Playing Twister!

On Friday, Lara and I decided to shake up our lesson by playing Twister! We made the Twister mat with some inexpensive fabric and cut out circles in 4 different colors. The concept of direction was the focus of our lesson and body parts-- this will also potentially lead into the game, "Simon Says" hopefully sometime. Groups were separated since there wouldn't be enough room for all of our students to play at once (oh, gosh... I can't imagine what kind of disaster would happen with all of them on it!). When we gave an example the kids were a bit confused as to what they should be doing exactly, but once they got onto that mat, they figured it out... kinda. They didn't know whether to keep their hands and/or feet where they already landed or to move to a completely new dot... haha. Despite the confusion, they had a fun time playing!

Because we had to set an example...

After hours at Isara

Here are just a few photos I took of the kids after class. Words cannot describe how much I'm going to miss this place!

Toto, Thao & Oth

Kids playing in the playground

All smiles here!

Ta-wan & Ai (sp?)

After hours casino. Just kidding! These kids are seriously addicted to Bingo.

A colorful scenic view we made out of construction paper of the Mekhong river and surrounding mountains

Musical chairs. Haha. Look at how tall Travis is compared to Toto

Hasadee School

Yesterday, Lara and I were invited by Dave to teach at a local government school half an hour away from Isara. We were able to get a feel of how education was taught in an actual school setting. We began the day by getting picked up at 7 am, (-____-) which was a bit too early for us. Once we arrived to the school, Dave gave us a quick tour around the campus and introduced us to the principle. He then gave us an overview of his weekly schedule and typically, on Thursdays he teaches 5 classes. We observed the class dynamic and saw that the students at this school were taught quite well. Dave does an excellent job teaching his students and it's definitely reflected in their performance in class.

We had a chance to have one-on-one time with a few of the students by playing various word games using flashcards, having them read specific books that indicated difficulty level, and having simple conversations. He encouraged his students in all the different levels to speak with us and create a simple dialogue to develop conversational skills. His advanced class was really inspiring! The girls that I spoke with were almost fluent in English-- it was almost as if they were native speakers. I asked them typical questions that expressed their favorites (food, hobbies, subject, pop stars and such). I learned that Big Bang is in fact, a big bang with the Thai teenagers (sorry, I had to!). They're this Korean group with 5 members who are apparently easy on the eyes. Haha. A few other conversations were almost successful in that I had to reword my questions because I spoke too fast or didn't pronounce a word that they were familiar with clear enough, or even the accent perhaps threw them off since Dave is from England and our accents are striking.

In one of Dave's classes, (I forget which one) he pulled out 4 of his high ranking students from another class to come and do a bit of story-telling. Two of his students did a short story-telling piece, one gave an animated story about a turtle and a rabbit while the other introduced his favorite hobbies. It was a delight to see these students speaking English publicly with enthusiasm and most importantly, confidence. The two were so confident in their speech and even communicated the humor well enough in their stories to the students that they gleefully laughed out loud. I'm hoping not at him, but because they actually understood what he was talking about. Hah.

As the day dwindled down to its final hour, I began to reflect about the hours spent with the students. As a perpetual student, I often times forget that learning is a process and that nourishment and support is imperative. I think that with these students, they are given a sufficient amount of support by Dave to continue their education and stir enough motivation to learn such a complicated language. After spending the day with Dave and hearing previous stories told by other foreigners, I'm finding it difficult to evaluate and communicate thoroughly the Thai education system through this space because I don't want to impose these ideals that may appear divisive. From what I have been told, the Thai education system has reached complacency and often times, foreigners interject to break this habit but have relentlessly been discouraged to do so because 'that's the way it is here'. And although the stories I have been told involve corruption and dishonest fraudulence, I still believe that people are passionate enough in their work to break these cycles and produce good work that will influence others in a positive way. I just think education is extremely important and should not for one minute be overlooked by complacency or debilitating excuses.

Overall, my experience at Hasaden school was an enlightening one. I love seeing children laughing and enjoying each other's company, laughing at each other's faults when answering a question incorrectly, hearing story books read aloud reminiscent of my elementary school days (I haven't read or heard Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see in helllllllllaaaa long!), singing songs about five monkeys getting injured from a disastrous bed jumping experience and other simple things I learn to appreciate that children remind me of, like laughing out loud and being carefree.

I'm going to be cheesy and end this post with a quote from Kirk,

"I don't know about you guys, but I heard that the children are the future"

PICTURES!

The principle invited us to introduced ourselves to the whole school after their morning announcements and allegiance

Lara and I quizzing the kids on various rhyming words

This little boy is cute

Seriously, when was the last time you saw this book?

Dave jumping with the monkeys... teheh

She looks like Ruby. =)

He looks like Anthony Dinh

Story-tellers

Till next time!

Lately...

