. As I was there, I noticed several things that surprised me. I would also like to note this was an Indian family, so I am not sure how the following plays into cultural relationships amongst Indians.

First, back home in the states, I do not think a family would ever invite a group of their children's teachers to their house for dinner. The parents wanted to have the teachers over simply to thank them for the hard work and the things they have been doing as teachers. Coaches might go over to the houses of their athletes, but that would be as a team dinner with the rest of the team present. This was the parents, students and a bunch of teachers.

Second, the father was serving alcohol to us as if it was no big deal. Originally, I was skeptical about drinking. But all the other teachers were drinking as well and I think he would have taken it as an insult if I had not had a drink. Now, no one became out of control and everyone kept their drinking level to a minimum, but the fact that there was alcohol and we were drinking at the house of a student was amazing. Back home in the states, all of the teachers present would be suspended and probably fired for something like this. Over here, it is almost accepted. It should also be noted that the children, one who is a freshman, were not drinking at all.

Third, and not related to education so much, but the food was amazing. It was all Indian food and it started when we arrived as appetizers. I was loading up on those, thinking that was all we were going to have. Well, as it turned out, at about 10:30 or so, they brought out a 7 or 8 dish meal that was absolutely stunning. It was truly amazing to have this appreciation and celebration for teachers at the house of a student. Like I said, I do not believe this would ever happen back home in the states. If it did, I think I would almost feel akward with the family and student, and of course, the alcohol would not be present.

Aaron

Projects

2008-11-14T23:40:00.000-08:00

I gave both my 7th and 8th grade projects to complete the last few weeks. The 8th grade turned theirs in and I was happy with them. However, when it came time to collect the projects from my 7th grade, I was very disappointed in the quality of the projects and the number of projects that were actually completed. Of the two classes, one had everyone turn their projects in, while the other class, only about half of the students turned the projects in to me.

I reminded the students the whole week before the projects were due that they must complete these projects. I told them this everyday of the week and they seemed to not even care about the projects. These projects counted as test grades, so a lot of these students received zero's on these projects and thus their grades are suffering.

Which is another thing that is upsetting to me. I have told these students that this quarter is shorter than the others and they should not get behind early thinking they have time to catch up because they do not. Well, grades this quarter are much lower than they were last quarter. I believe some of this is because we are covering new material and not reviewing old material as we did in the first 2 chapters or so. But it is frustrating because I take that personal and view it as a reflection of my teaching ability.

Aaron

Taking It Easy

2008-11-10T04:54:00.000-08:00

I have found that I must relax with the lessons a little. As I stated earlier, I feel the class has become boring and I am stuck in somewhat of a rut as far as my teaching is concerned. Last week, for some reason, I took to a slightly slower and more relaxed approach of the lessons and the students responded very well and I enjoyed the classes much more. We still got through several sections and completed work, but it was at a slightly lighter pace.

This week, I plan on playing a game with one a few of the classes and trying some other things with the others. One problem I have come across as a first year teacher is the lack of knowledge of activities for lessons. I'm sure this becomes easier as time goes on, but it makes the first year rather challenging. Also, I am sure that even when I move to a new school, the first year at the new school will be easier than the first year teaching in general because of the resources and activities I would have completed in the past. I may have to recreate some of the manipulatives, but the ideas would be there. That may be another interesting study (and one that I know was mentioned in Dr. Cheryl's book), the adjustment for a teacher during his/her first year at a new school. If my knew school just so happens to be another school in Asia, that may provide an even more interesting twist.

One thing I have noticed with my 6th grade class is that the smartest kids in that class are the one's who complain the most and try to get away with the most. This is something that I definately have not experienced in the States. Again, this may be due to the age of the students, but I do not feel that is the driving factor. I know in Thailand, the culture tells the individual to become part of the group and work together for a common goal. Along with that individuals are not supposed to be individuals and strive for something greater. Rather, they are supposed to accept their position (whether it be in economic or social) and help others around them. Thus, cheating is not viewed as a negative practice in Thailand, but it is seen as helping others around you.

The problem here is the students who are complaining and whining are not Thai, they are Korean (but they may have spent their whole lives in Thailand, which could play a part in this behavior). However, I will again come back to the thought that these students have a sense of entitlement, that they do not have to work if they do not want to. Most of these students have maids and drivers at their beckoning call. They rarely have to clean up after themselves and have almost no responsiblity.

Perhaps it is the fact that these students are simply bored in my class and they are lashing out in anyway possible. Either way, I find it very interesting because never had I experienced the most intelligent students in a class I taught also be the laziest and complain the most.

Aaron

Projects

2008-11-09T04:57:00.000-08:00

I gave my 8th graders a project two weeks ago in which they had to prove that a triangle has 180 degrees when we take the sum of the three angles. Overall the proofs went really well. I would say that most of the proofs were strong, with just a few minor mistakes here and there. I think it was the first proof for many of these students, so I was very pleased. Some of the students did not do as well as I would have liked them to do, but I am sure that happens with students all the time.

I also gave a project to my 7th graders a few weeks ago and will be collecting that project tomorrow. We were discussing probability in class one day and I told them that I would buy them a pizza party if they could beat me at a game. If anyone in the class could correctly guess ten straight coin flips, I would provide the party for them. Well, no one did accomplish the task, and we have even played since with no one completing the task.

Their project was to find out the probability that someone correctly guesses 10 coin flips in a row. I gave them a little bit of a heads start and hint in the project. However, as of Friday, only a few had even started on the project. I am fearful as to how this will work out for the 7th graders.

Aaron

Nationalities

2008-11-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

I find it refreshing to speak with other teachers about their problems and issues. More bouncing ideas off of each other than anything else, or venting about certain students. One teacher from Canada who I have been playing basketball with quite a bit lately tells me that some of his worst experiences have been with the parents of Indian students. From what he says, all of the Indian parents think their child is going to be either a doctor or a lawyer, and therefore they have them taking AP Calculus, AP Physics and AP Chemistry during the student's senior year.

According to my friend, there are two problems with this theory...

1. The school only offers AP Calculus at this time and so there is no way AP Chemistry or AP Physics is even an option. Which I feel is unfortunate that this is the case with the school.

2. Most of these students have no business being in any of these classes because they are barely passing Chemistry I.

I have not had a problem with Indian parents yet. The only problem parent that I have had has been Pakistani. We did have a parent-teacher conference and she was unhappy that I did not change her daughter's grade from a "B" to an "A". The parent sent a text to the guidance counselor the next day and told him she wanted to talk to him about the math teacher.

So after meeting with the guidance counselor for about 5 minutes he calls her back and she tells him that she doesn't like the way I handle my class and homework procedures and other things. The counselor agrees with my procedures and continues to support me and my classroom management style (which is a good feeling to have support).

I think parents all over the world would have their own thoughts and feelings about certain teaching styles and methods. However, I am shocked that a parent would actually ask a teacher to change grades. Maybe this happens in the States more often than I realize, but it was shocking for me to experience. Almost a lack of responsibility for the student receiving the grade he/she received and more of an entitlement to a certain grade. In the parent's defense (but it is not much of a defense), grades were changed last year, so I can see where she might think it would happen again.

Another interesting aspect I learned about the school after speaking with the department head, when he arrived at ASB about 4 years ago or so, there was only one track for math all the way through high school. This was only about 4 years ago, 2004 or so, and a high school has only one track of math for all students. That right there is absolutely shocking.

Aaron

Changing The Courses

2008-11-01T00:29:00.000-07:00

I made a suggestion to my principal the other week that I feel we should have two seperate tracks for math in the middle school, an advanced track (course) and a normal track. My reasoning for this suggestion is that some of the kids in my classes are bored because we are not going fast enough and they are not being challenged. Unfortunately for them, I cannot go any faster, because some of the students are struggling at the pace I am going right now.

This would allow me to challenge the more advanced students and spend more time on material for the weaker students. I feel this would benefit all the students in the school. I was actually rather shocked when I saw that the school did not have this, the math department does branch off into two seperate tracks but not until about grade 10 or 11. Grant it, two tracks would create rather small classes, but they have AP classes in the high school that have only 5 students in them. If they can justify and AP class with 5 students, there is no reason we cannot have an advance middle school math class with 8 students.

Also, this forces the school to hire another part-time math teacher or find someone currently on staff to teach a math class or two. That may be the only thing keeping this from going through. However, it would also open my schedule up and almost guarantee me a high school math class for next year. Last I heard, this was going to happen and I will be getting my high school math class.

I spoke with some of the parents about this option at the parent-teacher conferences. Some of them were rather upset the school did not already have this option, which I agree with them and their argument. I feel the school is often behind the times on certain issues and slow to keep up with things as them develop in the education field. I honestly believe this is attributed to the fact that the school director has complete power over things in the school and determines what happens. If she does not feel something should happen, it doesn't happen. Its her school and the final decision is hers to make. However, personally I feel this hierarchy has hurt the school in the past.

Aaron

Parent-Teacher Conferences

2008-10-30T08:09:00.001-07:00

Had the Parent-Teacher Conferences tonight. Most of the teachers only had a handful of parents stop by. I was chasing a record with the Middle School Science teacher for who had the most. We both were hovering aroun 14 or so. I think she had me beat because I had a 20 minute break in the 3 hour session and she didn't have a break. That was a lot of parents. Not to mention some that just showed up. Not bad, it was good to see that many parents involved in their children's academics, especially at this school. Kelly, the MS Science teacher and I were joking as to what we were doing wrong (or right) to have so many parents coming to us.

