Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Dear Blog People,
So this is an update which I wrote/ am writing from a teacher training in Phang Nga town (the province capital) [personal note: it is several days later and I am publishing this from one of my schools following my first day of teaching. I will be writing on that subject later on.] Right now I have some free time while the teachers learn about lesson planning and so I am taking this chance to write down a few thoughts. As I am hand writing this note right now, I will have to figure out a way to transfer these chicken scratches onto the internet (looks like I did!). I'm positive my thoughts will change between now and then though so will have to see if I make any changes to my original thoughts. (Doubt I will...will probably just type what I originally wrote so I can get home and take a shower and do some laundry. I'm kind of tired to be honest. Although, as you have seen above, some of the text is in blue as is this text. These are comments I am making in the present time after I wrote this original post.)
Today is Tuesday, May 13th and I have been part of this teacher training for the better part of two weeks. We began on May 5th and worked our way through grammar and syntax as well as pronunciation. My friend Christine, a fellow volunteer working with me here at this teacher training, just said that based on my description above, it might sound like I am on a desert island.
"I've been keeping track of the passing days by carving notches in the one lone coconut tree. I have tried to make contact with passing ships by shinning my mirror and reflecting the sun but all attempts have failed."
There are days when this is not far from the truth. We are both working with a format that aims to try to improve the English of close to 110 teachers in roughly a week. Impossible does not even come close to describing the situation, especially when some of the trainers are more focused on teaching correct pronunciation rather than conversational skills. A student might be able to say "Hello, my name is Somchi. What is your name?" in perfect English with no accent at all but that really means nothing if that is all the student can say compared to other students who are close to fluent but with thick accents. (For some reason, this always makes me think of the phrase "Pak ya ca in Havad yad." Don't ask me why.)
From May 5th through the 7th, it was very difficult to find my place or role in this atmosphere. For one thing, grammar is not and has never been my strongest subject, and to combine that with being thrown into a teacher training where the only preparation and advanced knowledge I was given about the subject matter was that it would focus on pronunciation and grammar... let's just say I welcomed the break with open arms.
After finishing on the 7th, I returned home and was able to gather together various materials and lessons which I hopped would prove useful now that I knew what the exact schedule and format of the training actually was. Once I returned on the 11th, I felt rejuvenated and far better prepared than I had been during the previous sessions. Now please don't misunderstand; both Christine and I had little to no knowledge as to what the exact course of action would be for any given day except for the general subject that was to be covered but we were both much better able to adapt to the needs of both the teachers we were training and the other trainers we were working with. We were also able to present numerous fun games and activities which the teachers could take with them back to their own classrooms and use to help teach English to their students. One of the problems Christine and I faced during the first few sessions was that the trainers expected us to have various games and activities to go with the lessons being taught. (They also expect us to come up with these games and activities at the flip of a coin. Christine would often compare us to robots or trained pets but I prefer the phrase "dancing English monkeys".) Neither of us knew of any games which related to prefixes or suffixes that could work with 100 teachers with no where to move and zero prep time so we taught them how to sing the Beatles "Hello, Goodbye." (This failed, by the way, and we only attempted it because it is one of many songs that is suggest by Peace Corps to sing during English camps and English teacher trainings. I believe next time I will try and teach them the Rolling Stones "Satisfaction" instead. I think it would work better and I can already imagine how it would sound in Engrish.) By the way, if anyone does know of any educational games and activities for grammar lessons, please send them my way. I'm always looking for more games.
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And that's where I ran out of time or was pulled away to help with another activity... never to complete what was to be my thoughts and reflections from the teacher training in Phang Nga town. I know that some of what I have said above might give the impression that the whole event left me with a bitter taste in my mouth but this is not the case. For one thing, I ate better while in Phang Nga than I have so far while being at site. The food was amazing, I was able to relax every single night with an ice cold beer while reflecting upon the successes of the day, and I had a really good pizza! Who could ask for more?? Oh yeah, and I trained some teachers on some English stuff. The problem was that much of the training, in my opinion, focused on concepts or goals that could not be attained in one week or on specific areas that do not need so much attention compared with other areas (attempting to explain to teachers how and why certain words change in pronunciation from single word form to phrase form when many of them would value more from new and creative ideas in teaching basic lessons they have taught before.)
And so I would search out and attempt to create small victories throughout the day. One example came during one of the last days of the training when the topic of the day was classroom expressions. The trainer who taught this section had the teachers write down the classroom expressions they use in the classroom and tried to help them by assigning each teacher to use three more expressions than they already use. When he asked if I had any thoughts, I stepped up and asked teachers if when they ask students to stand up or sit down, do they say it in English or in Thai? I then explained that from my experience in Singburi, a teacher will often use many classroom expressions in Thai and only a few in English. Those that she uses in English, she will quickly follow up with the Thai translations because often the students will just look at each other, not knowing what the teacher is saying. I challenged this teachers not to give the translation. The teachers had already gone over a few hand gestures which could be used to help the students understand the English classroom command or expression. I tried to explain that the more English the teachers use in the classroom, the better. If a student always has a teacher to translate something for them into Thai, then that student will never fully learn the word or phrase in English. If their is no one there to translate for them, then the student is forced to learn the English. And so I went on and on for about 15 minutes using myself and other personal experiences as examples and the teachers finally understood. A small personal victory but a good one.
And now I am tired and in need of a shower.
Best wishes,
Chris
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