Over the past few days, the Isara house has become livelier! Four new volunteers from the U.S. have been so kind to give their time and energy to be a part of the Isara community. Travis, who joined us on Monday is from Chicago. Cyncerie & Alex from San Francisco and Melanie from San Diego all joined us on Tuesday. Kirk & Ming said that this is the most volunteers they've had the first year they were in operation. I'm really excited to have them join us, it's been awhile since Lara and I had people to hang out with aside from the kids, Ming & Kirk.

Switching rooms with Kirk & Ming to make more room for the new volunteers

Our new room (Kirk & Ming's old room) + Melanie's new space

Before they arrived, we also had a chance to teach with another volunteer from Germany. Although, Lothar has only been here for 3 weeks, he contributed generously to the growth of this charity. He helped with the Halloween party by paying for the drinks, candy and snacks and also stepped in to teach a few classes as well while we were in Laos. It was a pleasure meeting you, Lothar. I'm happy that this charity has reached further out to people all over the world. Thank you for being so sweet and helpful to the kids. The kids won't forget "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", for sure. Your presence was always positive and warm-hearted. Safe travels back to Germany!

A few days ago, we were able to have our first yoga class here at Isara, led by Lara. This is the first class that she taught with more than 3 people, me being the only consistent student. I'm happy that she's able to work on her teaching skills in different concentrations with a range of ages and outside of the classroom. She did a great job teaching! I think it's important for yoga classes to have the right elements in instruction, one being the calm and soothing voice of an instructor and the instant welcoming feeling of understanding that this space is used for silence and mindfulness. And I also think it's important to help first timers ease into this practice because it may appear intimidating to someone who has never practiced it. This is just the beginning, Lara!

Yoga at 10am! Haha.

Here are also some photos of our mini-photoshoot for the homepage!

As far as teaching goes, the students are progressing well. We experience quite a bit of frustration when teaching at times, but that's just a simple motivator to be patient and work on my teaching skills. It's difficult to communicate with our beginners class because they are so scattered in thought sometimes and learning to keep their attention for an additional hour out of the day after spending the previous 7 hours in school! We are lucky enough to have Party & Bell help with the translation, otherwise, I have no idea how we would be able to do it! This week's lesson covers prepositions, which gives allows them to be a little bit more active in class. This was also Travis' first day teaching.



For the advanced class, we decided to give them an opportunity to express themselves artistically by writing a Japanese poem called a Haiku. I'm sure you guys wrote one of these when you were in elementary school. I don't remember writing one of these when I was younger, but I'm sure if I did, it wouldn't have been any good! I was very impressed by the poems that the students produced. It was a process to construct these poems, but they did a great job overall. We try to reinforce the language as much as possible during class by asking our students to speak English and sharing with us their work by reading them aloud (I have some video's I'll be posting of them reciting the poems! I'll post those later). Initially, I thought this would be somewhat difficult for them to comprehend because when native Thai speakers speak English, more syllables are produced than necessary and could make writing a Haiku a bit hard-- but of course, the world of teaching is always dynamic and unpredictable-- the students were amazing! Some were actually comedic and deeply profound. Here are just some examples of the poems.

Jame with his dried orchid. His poem went a little something like this...
Flowers and women
They are the same sweet beauty
Guys can't deny them

By Pompam. I have to agree, you gotta get past things

This one is made me tear a little. So sincere and touching!

That's what we've been up to lately! More updates to come. =)

Ineffable

Lately, my feelings here have been more welcoming than ever. I feel at home here and it's a great feeling. I like that I can walk up and down Mee Chai rd. and know that the moment I walk through the gates of this house, I can temporarily call this space home. The room Lara and I share is more than enough for me to feel the comforts of 'home'. It's amazing that a week from now will be the first month of me being in Thailand. I already feel a good relationship building between myself and the students--- and not to mention with Ming & Kirk, who have gone out of their way to make us feel welcomed.

Time seriously has flown. It almost feels like yesterday when I left these wonderful people:




Some updates on our being here!
Lara and I started teaching at the English House, an off-site English and Science learning center for students during the semester break. We've already completed our first week there and I have to admit, this week involved a lot of teeth grinding. The learning environment and behavior dynamic at this program contrasts quite blatantly with Isara for several reasons that I would rather not dispense. Let's just say that I am relieved the moment Ming comes to pick us up after a few hours worth of teaching and really exhausted the moment I step into our house. I just forget how crazy kids are.

Be that as it may, I have learned what quiets children down without me exerting any form of violence (...which I would never)

• Stand with arms folded in silence, then when the class reaches silence, sternly inquire "are you done?"
• Hit marker against white board
  
• Turn off lights
• Call on students who rudely interrupt class with their vexation to answer questions
• Assignments that include cumbersome writing (i.e. copying what is written on the board)
  

Despite my uneasiness with this teaching experience, I'm thankful for this because it's teaching me patience that I never knew I had.