For the most part it went really well. Most of the parents were of kids who were very strong and just wanted to meet the teacher (which is the case in the States as well). There were a few parents of weaker children who were struggling in my class. I tried my best to make some suggestions and be honest without being too mean. For the most part, the parents agreed with me when I told them I thought their child was lazy or they needed a kick in the butt. However, I had to be careful which parents I told this to. I felt the parents out first and could tell if I could get away expressing myself in those words or if I needed to put the words a little more delicately.

There was one parent who was arguing a 'B' her student got in my class. Unfortunately, it was the last parent of the night and a 10 minute conference ran into about 35 minutes. She was telling me about everything and anything on her mind, the things she didn't like about the school, what she does and her kid being sick (which she has been missing the last few days). She also said that last year, the superintendent (who was removed from the school for various reasons) allowed her daughter to make up some assignments and rework some homework problems because she did not receive an 'A' in the math class. She started to try and pry at me and see what 'help' I could provide for her daughter. I think she was rather dissapointed when I didn't budge, luckily for me, I have the backing of my principal on this one.

Also, I think there has been a little grade changing with my grades. I had one parent who came in and asked me why their child's grade was so low at a D+. When I check my gradebook, that student should have had an F. I didn't have the heart to tell them that it actually shouldn't be that low (plus, I didn't want to make the school look incompetant), so I just explained what the kid had been doing in my class and ways to improve his grade. I always tried to speak of any improvements and things that are going well with these students in my class. I never lied and gave credit where it was due.

I did receive two gifts from parents. One was a keychain from the parent who was trying to get her daughter's grade changed. Don't know if that was a bribe or not, but I'm sure I'll be hearing from this parent in the future, or someone will. From what I've been told, she doesn't understand how her daughter can get a B, it must be all A's. The other gift was a very nice blue and white tie, which will go nicely with several of my shirts that I have. I originally thought it was candy or something, but when I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised. It is a really nice tie. Truly, I am extremely excited to have received it. I do not remember who it was from, but I'm going to find out tomorrow at school and write a note to that parent. This was a great gift.

I don't think a teacher would ever get gifts from parents during this session back home. I have a feeling this has to do with the respect teachers receive in this country. I must admit, it was a very nice feeling to be respected and appreciated.

Aaron

Break In The Action

2008-10-27T05:45:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a whole lot to write about the last week. We had a week long break for a National Holiday, so not a lot happening in relation to school. I did submit my application for IWU's MEd Online program. I am hoping to start this coming January or February. I would like to complete it before I am done here in Bangkok. Starting either of those dates should put me on schedule to do so, or close to it.

Did get back into the groove of class today. I still feel that I am lacking in reaching these students at times and challenging them enough. For example, today in my Algebra class, we were discussing solving equations with variables on both sides. I had some of the students come up and work the problems for me on the board. The rest of the class seemed to be almost lost and have no idea what was going on. I was extremely frustrated by this because I was trying to give the students a chance to work the problems in front of the class and display their communication skills, but the results for the rest of the class was below expectations.

Part of the problem, I believe is my inexperience and my developing my teaching methods and style. However, I also believe that part of the problem is the wide range of ability within each class. I cannot go too fast or ask problems that are too challenging because the students who struggle will be even more lost. I cannot slow down because the students who are mathematically stronger are already bored and to slow down would only cause more problems.

I am talking with the principal, department head and counselor about splitting up these classes for next year into an advanced track and normal track. That would cause some very small classes, but it is necessary if they are trying to get some of these students into Calculus by their senior year. Every other school I know of has at least two tracks by the time the students are in 7th grade. I am trying to get this for the school next year, but I am not sure how well it will go over. I have a feeling it will come down to a matter of money and the administration not wanting to pay for two classes when one teacher can handle a combined class. I am still going to try though, hopefully it will work out for the best.

Aaron

Failing Grades

2008-10-20T08:36:00.001-07:00

Speaking with our counselor, he expected to be busy the week after the report cards come out. I guess most of the students are not accustomed to receiving F's and the seniors especially are not used to it and need good grades to get into University. Well, the High School AP teacher has given a lot of the seniors F's or low grades because it reflects their effort and performance in class.

I guess, in the past, these students would be given a better grade just to continue on and they were never held accountable for their behavior or effort in the classroom. So, this will be a shock for both the students and families.

I asked about University and how they will survive that without putting much effort forth. He said most of the Thai Universities will allow students to take as long as they need in order to finish. Most of these students will graduate (eventually) with some degree, and it may be some general studies degree, and then through the connections of their wealthy parents, they will begin working for them or some family friends and survive that way. Almost a sense of entitlement that is not earned.

I guess if I think about it, there is a lot of that back home in the states as well. Its more who you know than what you know. I feel its a little more magnified here though due to the disparity between the wealthy and the poor.

Aaron

Staff Picture

2008-10-17T23:52:00.001-07:00

I almost forgot, I am working on getting a copy of the staff picture for presentations. I did ask for this a while ago, but apparently, things are slow-moving over here and requests are not always processed in a timely fashion. So, when I receive the picture, I will make sure to forward it one to you.

Also, I feel there are going to be more opportunities for pictures with students in out-of-classroom settings in the future. Hopefully they will be more willing to have their pictures taken outside of the classroom.

Aaron

Principal

2008-10-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

The last few Friday nights, I've been going to a local bar to watch our school counselor play guitar. He is rather good and I enjoy the place. It has nice food, it nicely decorated and quiet so I can relax after a week of school.

Last night I went there and a fellow teacher showed up for a little while. This teacher has been teaching in Asia since 1983, in Japan, South Korea, Thailand and I think Vietnam, so he has his experiences in many different areas. He actually taught at a DOD school in Japan for a long time and is currently collecting retirement through them along with teaching at ASB. I enjoy speaking with him because he has so much experience, even though he does not teach math, I feel there is so much I can learn from him and so much advice he can give me.

Well, last night we got on the subject of the school's principal. The teacher said that a teacher could work all his career and not find a principal as good as the one we have. I was happy to hear that, because he is the first principal that I am working for full time. The principal definitely makes things a lot easier than they could be and is a major buffer between the rest of the school administration and the teachers. I think he fights for a lot of things for the teacher and makes our lives much easier than they could be.

As happy as I am to have this principal for my first year, I am worried about who will come in next year. This principal is in his second year at ASB and he knew going in that it was only going to be a two year deal for him, which if fine and he can do that if he wants. I worry about the principal for next year and I worry about the principals I will have for the future, when I return back home.

Some of the principals that I have dealt with in schools back in the states have been less than spectacular in my opinion. Hopefully, my first principal is not the best one I will ever have and they will all be down hill from here. Just another way that I feel I may be spoiled teaching over here in Thailand and the adjustment to teaching back home will be a challenge.

Aaron

Embarrassed

2008-10-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

I had my first embarrassing moment in class yesterday where I could not complete a problem for the students during the class time. The problem dealt with 4 families at a sporting even and ordering popcorn from the vendor. The first family buys half of the bags the vendor has plus one extra bag. The second family buys half of the remaining plus one extra bag. The third family does the same as does the fourth family. In the end, the fourth family buys 2 bags of popcorn. The question was how many bags did each family buy.

Well, I had the answers and after seeing the answers, I could see how they made sense, but I could not come up with an equation that would allow me to solve the equation. I have always struggled with these type of problems, from my middle school classes on up through college. There is something about these problems that stumps me every time I get to them. Well, I couldn't finish the problem during the class time, so I started working on it after class.

It took me about 15 minutes to complete the problem, and the algebra throughout the problem is extremely nasty for and 8th grade class. So I believe I am working the problem the long and hard way, but it still works. I feel there must be another way to work the problem, an easier way. I actually told the students that if the can come up with a formal proof of the problem, I would give them bonus points. We'll see how that goes.

I almost feel that I have hit a slow point in my teacher development. I know it is still early, but I feel that my class has become predictable and almost boring for my students. I struggle to think of activities that would make the class more interesting. I have been using manipulatives, but it seems the students are non-responsive and bored. I am almost second guessing my abilities as a teacher because I do not feel that I am making the class interesting on a daily basis.

I would like to see other Math classes and I think I may do that with the high school math teacher. I may ask if I can observe him once or twice to see what he is doing and how he is presenting the information. I would really like to see if the way I run my class is similar to the way he runs his class. A little more guidance at times throughout the school would be welcome.

Aaron

First Quarter Grades

2008-10-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

So, our first quarter grades are due today. They told us to use a program called GradeQuick because it works well with exporting and other things like that. Well, I tried using it a while ago and it didn't go so well. So I'll try again.

As is the case with many other things at ASB, they tell you to do something but give you no help, guidance or direction on how to complete the task. I think some kind of tutorial would be very helpful, just a little session to show how to use the program. The designated IT Teacher Representative did offer the last two days of support after school for those who have questions. The problem with that is all new teachers had to go to the Ministry of Labor and Department of Employment the last two nights to get our Visa and Work Permit. Which pretty much nullifies any possibility of getting help during those times.

Funny thing is the teachers that had to go to these places after school are the same ones who needed the extra help with the program. Sometimes, things don't work out the way we expect them to and we must simply roll with the punches.

I am coming to find that the package offered by ASB is really not all that great in comparison to other International Schools. For example, all of the fees for processing visas and work permits are the responsibility of the teacher to pay. Now, this may not seem like a lot, but after a few $100 US fees, things start to add up. Also, a fellow teacher new to ASB this year has taught in the Middle East and told me that they offer a free plane ticket back home every year, not just one round-trip ticket for the contract.

