Prathom 2/2 Mondays 1:50-2:40pm
The biggest blessing and the biggest challenge of my week. Every time I walk into my P2/2 class I am unsure of what will come.
I would classify this class into three types of students.
The first group is the seekers. If
these girls could be permanently tethered to my side all the time, they
wouldn’t mind. They periodically sit with me at lunch, are always
posted right by the water refill station to say hi and when I’m around
them at least one of them is always hugging me. And I mean always. I
say, “please sit down,” mainly getting irritated with the crazy boys in
the back of the room but also trying to detach the circle around my
waste so we can start class.
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| Seekers |
These boys are always riled up and I don’t think they’ve ever done anything I so lovingly ask them.
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| Rascals |
The third group falls in between the seekers and the rascals. They are the followers.
They’ll sit quietly when I ask them to complete a task or whichever
friend is close by they are quick to mimic their behavior. This is what I
picture going thru their little heads, “You hit me, well I’m going to
hit you back.” or “Oh, Lemon
gave Teacher Amy a beautiful piece of colored notebook paper folded
into a side satchel purse, I’m going to do the same.”
Today I walked into class and was yet
again quick to realize that the same lesson I used with their Prathom
counterparts the hour earlier in P2/1 isn’t going to work with this
bunch. Thinking maybe, just maybe I could swing half of the lesson I
wrote the Jeopardy game on the board. As I filled in the chart one seeker approached and started putting stickers on my shirt. Two seconds later all of the seekers joined and began putting stickers on me as I shuffled left to right whiteboard marker in hand. The rascals
on the other hand were waling around the room jumping on each others
backs and causing a ruckus. “There’s no way Jeopardy is going to work!” I
thought to myself.
Trying to be quick on my feet I excitedly
told them to line up by the door pretending that we were going on some
sort of secret field trip. The seekers were quick to line up, followed shortly by the followers. As I called on the rascals and waiting patiently at the front, a few of the seekers took it upon themselves to get the rascal boys in line.
Soon enough they had all been lined up
and we headed outside. I instructed them to sit in circles, boys in one
and girls in the other. The girls quickly sat down grabbing onto their
BFF as they scooted into circle formation. I introduced a game with my
number flashcards that was somewhere in-between duck duck goose and tag.
They played along and giggled as if they’d never had so much fun.
About ten minutes into the game I
realized I couldn’t continue to ignore the boys running around in front
of the school not paying attention whatsoever. “Think Amy, think!! What
do boys like? Running, competition. Got it!” Thinking I could have them
do a relay/tell teacher Amy the number game, I lined them up into two
lines and told them “wing, run.” Thinking they understood my directions I
stood about 20 feet away holding up a number 5 flashcard, I said “one,
two, three, GO!”
First out of the shoot, Lemon and one boy I honestly
don’t know his name because he’s a rascal and on top of that
can’t spell out his nickname in the English alphabet. Sprinting their
little hearts out they finally made it to me and without stopping to
answer my question they turned right back around to their relay teams,
and the next to in line prepared, eyeing down their opponent. This track
race lasted for awhile and surprisingly kept the attention of the
majority of my students. However a few minutes later I see rascal
leader, Boom, and five other boys messing around too close to another
classroom. Not wanting to disturb others, back into the classroom we
went.
Flashback to the beginning of class, seekers hugging me, rascals
running wild, take that mental picture from the beginning and here we
meet again. Wanting to do something one on one and praying they’d get
something out of today, I told them to line up and one by one I asked
them, “What is your name?” The seekers were first in line, followed by a few followers and the rascals played away yet again.
After the seekers had answered they stood right by me helping their classmates, “My name is Ploy” they’d whisper to their friend. One seeker
was massaging my back and the other was playing with a fake rose she
found getting down on one knee and kissing my hand. Every week this
moment comes when I just have to let go and join in on the fun.
Continuously asking them to “sit down,” “listen,” or “take out your
notebook” wasn’t going to do any good. I laughed with the seekers and a few followers as they braided my hair.
Once 2:40 rolled around I gathered my things to head out. Just like every other week the students all fight over who is going to carry my things. Today Cake and Lemon carried my Longchamp bag. They each held one handle on their shoulder and my bag dangled in between, ending at their knees.
During orientation our predecessors
helped us to realize that we need to have more attainable goals then
expecting all of your students to speak fluent english by the time we
leave. My overarching goal for this year is for my students to feel
loved. Each week when I walk with out of class with my P2s in tow I feel
like I’ve made a step towards my overarching goal. Even though their
class is completely uncontrollable I can feel like I’ve accomplished at
least something. These are the moments that remind me why I’m here.
When I walked back to the office I was
showing the other teachers the stickers my students so lovingly put all
over my outfit. I laughed as I counted the dozens of heart and star
shaped stickers. My teachers were laughing as well and at first I
thought they were laughing with me at the dozens of stickers on my
shirt. But then they went on to say something along the lines of “When
you arrived you were just a puppy…” didn’t get the rest of that but now
they’re asking me how much I weigh and looking up how to convert pounds
into kilograms. Basically saying I’ve gotten fat since I’ve been here. Moment over.
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| Seekers |
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The one time I got this class to sit still. Thank you Mr. Stinky Feet!The one time I got this class to sit still. Thank you Mr. Stinky Feet!The one time I got this class to sit still. Thank you Mr. Stinky Feet!The one time I got this class to sit still. Thank you Mr. Stinky Feet! |
Read more from Amy as she spends her year as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Thailand at: https://sameamebutdifferent.wordpress.com/
For more information about the Fulbright Grant Opportunities, check out http://eca.state.gov/fulbright/fulbright-programs