Next week, we're planning on visiting Laos with the intention of getting a Thai visa at the Thai embassy. Our allowance to be in Thailand is up by next week so we have to apply for the 3 month visa. Martin and Selena (previous volunteers) told us about an extreme tubing experience they had while in Vang Vienne, Laos. I'm still kind of confused about the story they shared with us, but very intrigued about what's in store at this popular tourist destination. I'll just give you some keywords for you guys to piece together what this experience may entail: river, round tubes, bars on the river, mud wrestling, and foreigners.

Hmm... yeah.

Anyway, more later once things progress.

P.S. Visit Isara's website!
P.P.S. Party taught me how to ride a bike today.... and I've finally learned! Wahoo.

Cool kids on the block

Living at Isara, we're constantly surrounded by our students. Because our classes are from 4-7 and due to their exams schedules this month, students trickle in to our classroom and computer area (especially here!) to hang out and play computer games as early as the AM and leave as late as 9 PM. We're never alone here and it makes me feel happy to know that these kids enjoy coming to Isara. I want to share some pictures of the range of students from the past few days of teaching. All are very unique in their own way, some are more rambunctious than others and a few are painfully shy--- nonetheless, very cool and so cute!


Helping with the advanced group write recipes to their favorite dishes.
Left to right: Pure, Top, Me, Jame, Pompam & Gam


Students from the advanced class: Moy (one of our autistic and very bright students with impeccable memory) and Boom (at the young age of 9 in our advanced group)


Yok & I playing Connect 4 (not quite the colors of the game, but you get it... hah). She's not in any of our classes, but she keeps us company almost everyday because she lives next door. Little cutie pie.


Some of the girls from the intermediate class trying to be the center of attention in this photo




This one of our newer students (I don't remember his name) but he looks like Jeff Oh. Jeff, if you ever read this blog, I'm guessing this is how you once looked at the tender age of 10.


Advanced students: I haven't quite memorized their names yet, but they're also part of the advanced class. The woman to the left, is the previous owner of our house. She's 70 years old! I think it's awesome to have her in our classes she's easy to work with and so eager to learn.


A group shot of the kiddies.

I'll add more photos to my Flickr later, but for now... here are just a few shots from a few days of teaching.

Teach me how to learn

Yesterday was my first day teaching English here at Isara! As I've mentioned in the previous post, there are 3 classes (each an hour long) we teach ranging from ages 7 to adults in college and even a few elderly adults. I felt somewhat hesitant about teaching children since I haven't been exposed to that environment in quite sometime. Sure enough, once I entered the class and saw those adorable smiling faces, I instantly felt comfortable to teach.

I have had experience teaching before while in high school (this was my brief exposure to teaching younger children) for 3 years while I was in the Teaching Academy at Independence HS. I can honestly say that those three years teaching for one period a week were some of the happiest and rewarding times of my life. After those years passed, I found myself teaching again volunteering at the IRC (International Rescue Committee, a refugee and asylee resource center) in San Jose. I taught a few times a week English classes along with helping with job development sessions (resume editing, mock interviewing, job searching) for a few months, which helped me become familiar with second language learners. I've learned from my volunteering at the IRC that English is in fact, misconstrued with infinite amounts of “exceptions” to figures of speech, vowel placements, tenses, formalities, prepositions, etc, etc and frankly, such a difficult language to learn. Oh and another thing, ACCENTS! Accents create even more confusion! Sharpening R's or silencing letters when they're placed next to another... geez.

One thing I learned about the Thai education system (and continuing to observe as I teach here) is their method of teaching through rote memorization. Rote memorization is a method often used tying listening to repetition-- with the students here it's listen, repeat, listen repeat. They even replicate the intonations to specific words. When Lara and I shadowed the class last Friday, we noticed when the students greeted us they said "Hello, TEEEEEEEacher, HOWWWWWWWW are YOOOOUUUUU?" all in sync, sometimes even adding more emphasis on letters that didn't need any. In depth understanding of the meaning of the words or understanding of context is often overlooked here. Isara's after school English classes made it an important goal of theirs to increase literacy and understanding of the usage of the English language.

Anyway, Ming, Lara and I organized a short lesson plan for each of the classes to affirm previous lessons taught by their school teachers. We covered the Alphabet and tied pictures each of them, had the beginners class draw the pictures that began with the letter that were on the board, fundamental math problems with the intermediate, and formal letter writing with the advanced group.

With my experience teaching, one thing that I have in common with the children is enthusiasm. I am as enthusiastic to teach as they are to learn. Communicating with the kids here makes me melt as they sometimes begin to struggle with constructing sentences to simply ask “how are you today” but ending with an endearing smile on their face. I am definitely excited to continue teaching here. I hope my alacrity will be shown through my teaching and the students will become comfortable with us teaching them. =)

A few pictures of our first day teaching

*Sony, a novice Buddhist Monk who comes to help teach with us

* A few adults who are in the advanced class

Till next time!