The pay in respect to the standard of living in Thailand is great, but not in respect to the pay in the US. This is becoming somewhat of an issue since I have student loans I am trying to pay and the exchange rate is not great. Trying to survive on half a salary over here is feasible, but very challenging.

Everyday, there are some small things that I worry about, some in class, some outside of class.

Aaron

Extra Credit

2008-10-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

Generally, I am not a believer in extra credit. I feel the grade a student receives is the grade he/she earned and that is how I am going to run my classroom. Students get what they put into my class and they know where they stand with their grades. However, I recently graded a few tests and quizzes from my 8th grade and after looking at the scores and review the difficulty, I decided that what I was asking of them for these two assessments was a little too much. I had given them two rather difficult assessments, not taking into account the difference in their ability and mine.

In order to fix this, I decided to give them the option of correcting their mistakes on the one quiz and give it back to me 4 days later for half credit. I figured this would be a great way for them to learn what they did wrong and also get a few points back. I also decided to actually give them extra credit. If they searched the Internet for powerpoints on the subject and sent them to me, I told them I would give them 5 bonus points.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) the number of students who took advantage of these opportunities was rather low. I would about 25% of the students took advantage of the quiz corrections option and only 3 out of the 20 took advantage of the extra credit option. I was rather shocked because I wasn't actually asking them to create a powerpoint, I just wanted them to find one that was already created and send it to me.

Shockingly, when we had our next quiz, some of the students who did poorly on that one were asking if the could correct their mistakes for half credit. I told them know because not enough people took advantage of my generosity the first time and I see no need to help them out again if they aren't willing to work a little to improve their grade. Give them a little and they want to take a lot. Then they complain when the option is no longer available, the same option they didn't take advantage of in the first place.

I was a little bothered by the participation in these activities.

Aaron

Different Student Around Mom

2008-10-04T03:18:00.000-07:00

I have one 7th grade student who is extremely smart, but he also is extremely active. I truly believe that he gets bored in class a lot because he is so smart and the information comes too easy for him. I feel he should be in an advanced class that I could challenge him more. I may modify his assignments to be more difficult in the future. He is extremely bright.

But as I mentioned, along with that, he is very active and often creates distractions and acts up in class. Well, the other day he dropped the F-word in class. I was rather taken aback by this, but I asked him what he said. He kind of sidetracked around the question, but then I told him to stay after class. After class, I asked him for his Mom's phone number so I could call her and tell her what happened.

I called his mom and told her what happened, she was very apologetic. I had actually met her already, at open house. She was very nice and we had a nice conversation. Other teachers have had problems with her because they said she acts like she doesn't understand English when they talk to her. But when I spoke with her, she understood everything I said.

After school that day, she actually came into my class with her son to speak with me. Again, I started explaining to her what happened and what he said. The student started to speak up and make an excuse for what had happened and his mom just looked at him and said something in Japanese, and he shut up and became very reserved. I thought this was very funny because I will often have to say this student's name 4-5 time before he listens to me, but when Mom says something, he becomes very quiet and reserved.

It was amazing how different he acted around his mom. Everything was short and simple yes or no answers and he was very respectful. After speaking with other teachers, this seems to be common in Japanese students. They have a great deal of respect and obedience for their parents and family elders, but not so much for authority of other adults.

Aaron

They Don't Understand "NO"

2008-10-03T05:16:00.000-07:00

I truly do not think these students have ever heard the word "no". It has become a daily occurance that a kid asks me if they can leave before the bell, or can they turn their homework in late or something else. If I tell them know, they pout and then sit down. No more than a few minutes later, they are asking me the exact same question, to which I respond the same way, no. Without fail, they ask again, the exact same question. By this time I become rather frustrated because I have already said no twice, and I am not going to change my mind after a third time.

I almost feel that these kids are accustomed to their parents giving in after a few minutes of questioning. From what I understand of the socio-economic culture of the school, the kids are very well off and usually get what they want. I do not know what is going on at home, but I can only imagine that these kids do not hear the word "no" very often. When they do, they figure that they can ask again and the answer will change to a "yes".

Again, I feel this is one aspect that has some similarities to the trends in the US culture. I feel many kids in the States are not used to hearing the word "no", or their parents are not willing to upset them by saying it. Therefore, kids become rather spoiled and do not have respect for parents, teachers or anyone else.

I have noticed this lack of respect most in the lunch room. The kids leave plates and trash all over the place. Most of these kids have a maid, if not two and do not have to clean up after themselves at home. They see the cooking staff or the custodians at school and think that it is their job to clean up after everyone. I do my best to catch kids leaving without cleaning up, but I can't catch everyone. I do see this a little bit in the classroom as well, with kids leaving papers all over the place and trash just laying around.

Again, this is not too much different from the culture and attitude of students I have noticed in the states. Some things are not so different across the world. Teenagers will be teenagers no matter where you are on the globe.

Aaron

Grade 8 Meeting

2008-10-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

We had a grade 8 meeting tonight with all the teachers. Much like the Grade 6 meeting it went really well. We had most of the same problems and ideas with the students. These meetings always make me feel better about the job I'm doing and my performance as a teacher. When I hear that certain kids are struggling in other classes, it makes me feel better. I definitely enjoy leaning on other teachers for support, which I feel is crucial in my first year, especially being overseas.

One thing I worry about is if I am giving some of these students enough help or modifications. The funny thing is, there are no records of the performance of these students, or close to no records. So the special needs teacher is pretty much developing the IEP and special needs program from the ground-up, using meetings and teacher input. I think its good we are doing this. But I hear some of the other teachers talk about giving certain students extra time to complete assignments and allowing them to have take-home exams. However, these teachers also said that the take-home exam is usually returned with a score of 'D' or something like that. So I begin to wonder whats the point of giving them that chance if they are only going to turn in a 'D' level peformance.

I was so happy for my 8th graders this past week, both classes. Everyday, before I grade homework, I ask if there are any questions. Usually there are not, but this week, both classes asked questions on about 3-4 different problems. So, we worked them out on the board, trying to pull as much from the students as possible instead of me giving them the answer. I was so happy that they were asking questions. Looking at todays lesson, I am anticipating more questions tomorrow. Today's lesson was over creating formulas and equations from word problems, something they struggle with greatly.

In my opinion, their struggle with word problems stems from three areas. First, the culture of Thailand does not promote independent thinking. In my experience, people are placed into a social class and expected to stay there and not try to improve their quality of life. A construction worker or street vendor is poor and will always be so. So the thought of bettering one's life through creative thinking and "thinking outside the box" is not common.

Second, these kids are from very wealthy families and for the most part, they have had almost everything handed to them in their lives. They have not had to work at things and when they don't understand or do not want to do something, they have someone else do it for them or tell them the answer. When they ask me a question, I always respond with a question back. This is one thing they do not like at all. But, I hope that at least it gets them thinking. Right now the major problems I am having are questions that can be answered by looking at the notes on the board, looking at their notes they just wrote down, or turning the page to the examples of that section. It is rather frustrating how lazy some of these students are.

Third, I truly feel some of it is just the age of the students and how teenagers act. I have seen similar characteristics of students in America as I see over here. Some things about teenagers can travel across cultures. A teenager is a teenager no matter what culture or country he/she lives in.

Aaron

Next Year's Principal

2008-09-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about some things I would want to change for next year, some things I feel I could do better. I think one thing is the way I conduct my classes and homework. Its kind of trial and error right now, but I think I will try to use a method that one of my teachers used when I was in HS. My math teacher would give us assignments and we would have lessons during the week. Instead of grading them everyday (which I am doing this year), he would collect the homework on Monday.

In addition to collecting the homework on Monday, he would require a detailed proof of one of the problems. We had to choose one problem and turn in a written proof of that problem. I think I may try this with a few of my classes next year. Definitely my Pre-Calculus students and possibly my 8th grade students. I am not sure the 6th and 7th graders can handle this type of assignment. They are pretty dependent as it is and I don't believe they can handle the freedom.

Which is another thing I've noticed about the students over here, they don't want to think for themselves, they just want the answer and they want to move on. I saw this back home too, but I think it is interesting over here because the culture tells them that they should not think for themselves and be independent from the group. The culture tells them to follow the crowd and stick with the group. I have found this forces them to be very dependant on others. I'm trying to fight this, but I don't know if I am having any success.

I was also thinking about the principal for next year. This year's principal is returning back to Canada after the year is over. I am a little nervous because he is very laid back and very much a supporter of the teachers and can deal with a lot of issues at one time and takes care of the people who are important to the school. Change happens all the time, I hope that the next principal that comes in here is as easy-going as the current principal.

Aaron

8th Grade Meeting

2008-09-25T02:58:00.001-07:00

We have another meeting with the middle school teachers for the 8th grade this coming week. I think it is good when we get together formally like this. We have informal meetings in the lunch room and stuff like that, but I feel that when we have formal meetings with the administration and special needs teacher, things really get moving.

For example, after the 6th grade meeting, one student was moved down to 5th grade and from what I've been told it has been a huge success. She is enjoying school and having a good time with everything, so it was a good move. Also, the one girl who was a major pain has calmed down quite a bit and is not as difficult. She still has her moments from time to time, but she gets her work done and for the most part is being well behaved. In fact, all the 6th grade has improved over the last week or so. I have been hammering them pretty hard and I think they finally understand what is expected of them.

Hopefully the same result will come from the 8th grade after the meeting.

I have been talking with the department head and it is almost a done deal that I will be teaching Pre-Calculus next year. I am extremely excited about this and think its a great opportunity. First, these students will only be the strongest in that class, so I will be working with kids who want to be there and are willing to work. Second, it will be easier for me to explain upper level math concepts as opposed to concepts that are second nature for me.

My one concern here is that I will be picking this up in addition to my other classes. I will still only have 5 classes because next years 6th grade will only be one class, but I will be planning for 4 classes instead of 3 this year. However, it is also a note that 3 of these classes will be classes I am teaching this year, and I will have all the materials for those classes.

Not only that, but it will also make me more marketable, having now taught 6th grade, Pre-Algebra, Algebra, Geometry and soon to be teaching Pre-Calculus. I would also like to try to get some AP Certification in the near future. Unfortunately, I have not found any workshops in Asia or any online workshops that will fit my schedule (being 12 hours away makes for awkward hours).

Aaron

Moving Kids and Thai Law

2008-09-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

So, I guess I should start off by saying that I discovered this past week that schools cannot legally flunk a kid in Thailand. ASB is having some issues with that because there is a particular girl who no long attends ASB, and failed because of a horrid attendance record along with just not caring. Well, her parents are getting a lawyer and other things pushing the issue. I'm not sure what will turn out from it, but this is what I know.

If a student fails, they must be given the chance to take summer school (no surprise there, happens in the states too). But, if that student fails summer school, they have the opportunity to take a test, similar to a final, and try to pass the class. If they fail the test, they take another version (usually easier). This continues until the student passes the test, thus passing the class. Again, I have not seen this implemented, but this came from the principals mouth, so I believe it.

My kids are getting better. We have moved a few of them from some of the classes. We took one 6th grader who was struggling and placed her in 5th grade, which was much-needed. She had a very difficult time in 6th grade and I honestly think it was more than just understanding the concepts. I feel there is some processing issue there. I actually had the chance to work with her one-on-one and it went well. She got lost at first and did her normal, "help me I don't know what to do" look. I directed her to her notes and she eventually figured it out. The next time she got stuck, she went straight to the notes. Problem is the next day, we were back to where we started.

One other thing that I find interesting about this school is the lack of parental involvement. From my understanding, again this coming from the principal, hardly any parents come to our high school graduation. We don't have a large school, but you would think every parent comes to high school graduation, even the bad ones in the states do that. I guess some of the parents really don't care. It would make sense because a lot of the students don't see the point of being at school and they think it is a joke.

Somewhat of a similar breakdown in family values seen in the states now, in my opinion. I guess it happens everywhere, with varying degrees.

Aaron

Grade 6 Group Meeting

2008-09-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

We had a group meeting with the grade 6 teachers tonight to discuss three students who have been performing poorly in my class. I wanted to check with the other teachers to see if the students were struggling in just my class or in other classes as well. I was relieved to see that they had issues in other classes, though I was not happy to hear this. It made me feel good that it was not just my class, so I took a little blame from myself. I started to question myself and ask what I was doing wrong or what more I could do to help these students.

In fact, one of the parents actually told me that his daughter only struggles in math. I guess I also wanted to cover my butt on this issue as well. I have been keeping detailed notes on these three students, when they forget assignments or books, when they misbehave, anything that will help me later. I really don't want to get caught with a parent blaming me for their childs failures. Its sounds like the principal is going to be supportive of the grades we are assigning to the students. We also discussed testing, modifications and other options for these students as well as others.

Overall, I was very pleased with the meeting. I came away feeling better about myself and my abilities to educate. I still feel I need more experience. I sometimes find my students appear bored in class and I am having a difficult time creating exciting lessons for them that will also cover the material that needs to be covered. It is also hard for me to explain some of the concepts in various ways so all the students can understand. I feel this is in part due to the lower levels of math I am teaching. Honestly, I believe I would feel that I am succeeding and performing better as a teacher in higher level math classes.

For now, I will simply have to teach what courses are assigned to me and roll with the punches.

Aaron

Teacher Meeting and Parents

2008-09-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot, tomorrow we have a teachers meeting called by the Special Needs teacher to discuss some of the students who have been struggling in class. All of the middle school teachers are going to be there to discuss strategies and what we can do for these students. Also, we are going to discover if these students are only struggling in our class or in other classes as well.

I did give one student who is really struggling an opportunity to catch up on homework. I also emailed her father about the missing assignments (7 in total) and he said he would make sure they were completed. The following Monday, the assignments were completed, and at a level exceeding anything I have seen this student complete to this point. I found it rather interesting.

Also, right before we left for the field trip, I had two parents come up to me and ask me what I wanted to talk to them about. I was shocked because I never asked any parents to come in a speak with me. But they insisted that I asked to speak with them. Its no big deal, I spoke with them about their son and the things he is doing in my class, and we had a nice discussion. I was just very caught off-guard by the surprise visit.

Aaron

Over Night Trip

2008-09-15T04:20:00.000-07:00

The field trip went alright. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of me with my students. The batteries in my camera went dead and I forgot to bring an extra set. I will try to get some pictures with the students at school this week.

The main problem with the trip was the lack of organization by the staff at the resort. They were not at all prepared for us and the number of students we brought. The activities planned were very disorganized and almost seemed to be created on the spot. It did not help that it was raining all weekend long and some of the outside activities had to be cancelled and adjusted. But it was also obvious there was no back-up plan.

For the most part, the kids were good. We did have some instances where they were a little rowdy and needed to be sepereated from the group for a while, but they were overall very well behaved.

I'm currently having my first headache with grade books and grade reporting. I was using a program that another teacher told me about and I downloaded from a website. It was working well, but it was only temporary. I started using the program the school has set up, but I am having problems with that. First, it would not allow me to log-in. I finally figured out what my username was and got the IT director over the help with some other technical problems. After that, I started putting grades in the grade book, only to notice that it was not calculating them correctly.

For example, one student had a 100.2% in my class at one point. After entering his grade for a quiz, which he scored perfectly, the grade went down to a 99.6%. Now, I expect it to go down from a 100.2%, but not below 100%. So anyway, I need to ask a few more questions about the grading system. I have also been told that the school is going to switch over to another system after a while, once they get everything set up. Just more work is what it sounds like to me.

Aaron

Field Trip

2008-09-09T08:45:00.001-07:00

The middle school is going on a two night field trip starting tomorrow morning. We are going to some resort a few hours away. I will be unavailable for the rest of this week, but I promise to bring pictures and stories back. I already have some more stories from this past week to tell.

The political climate is fine over here. I am learning more about the protests and stuff like that. I will try to write about that as well when I return. Just know that I am safe and none of this is affecting my daily life, with the exception of the two days off from school. I do appreciate the prayers, thank you so much.

Aaron

Mentor?

2008-09-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

Dr. Cheryl,

Reading your dissertation, I enjoyed the parts about the struggles of first-year teachers and how high the percentage is for teachers who leave the field within the first five years. I agree that a mentor program is necessary and can help the first year teachers tremendously, though I am not sure the current plan for the state of Indiana is optimal. To me, this program overloads the new teacher and mentor in unnecessary paperwork. This is based on my supervising teacher from last spring being a mentor for a first year teacher.

I do not have a quick-fix solution to this program and the flaws that I feel it has, but I do believe that some kind of mentor program is necessary. For me, teachers are life-long learners and even after 20 years of teaching, the good ones still learn new tricks and methods of teaching.

I have asked a lot of questions to several teachers in the school who I feel are solid teachers and care about the students. One is the math department head. Aside from the fact that we are both math teachers, I do not feel we have much in common. Our personalities are not similar in the least bit, but I still began the year asking him questions and trying to figure out a system that would work for me. I have adapted a lot of his system for my class (quizzes every friday, trying to give students some time at the end of class to work on homework and ask questions, etc.). Some of these practices are working for me, some are not. I can already see some things that I might change for next semester or maybe next year.

I also have been keeping in contact with a few teachers from back home. My supervising teacher from Fall semester and my high school Calculus teacher. I may utilize more of their systems in the future, especially my high school Calculus teacher. He had a program where all homework for the week was due on Monday of the following week, with a formal proof of at least one problem. I feel this gave the students an in-depth understanding of that problem and would also help some of my students. The problem is I am not sure how well this would work with my 6th grade class. I may have to make some adjustments for class levels.

Aaron

First Algebra Test

2008-09-05T03:22:00.001-07:00

Today, after days of delaying and rescheduling due to the protests and need for review, I gave my first test in Algebra (grade 8). I had grades for the students going into the test (thanks to a fellow teacher for recommending an archaic but useful program, the school is still trying to get their system set up, I think it will take some time). Being gentle, I would say the grades were less than ideal.

In one class of 10 students, I had one "B" and the rest were "D's" or "F's". I was starting to second guess myself and the job I was doing. The other class had better grades, but they were still low (the second class is a stronger class, the divide them into a weak class and a strong class, so much for inclusion). I gave the test and then the grades for the weaker class, the students were very worried because I told them any grade lower than a 75% would result in me emailing their parents.

I was grading the first classes tests while the second class was taking their tests. I was astonished how good they were and when I put them into the system, the grades shot up (for the most part). I now have 3 "A's", 2 "B's", 2 "C's" and 3 "F's". Now, it is also important to note that tests account for 40% of the grade, so a good score can really help out tremendously. I was happy because the students did so well. Previously, the homework was the main component of the grade, and most of the students were either missing homework or had some low scores that brought the grades down.

I even had one student, who at the beginning of the year I felt would be very weak, get an "A" on the test and is currently within a few more good grades of an "A" in the class. I am so happy for this turn of events. Unfortunately the scores in the second class were not as strong. I am particularly upset with one girl whom I discovered was cheating on the exam.

I give three versions of the exam and rotate the rows that receive each version. When I was grading this girls test, I noticed that 4 problems towards the end looked familiar and did not match up with anything that was on her test. I started looking through the other keys and noticed that she had copied from one of her neighbors because her answers matched the answers from the other test exactly. I am going to speak with her on Monday about this.

I did receive email addresses from some of the students, but not all of them. I can actually get these from the office, but I want the students to be responsible. I'm going to send emails out starting Monday to inform the parents where their child sits in my class and the options available for tutoring and extra help. For some of the students, I have already discussed this. Most say they cannot make it because they have to get home and have no other way. By involving the parents, hopefully I can put some pressure on the students.

Aaron

Not Snow Days

2008-09-03T06:26:00.001-07:00

So, obviously Bangkok will never have snow days where the school is called off because of too much snow. But they do have "Protester Days". On Tuesday, I went into school as normal, well not really, my electric went out at about 4:30am so I showered and got ready in the dark. When we got to school, we met for assembly and all the kids were sent back home before the day even began. School was also called of Wednesday due to the protests.

A few things to note here.

1. I am not sure if the black out was due to the protests or the storm that rolled through during the night. It was a pretty strong storm and the whole area around me was also out of electricity. I am still not sure of this.

2. School was called off not because of fear of our safety, but for fear that the roads my be closed. They had a similar situation in 2006 where the Prime Minister, Thaskin, was removed and they were shutting down roads. I don't think it was violent then, but roads were shut down and the school didn't want to have all those kids stuck at the school.

3. As is the case, we adjust.

I must say, I don't believe many other first-year teachers can say they have missed two days of school because of political rallies. I have been reading a lot about these rallies and I do not feel that I am in any danger. In fact, the last two days off, I spent walking around the city and have noticed nothing different. I still went to my tutoring on Tuesday and everything. So I am in no danger, at least that's the way I feel.

It sounds like the rallies are slowing down a little, but they are still going to happen. I know we are going back to school tomorrow (Thursday). Hopefully we can get back to normalcy. As a teacher, we must be willing to adjust our schedules for anything, even a political coup.

Aaron

IEP

2008-08-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

Dr. Cheryl,

Sorry I have not been getting back to your responses. I have not been checking the blog after I post them. I will make sure to check it more frequently.

I do not think there is any sort of IEP or other special education program for those kids who are in need. The special needs teacher did say something about trying to get some staffing in for the students, but I don't know how much the school will be willing to do with their apparent limited budget. We have even discussed placing that particular student in a math class with students from a lower grade level. It is apparent that she cannot do the work, let a lone get caught back up with the class. Right now, I feel that is our only option.

I am getting similar feelings from other teachers as well. This particular student seems to be struggling in other classes as well. In fact, all the students that I am having problems with (only in 6th grade) all the other teachers who teach that level are seeing similar issues.

I get the feeling that the policy of the school is to move students to the next level, even if they are failing or fail. I originally thought this school would be different than the language school I previously worked at, but I am not beginning to feel it is not different. While teaching at the language school, I was unable to give students scores that were too low because if they received low scores, their parents might pull them out of that school and send them to another school.

I am getting the same feeling about this school. The bottom line is money. Parents think its prestigious to send their children to a private American School, so it makes the student and the family look good. Likewise, the school needs these parents to send their children to the school to function. In a school this small, loosing a student is a big deal. So in order to keep as many students as possible, the school continues advancing students to the next level, whether they deserve it or not.

Actually, this sounds rather similar to some of the things I noticed about the education system in the states, where some students are passed or promoted to the next level just so they can graduate on time and the schools graduation rate looks good.

Aaron

Support Services

2008-08-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

I would say the my 6th Grade class is the most challenging class I have. There are several students in that class who I have noticed to be very weak or needing a great deal of help, encouragement and attention. I do have the special needs teacher in that class with me, but it seems it is not enough.

There are three students in that class who particularly are challenged in Math, and I wonder if there are other issues there. With the size of the school, there is not much help with these students. It would not be too bad but the other kids are also constantly asking questions. It reminds me of the intellectual development of the child brain and the stages they go through. These kids are not yet mentally developed to think for themselves and they depend on someone to help them through things. I am much more accustomed to independent learners and that is what I am trying to gear them towards. Currently, the trouble I am having is with the number of dependent learners I have, some of which are the smartest students in the class. I don't think they are ready to think on their own yet, but I'm going to continue to try to get them there.

One of the kids that struggles is supposed to be an ESL student and does not understand English that well. In fact, the other day I got on her for having a cell phone out and told her to give it to me. She looked at me like she didn't understand, so I motioned her to give it to me. I had to ask for it about 4 times before she gave it to me. I gave it back at the end of class, but it was upsetting that she didn't give it to me right away.

Today, she came up to me first thing of class and started asking me for things in English. I found it amusing because she was speaking very well and I had no problem holding a conversation with her. When she wants something, her English suddenly improves, funny how that works.

Aaron

Grade 6

2008-08-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

It was decided that I will not be teaching any High School classes this year. It was more of a matter that the schedule didn't allow me to trade classes. Seems like the first time the schedule was not changed for some reason rather than changed. I am not mad about this, though I would have liked to have a High School class, I understand that I was hired to teach Middle School. The department chair did say something about allowing me to teach some high school classes next year.

I have discovered my Grade 6 class is the most challenging class I have. I have a group of boys in that class who are all Korean, all very smart, but talk all the time in Korean. Even when I tell them to be quiet, they still talk in Korean. I had enough of it when it was happening during the quiz on Friday. Monday, I decided to break them up and create new seating chart. I placed a few kids who were struggling around some of the smarter kids in hopes that things will improve and the talking will be minimized.

After two days, I will say that this made a huge difference in the classroom atmosphere. Some of the kids that were struggling are still struggling, and everyone is asking to move back, but they are much quieter and focused on the subject matter. One problem I did have was with two girls that are struggling. I moved both of them next to two of the smart Korean boys and they kept moving the desks away from the boys. I had to move the desks back 3 times. I started to get agitated with them because that is unnecessary.

So far, the other classes are going well. I have my first round of tests coming up this week, we'll see how the students fair.

Aaron

Teaching High School?

2008-08-22T04:22:00.000-07:00

Today I asked the chair of the math department if it would be possible for me to teach a few high school classes next year, maybe a Geometry or something like that. He said that wouldn't be a problem and that we should be able to do that. He then asked if I wanted to do it this year. Apparently, the school is trying to get Calculus going for the students and they want to start this year as a regular course and then make it AP next year. I told him that I would definitely do that if it fits the schedule.

The main reason I want to do this is so that I am not stuck teaching middle school math the rest of my career. I would really like to get into high school math down the road. The sooner I can get my foot in the door teaching a high school math class, the better off I will be. Besides, the more experience I have teaching different levels, the more marketable I will be.

This whole conversation did bring up an interesting question for me. We are now a full two weeks into the school year and they are still trying to tweak the schedule and put kids into classes and create classes that don't exist yet. I would think that this sort of stuff would be completed long before the school year started and we would not be able to introduce new classes two weeks in.

I've said before and I'll say it again. Organized chaos...

Open House

2008-08-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

Had our open house last night. It went well. I was glad to meet some of the parents of my students and they were also happy to meet me. There were not many parents there, but the ones that did show up were very happy and enthusiastic.

I did meet with the father of the child who is struggling in my class. He said that it seems she has a lot of homework this year. I told him that she has homework in my class everyday, but they also receive at least 15 minutes to work on it in class, so it should not be that bad. He also said she seems anxious when she is doing the homework and sometimes working until 10pm. I found that hard to believe since I never give that much homework. The average assignment is about 20-25 questions, of which 5-10 can be completed in class.

It sounded like he was not supporting her very much at home and not willing to help out. I would think that would be another issue. Today, the special needs teacher was actually in the class to help her. We simply did two review worksheet from yesterdays lesson on exponents and powers. She was struggling with it again and did not understand. This was after I did about 5 examples on the board. She eventually completed one worksheet and then started on the second, raised her hand and said she did not understand. The thing about it is the second worksheet started the same way the first worksheet started.

Her father said that she does not speak English very well and that is part of the problem. After speaking with her and observing her the last few days, I would say the problem is less an understanding of English and more an ability to register and apply. I seriously think there is a comprehension issue in this case. I don't know if she is dependent on others and cannot perform work without others or if things do not register with her when they are shown to her.

I am glad to have the special needs teacher in the class, and I think it is well overdue. But I am not sure what can be done for this girl. It appears that no matter how many examples she sees, she still does not understand how to work the problems.

In some instances, I feel that this is very similar to issues in the States. The parent is kind of expecting the teacher to fix things, almost blaming the teacher for some of the issues. The father did site a few of things from the past few years and how she performed well at previous schools. At the same time, it appears that there is a lack of resources to help kids in need.

Again, it is very frustrating because I do not know how to help this girl and catch her up to the class. First, I don't have the time to spend the whole class with her. Second, it seems that even if I do spend time explaining the lesson, it is forgotten within 2 minutes. I hope the special needs teacher has some resources that can help.

Aaron

Perfect Scores

2008-08-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

Like I said, I did give the first quiz last week. I put the perfect scores up on a bulletin board for the students to see. It is amazing how many other students go up and look at the perfect scores on that board. It is seen as a great honor to have your work shown on the board. I feel this is very much opposite from back in the USA, where being acknowledged for intelligence is a bad thing and no one wants to be too smart.

I like the difference.

Struggles

2008-08-20T02:45:00.000-07:00

I have one student in particular who has been struggling quite a bit. To be quite honest with you, I am struggling to help her. She is a 6th grade student and has fallen behind in her homework by two days. She is very quiet and does not say anything in class. Today, I was trying to help catch her up but I kept having other students ask questions about problems that were from the current lesson. I couldn't sit there and allow her to get three days behind, but at the same time I can't allow the rest of the class to suffer either.

I spoke with the special needs teacher and ESL teacher for the school. They are going to do some work with her to determine what the situation is. I am not convinced its an ESL problem, because she can have a conversation with me. The problem is that records at this school are not that well kept and I don't really know where the records are located.

There is an open house tonight and I plan on speaking with her parents. Hopefully we can work something out and she can stay after class and get caught up with the work. I do not see any other option. I seriously think part of the problem is she does not know how to use her notes when she works the problems. It is frustrating for me because I am trying to help her, but I don't know if what I am doing is actually helping or not.

Aaron

First Quiz

2008-08-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

I gave my first quiz on Friday. My 7th graders were struggling with theirs and I could not figure out what the problem was. I have 7th grade first and second bell. The second bell had a lot of questions. It was bothering me because I thought I went over the information well enough. Then I graded their quizzes during my prep 3rd and some of them did alright, but there were a lot of them who did not do well at all.

It wasn't until I graded all the quizzes that I realized I had given them the 8th grade quiz. My first quiz and my first mistake. I did make more copies and gave the correct quiz to all the other grades. I am going to have the 7th grade take their quiz on Monday when they first come in. I'll give them about 25 minutes or so to complete it.

The rest of the classes did alright with the quiz. Some struggled quite a bit, 3 out of 15, but most of them did really well. I have been talking with Annie, the special needs teacher, quite a bit about some of the students. It seems that I either have really strong or really weak students, not much middle ground. I fear some of the students are in classes that they are not supposed to be in, similar to a situation I found in the States during student teaching.

I've also heard that we cannot fail students at this school. We can give them an "F", and they can fail the class, but they will move onto the next class the following year. Meaning, if one of my 7th graders fails my class, next year I will see them in 8th grade math. I don't really agree with that, but I'm not the policy maker.

The school has some funny qwirks about it. The no failing policy is one of them. The whole deal with the director, Miss Lakana, is another. It is her school and she started it about 25 years ago, and there is a leadership team that helps her, but it seems that the leadership team is more for show than actual use. I think the leadership team is something that came about to keep accreditation. I wonder how much say the leadership team has in school matters. I have a feeling that they can make suggestions, but the final verdict comes down to Miss Lakana.

I found out some of the other teachers bought their own printers for their rooms since the printers and paper is such a mess at the school. I will probably break down and end up doing that as well. Half the time the printers don't work, thats hoping that there is paper in the printer. Its interesting.

I feel the school is trying to find its identity. Buying smartboards and doing other things like that seem to be fronts and for show, to try and make the school look good. I almost feel that the school is trying to compete with some of the better International Schools in Bangkok, but with a much smaller budget. A small time school trying to be big time.

Aaron

ESL Students

2008-08-13T07:21:00.001-07:00

One thing that I wondered about before I came over here was the difficulty with some of the students being able to understand me or English in general. I was concerned about the strength of the English skills of the students. Although they have been in either this school or another English speaking International school (at least that's my assumption) I was still concerned that there might be a bit of a language gap.

After a few days, I am able to notice a little trouble with some of the students and their comprehension of what I am saying. This may be due to and ESL issue, or it may be the result of an actually learning disability. This is something I have noticed more in my 8th grade class than anything else. There are about 3 boys in the 8th grade that are very quiet and do not say much. When I ask them questions, they look startled and give me a blank stare. I repeat the question and might eventually get what I am looking for.

I have discussed these students with some of the other teachers. I have gotten everything from, "That student is very quiet and does not say much." To, "There is some learning disability there." We do have an ESL teacher at the school as well as a special needs teacher. I have spoken with both of them about some of the students and some things I have noticed in the first few days. I think these two teachers will be very beneficial in the long run. My goal is to keep them in the loop and hopefully they can help out as much as possible.

Planning on having my first quiz on Friday. Hopefully it will go well.

Aaron

Frustration in the Beginning

2008-08-11T03:10:00.000-07:00

There have been a few more things the last few days that have been frustrating at school. The service department (in charge of supplies, copies and helping out with other aspects) seems to be very slow. Apparently it takes a few days to get copies made, when I could go in and make copies myself in less than 5 minutes. Also, it has been over a week and I still do not have a trash can in my room. I asked someone about that today and he said that the trash can was on its way. I thought it was kind of funny because I didn't know that it took so long to get trash cans ordered for the school.

One other thing that is a little frustrating is the fact that several copiers and printers broke down the first few days. There is a teachers lounge in the main building with computers so we can print things off, but there is never any paper in the printers. It almost seems like I am in an inner city school without many resources. However, on the other hand, all elementary classes and a few high school classes have smartboards in the classroom. I see that as a way to improve the image of the school. I don't know how much money was spent on the technology, but it would be nice to have some paper to print things out as well.

From what I understand of the school, the director, Miss Lakhana, has quite a bit of power and pretty much has things done her way. If she doesn't like something, she tells someone about it and it gets changed. I haven't had any run-ins with her, though she has stopped in my class a few times and observed me. I was completely fine with that. I really have no problem with someone coming in and observing me teach.

Again, these are merely observations. I understand that every school is going to have its own problems and issues. Given all of that, I am extremely happy with the school environment, the attitude of the teaching staff and the choice I made teaching at ASB. I simply see some aspects that could be improved upon and things that I think should be done differently.

I truly believe that some of the strictness with the supplies comes from the culture and some comes from the school needing to save money. I think Miss Lakhana is harder on the Thai workers at the school and she comes down on them more than she lets us see. I think the policies they have in place are due to her harping on them about saving resources and not being wasteful.

The textbook issue is still causing problems in the class. Today, I sent one class up to get textbooks and it would have been a wasted day had it not been for that class being in my homeroom and first bell. We were still able to get one lesson completed. Two other classes did not have books yet. I sent someone up to the library to see if the class could come get books and the librarian said to have them come back in an hour, after they were gone out of my class. So I went ahead and did the lessons I had planned and will give homework assignments out the next day I see them. Sometimes thats all I can do.

I did realize I have some very intelligent students in my class. I was playing a review game today to pass some time in one of the classes without text books. I asked the class to split up into two groups and come up with a mathematical number pattern that the other team had to figure out the pattern and fill in the next three values. One of the groups actually came up with the Fibinacci Sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...) of adding the previous two terms to come up with the next one. I was shocked and amazed because this was my 6th grade class. Although, I discovered they did not know the name of this sequence, I was still happy that it came up. The other group did guess the pattern and correctly filled in the blanks.

Aaron

Students

2008-08-09T04:32:00.001-07:00

Well, I got through the first two days without much problem. Like I said, things don't always work out and I was not going to worry too much about the problems. The way I saw it, all I needed to do was go over the rules and expectations with the students the first day and then find some kind of worksheet or something to do the second day. Which is exactly how it happened.

The first day was as most first days are in every school, I introduced myself and discussed my expectations of the students and what they should expect of me. I feel the first day went really well. I put the class rules up on the board and the grade breakdown for the class. These are things that I plan to put up on the board or on a bulletin board sometime. My class rules were short and positive and went like this...

1. Be Happy
2. Be Respectful
3. Be Positive
4. Be On Time
5. Be Prepared

I did explain what each rule meant to me and how it relates to the students and this class. I told the kids I want them to be happy when they come into my class and that should be the most important rule because that's the first thing I want to see from them is a smile. One kid did mention that being happy is more of a guideline, I agreed with him. Then I told the class I established these rules as expectations for how they should act and behave. Therefore, I expect each student to be happy.

The second day was a little bit of chaos to start, I wasn't sure what I was going to do in my any of my classes. Textbooks have not been distributed by then and as of right now, they still have not been distributed. That situation is another issue that I feel could be improved upon. As of right now, a teacher is supposed to take the whole class up to the library to get books for the students, but the students are going to get the books for all their classes while there, not just my class. So, if no teacher has taken students up to the library yet, the students will not have text books.

I am going to plan to take my homeroom students, who also happen to be my first bell students, up to get their books on Monday morning. My hope is that other teachers are doing similar things so I do not have to take all of my classes to the library. I have a feeling that if I want my students to have books, I am going to have to take them to the library to get them because I don't think any of the other teachers will do this. Monday might be a book day for all of my classes.

I think this process would go much smoother with a book day a few days before the first day of classes. The students did come in the day before classes started to pick up a schedule (but half of the schedules were not done by then, so many of the students did not have schedules to pick up). It would make sense to me to also give them their textbooks at this time, assign them a locker and collect any money they owe. I guess there was an issue last year, and apparently still is an issue this year, of students not paying for textbooks. Well, I feel this could be expedited by having a book day. I may bring that up to the management team.

Back to the second day. I decided to copy some worksheets and go over the first section in each class. Along with this, I was going to walk to the students through the process of note-taking in my class and what my expectations were for them taking good notes and thus being able to use them on their homework if they are lost. I told the students that if I write it up on the board, they should write it in their notes. I guess this was still an introductory exercise, but I feel it was worthwhile since it allowed me to introduce the first section and also outlined how notes should be taken and organized in my class.

After the notes were completed, I decided to pass out worksheets to the classes and have them complete them during the time left in class. Some students finished the worksheets and some did not. I told the students they did not have to worry about completing the worksheets over the weekend because I was not going to grade them, but I was going to go over the answers on Monday.

One thing I noticed during both days and especially when given the worksheet, these students do not say much in class. That can be good and bad. I had a hard time getting some of these students to answer my questions and interact in a class discussion. Sometimes no one would answer my questions and the class discussions were very one-sided. The aspect I did like about this is class work time was very quiet. The students do not get up out of their seat, they do not become loud, mean or disrespectful. They simply sit there and do their work. If they have a question, they will raise their hand and tell me they do not understand, but other than that, they work quietly. I did notice some students helping others out, which is great, but this was done very quietly and I could barely hear them.

My concern over this is the adjustments that I will have to make when I return to the US to teach. I am afraid that the difference in attitudes may be so different that I cannot adjust. I know some of the veteran teachers have already told me that they would never go back to teaching in the US just for that reason. They do have a valid point. Classroom management over here is definitely much easier than in the US. I believe social and religious expectations play a role in this difference. The Buddhist/Tao mentality definitely shows itself in the mannerisms of the students and how they act towards teachers.

Organized Chaos

2008-08-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days, I have been introduced to the only other individual in the math department at the school, Scott. The school is rather small with about 250 students in K-12 at my campus. Therefore, two people can teach almost all the math classes in grades 6-12. There is one other teacher who has two math classes, but he is considered a science teacher and not a math teacher.

Scott has a lot of knowledge and seems really passionate about his job. He came from Idaho and spent 8 years in the Navy. After that, he went to school for his education and has been teaching in different parts of Asia for about 24 years now. He has been giving me a lot of rescources and tools that may help out in the future. Right now, I am simply placing them on a shelf because I have too much on my plate.

Today, I just received my teachers edition text books for the classes I am teaching, and I just received my schedule yesterday. This is all with classes starting tomorrow. Currently, there is no guidance counselor at the school, so the scheduling issues have been placed on the principal and communications director. The principal's name is Simon Faulkner and he is from Canada. He has been at the school one year and I get the impression that this will be his last year and he will not renew his contract. I will write more about him later, but he is very laid back and it appears that nothing bothers him. Just rolling with the punches.

Which is exactly how I feel the school is going. I also do not have a curriculum or any real idea of what exactly I am required to cover in my classes. I feel things are a little unorganized, but returning teachers are telling me things are better this year than they were last year. I like the idea of doing what I want and having freedom to make the class my own, but I would also like some structure, especially as a first year teacher.

It seems that I have a great deal of freedom in my planning and class schedule. If that is the case, I am sure that I will learn a lot about making adjustments this first year. Learning on the fly or baptism by fire. No one is going to hold my hand and I am going to figure it out for myself.

I found out that I am teaching one section of 6th grade with 17 kids, two sections of 7th grade (pre-algebra) each with 13 kids and two sections of 8th grade (algebra) with 11 kids in each. The small class sizes are also pleasing. Hopefully this will allow for more one-on-one and better cooperative learning activities.

I have not had time to decorate my room yet (something that does not appear to be a major priority by many teachers at this time) since I have been running around getting books and other things. I did however take pictures of the room as it is today, which I have included here.

The class is small, but I do not have many students so that is fine.

One other thing that I have noticed about the school is that getting supplies is rather difficult. The service department has a very tight grip on the supplies and they do not see willing to release anything out to anyone without a great deal of paperwork and monitoring. Currently, I do not have a trash can in my room and they told me that is something that needed to be ordered and it will be there in a few days. Well, I guess that will be fine, we'll just throw the garbage on the floor.

I understand that not every school is perfect and every school has is going to have its own little qwirks, so I'm and taking this with a grain of salt. Things are going to be alright, its just a trash can. Overall, I am really positive about the school. I think it will be a great place to work and a lot of fun. But like I said, every school is going to have its qwirks. ASB's qwirks might be getting supplies.

More to come in the next few days, after speaking with the students and orgainizing the room a little more.

Teaching Respect

2008-08-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we officially start classes with all the students. Today we had a new student orientation and I met a few of my students. I had about 3 students at the orientation, most of the students there today were in lower grades. They all seemed rather nice and their English was strong enough to hold a conversation. One thing I noticed about them is that they were all very shy. I am not sure if that is due to the fact they are in a new place or because it is the culture to be quiet and shy when speaking with an individual of status.

This idea of status is something new to me as a teacher, but an aspect of this culture that I am finding very different and positive from America. In Thailand, teachers are revered and thought of very highly. A teacher is considered someone who is just below the King and other people of high regard in this society. The reason behind this is that a teacher is respected for giving back to the good of society and for trying to make things better for the nation and others. As a teacher in Bangkok, I have and will receive a great deal of respect for my "service" to the community and the future.

Growing up in the USA, this aspect of teaching is something which with I am unfamiliar. In our society of money and flaunting, people are often judge by the salary they make or the toys they have. Education is not a wealthy field and I feel that teachers often do not receive the respect they deserve from the American society. I guess I'm relating back to the saying, "Those who can't do, teach."

I am simply not used to teachers being held in such high regard. Recently, I have heard of too much negativity in education in the states and blame put on teachers for one thing or the other. I feel there is much more respect for the teaching profession in Thailand than in the United States.

Interesting Reading

2008-08-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

It sounds like you are getting settled in and starting to get ready to meet your kids. I will be interested to know more about what they are like, when you finally get to meet them. Good that you are getting to meet more of the teachers, and I imagine they will prove to be a support group too. It also seems as if you are managing to communicate with people, even though they do not all have good English language skills. Are you picking up any of the Thai words?
Your conversation about marijuana cigarettes also sounded interesting. I imagine you will learn more about that aspect of the culture as you get to see more of the city, and talk to others.

Classroom

2008-08-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

I got to check out my classroom on Friday. I could not set it up or anything yet because there is a teacher moving out of the room to a different class and he still had his stuff in there. It is not that big of a classroom, and there were only 20 desks in the room in general. Like I said, class sizes are much smaller over here, or at least at this school. I think the enrollment at this campus is about 250 in K-12. So it is a very small school. I will be teaching every student in grades 6, 7, and 8. Something that I am not used to at all.

I did get to take a look at the text for the classes as well. They appeared to be good texts, I did not spend a great deal of time studying them, just brushed through them to get an idea of what I'll be covering this year. It appears that there is quite a bit of overlap for the three classes at times. That is good because I might be able to use the same lesson for more than one class. If not the whole lesson, I could at least use aspects of lessons for other classes. I'm not sure how creating plans for three seperate classes will work. It might be good and it might be a little overwhelming. I'll just have to wait and see.

I've been hanging out with the new teachers a lot, went out both Friday and Saturday night with them. Also met two returning teachers from Canada. I'm getting a very positive feel about all the teachers that I meet over here. After I think about, I would have to say that all the teachers I meet are going to be somewhat similar to me. I think it takes a certain type of person and personality to up and move to a different country to teach. I think it all the teachers here will have a lot in common. Plus, it seems that there are a lot of young teachers at this school, at least the ones I have seen so far.

Starting classes this Thursday. Get to meet my students. I'm pretty excited about that. Not nervous yet, but that may settle in later.

First Day of Orientation

2008-07-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

So we had our first day of orientation today at school and it was really nice. I did not take an exact head count, but it seems that there are about 12-14 new teachers at the school this year, between the two campuses. Maybe I should clarify if I have not done so already. There are two campuses for the American School of Bangkok, Sukhumvit and Bangni. Sukhumvit is the one I am at and the older one, also right in town. Bangni is much newer and out of town about 45 minutes or so. It also has much better facilities which include boarding rooms, two soccer fields, indoor basketball court and an auditorium. Overall the facilities are nicer because they have the room and its newer.

Anyway, most of the teachers are either Canadian or American. There are a lot more couples than I expected. Only one couple, Harrison and Abby (I think thats her name) are both teaching at ASB. Two or three other younger people came with a significant other and they are trying to find a place to work while over here. I was a little shocked at the high number of couples here.

I met the PE teacher at my campus today, his name is Willy and he is a black man from Lousiana originally. He moved to Southern California and work as a gang police officer for about 20 years or so. He has been over here in Bangkok for about 5 years and has a Thai wife with two kids. He seems like a very interesting individual. We hit it off really well.

There is also Paul who works in the administration department, though I forget exactly what area. He is from England and has been working at ASB for about 10 years. The interesting thing about him is he teaches a martial arts class at the school, which he playfully calls 'Fight Club'. It might be something I get involved in just to get some exercise.

For lunch we had hamburgers and french fries, which I found rather funny. Most of the people who come over here are going to be adventurous to start off with and want to try new things. I would guess most of us would much rather have had some Thai food than something western. Besides, the burgers were very small and didn't even cover half the bun. But they were still good.

I did see my classroom, on the first floor looking out into the courtyard. Nice little room, and I do say little for a reason. Though I was told that most of our classes will have 12-15 students, which is good for me, especially as a first year teacher. I will have 5 classes, but I am not sure exactly how they will break up yet. The school is on a six bell day, and teachers get one prep bell during the day. Each bell is about one hour long, and much different from I'm used to, lunch is also one hour long.

We just briefly touched on the school today, and we will get into that more tomorrow during orientation. One thing to note, this year the school is up for review by WASC, the Western Association of School and Colleges. So we have a little extra pressure to perform well. In speaking with the other teachers today, I do not see that being a problem at all.

Aaron

People At School

2008-07-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Besides Gil, who seems to be a very interesting individual, the only people at school that I have had contact with have been Thai people.

Miss Buhpa helped pick me up at the airport and has been very helpful in me finding things and places around town. She is the marketing secretary, I think, and she can speak English really well. She has been helping me and the other teachers get over to Thailand with our visas and other necessary documents. If I have any questions I have been going to her.

Another girl who helped me with my apartment is named Kop (pronounced cope). She is younger, probably about my age and her English is not great. She can speak English and understand, but I've found it has been a challenge at times trying to communicate with her.

Sies is one of the busdrivers who drove me from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to my apartment to get my luggage to my place. He is about the same age as me and is a really nice guy. Similarly to Kop, his English is poor at best. We talk in segments and have broken conversations, a lot of actions. When he was driving me to the hotel yesterday he asked me if I smoked. I told him I did not. I thought he was talking about cigarettes, but during the conversation I began to think he was talking about marijuana.

Interesting development in that department. Makes me wonder about drug testing and other stuff like that. Also, I can only imagine that drugs are pretty readily availible in this society. Given the lifestyle and low morals in certain areas, I can imagine that drugs will be previlent. However, drugs can be found in America too, if you look in the right places.

I did meet my principal last night, Simon Faulkner. I had met his wife, Linda the other day at school. I believe they are Canadian, though I am not sure. Anyway, I was walking down the street close to the school and I see Simon coming out of a bar called 'Woodstock' and call my name. I crossed the street and enjoyed two beers with him and Linda. It was good and nice to sit with them. They told me that I would be getting a lot of information today during orientation, probably a lot of things that would have been good to get from the beginning, but I did come a little early.

I had met Simon earlier at the job fair. He was one of the individuals to interview me and he seemed like a nice guy then.

Looking forward to meeting more people today.

Aaron

A Sightseeing Tour

2008-07-28T12:51:00.001-07:00

It sounds like you are learning quite a bit about your environment. I was wondering if you have had a chance to see some of the less-desirable parts of the city, which I have sometimes heard about. In addition, I am interested in your descriptions of the school and also some of the people you have encountered.

When do you actually get to meet your kids? Have you started the lesson plans or looked at the texts? I wonder if you will be able to use any of your TTT lesson plans.

This week I am presenting at a conference in Kansas City, not nearly as exotic a location as yours right now.

Getting My Exercise

2008-07-28T03:39:00.000-07:00

So I went to the school again today after a long weekend of walking around Bangkok and exploring some areas. First the weekend...

I spent most of Saturday walking around some markets and malls. There never seems to be a shortage of stands trying to sell jeans or clothes. Either way, it is interesting walking through these places and seeing some of the crafts they have. I caught a movie for a rather cheap price and then walked a little more. I definately feel I am getting plenty of my exercise.

On Sunday I decided to check out some parks that were on the handy map I bought. I found two really nice parks both with big lakes and running/biking trails. I can definitely see myself using these later. They are within walking distance of the Skytrain, so I have no problem getting to either of these places and getting away from the bustling city for a while. I also found Srinakrarintarawiroj University (do not ask me how to pronounce that, I had a hard enough time spelling it), though there wasn't a lot to do there because it was Sunday and not much was happening. Though it is nice to know where it is at, in case I want to take a class there later. It appeared to be a very nice University.

Today, I went back to school to try to see if they had my reimbursement money for my plane ticket and they did. This makes me happy because I now have a lot more money. I also found an apartment, if that's what it can be called. It is very small, a studio, and is made for only one person. I will be moving in to the apartment tomorrow. I will provide pictures of the penthouse when I take them.

I did meet another new teacher while I was at the school. His name is Gil and he is originally from St. Louis, however he spent most of his United States life in Hawaii. I say United States life because he has been teaching on a military base in Japan for the last 22 years or so. He will be teaching English to 11th and 12th graders. I stopped by his place, a 3 bedroom apartment just south of the school about 5 minutes, much larger than mine. In fact, you could probably fit my place in his living room with space to spare. However, he is also paying about 6 times what I am paying for my place. He is also collecting retirement from the military school, so he has the means.

We then walked for about 5 minutes to the nearest Skytrain station. I enjoyed talking to a native English-speaker for a change. Something that I haven't been able to do in a while. We talked a little about teaching and school, but not too in depth. I'm sure we will have an opportunity for more conversations later.

Welcome to Bangkok!

2008-07-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

This was a quite an extensive description to your arrival in your new "home." It sounds like you arrived there all in one piece.

I am anxious to hear more about your school. When will you be able to set up your classroom? It will be interesting to log onto the school website soon and see your picture with the 2008-09 faculty.

I sent an email attach to you with the consent documents we will need to use for student and parent participation, which I neglected to consider when we prepared for this study. I have not yet heard back from the grant committee, but will let you know when I do. The IRB paperwork was submitted today, but I imagine it will not require a full review, as there is minimal risk to the participants, and your data gathering will take place in the course of regular classroom activities.

I am also looking forward to photos, from your tours around the city.

Dr. Cheryl

Arriving in Bangkok

2008-07-25T03:58:00.000-07:00

So I arrived in Bangkok yesterday night/this morning. I was very pleased to say that my flights were all on time and all my luggage arrived on time. I was worried about this, since my last few flights had issues in both departments.

I went to the school today, located in Sukhumvit, Bangkok. The campus is smaller than most schools in the USA, but it has more than enough space in comparison to the rest of the area. As expected, buildings are packed right next to each other, about as tightly as can be. The sidewalks are hardly sidewalks, more like drainage ditches on the side of the road. Though I am finding the drivers here much more reasonable than in Taiwan. One note, they drive on the left side of the road over here. In Taiwan, they still drove on the right side of the road.

To get to the school, I took what they call the "skytrain", which is pretty much an elevated train. In my short time in Asian countries I would say that their mass tranit systems are far superior to that of the USA. But I think part of this is due to the fact that the population density in these countries requires a reliable mass transit system.

I met with a lady at school named Bupha. She helped my with my visa and sent me instructions about that while I was back in the USA. I walked around the campus and asked her a few questions about housing, visas, shopping and reimbursement for the plane ticket. Unfortunately I could not get reimbursed for the plane ticket today, but hopefully that will happen on Monday.

I did find a place to stay, an apartment within a 10 minute walk from the school. It is very small, a studio, but it is cheap, close and has AC. Besides, I am not sure how much time I will be spending in the apartment aside from sleeping. Hopefully I will be busy and will not spend too much time there. A girl who works at the school went with me to see the apartment, she served as a translator for me. I also met one of the busdrivers, his nickname is Ses, though I forget (or cannot pronounce) his real name.

After looking at the apartment, I walked around for a while and found a mall. I bought a few electronic things for my apartment, mostly adapters and things like that. Went back to the school to see if they had approved my reimbursement yet and they did not. I won't be able to move into the apartment until I receive that money, so I'll stay in the hotel. I have seven days free anyway, so I might as well use them.

As I was walking through the city, I was amazed at how friendly and nice the people were. Many of them smiled at me and said hello. Often they would ask me how I was and we would have a brief interaction. It was nice walking through the city. The people seemed happy to see me and more than welcome to help out. I did walk pass a canal, which I have been told were mostly covered in with cement. It was rather dirty and not very clean.

Tonight, I plan to get dinner at the hotel and then take a shower. Hopefully I can find a place to relax and have a beer or two. Tomorrow, I think I might go look at some temples towards the middle of the city.

Aaron

your school's website

2008-07-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

Hi Aaron--
I took a look at your school's website, which is quite extensive and informative. I also found lots of info about Thailand on their website. I wish you the best--

This will work

2008-07-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

Dr. Cheryl,

This will work for posting the diary. I do not see a place for attachments, so I will plan to send any pictures or other attachments to you through email.

Aaron

Background Info

2008-07-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

How did we start this thing anyway? Aaron completed his student teaching in April, 2008. He participated in a job fair in Iowa, at which 130 overseas schools were represented; all of them were seeking teachers. Aaron met with interviewers in 30 minute segments, and received three immediate offers. He decided to accept the assignment in Bangkok. Aaron sent an enthusiastic email to his advisor, Dr. Cheryl Fleming, who suggested the possibility of a research project.

The first meeting between the researchers took place on May 30, 2008. Aaron explained a little about his school, the American School of Bangkok. He will depart for Bangkok at the end of July, and needs to be there on August 1. He will be teaching Math to grades 6-7-8, mainly composed of English-speaking Thai students. His benefits include a housing stipend and health insurance. Aaron stated the cost of living is less there.

American School of Bangkok has a downtown site; programs include sports and afterschool tutoring. The school has internet connections, which will allow the researchers to maintain the blog. Aaron plans to spend at least two years in this teaching position.

Aaron will post weekly journal reflections and experiences, about 3-4 times per week, along with photos, to this blog site. In addition, he will seek other data sources, such as letters or journals from students, and other school-related documents.

Dr. Fleming will do the IRB paperwork, as well as the review of the literature, and will write the research articles in collaboration with Aaron. In addition, she has contacted several faculty members who have lived overseas, and might be able to assist Aaron.

The research questions will focus on intercultural experiences, as well as first year teacher experiences.

Dr. Fleming and Aaron applied for a Lilly Scholarship Grant, and hope to obtain partial funding to assist in their research. They hope to present their results at conferences, as well as find publishing opportunities for this work.

Blog Intro to Bangkok Diary

2008-07-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Aaron--this is just a trial blog.