Assorted Pictures from Thailand

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Phonics with Grade 5

Eating student-cooked food in the forest. We are laughing because Paw Nay Blu is trying to feed me more chili and I have told her that if I eat more, I will most likely die. 

Tharamu Wah Nay Paw (the girl's dean), her son Jonathan, and Hannah walking away from the wedding we went to in Burma

At the K.N.U. army base in Burma, sarong grievously messed up. I haven't figured out how to wear them so they look all perfect.

How we crossed from Thailand into Burma

A Karen guy and a bunch of Karen girls wearing the dresses single girls wear, singing a birthday song for the little girl in white on the ground. The family of the little girl invited our entire school to come, and they fed us! That's around three-hundred people!

Saw Thein Win Aung (said "saw thay way aw") and Pah Neh Wah (said "bpa neh wah), writing away. They are in third grade.
By intensely concentrating, ignoring others, and typing away, I finished writing my exams on Friday.
Now, I have no obligations to anyone until I give my exams tomorrow. I finished my last violin class on Thursday afternoon, and had to walk out of the room to keep from crying, because the students were asking me when I was leaving and coming back. They really want to keep learning violin, and some are putting good effort to it; it's hard to leave them now. Finishing my English classes wasn't quite as sad, honestly, though it wasn't exactly a relief either. I'm not sure how to feel.
Third and fourth grade were absolutely wild on Thursday and Friday; I would sit one student down and four more would be up and wandering around, fighting, or leaving the classroom. I tried one or two times to yell above the din to ask them to listen to me, but I figured I should stop before I got angry. Since they insisted they knew what to study, and I didn't have anything new to teach them, I let them out early. The last class period for third grade, I taught them how to play Ninja. It was fun, although they didn't quite understand exactly how to do it. The boys especially liked the idea of getting to slap each others' hands. The girl's half-heartedly swatted at each other, but they seemed like they were having fun. At least they weren't running around in the bushes somewhere, getting into trouble.
Next time I teach, I am coming stocked with plenty of ideas of what to do when the students are antsy, or when I have lots of empty class time.

We had a Thanksgiving meal for lunch today, and invited all the teachers. It was fun to be with them, even though we can't quite understand each other perfectly. Many of the Karen teachers are around our age, so we would like to be friends with them, but they are kind of shy...especially the ones who don't speak English very well.



Comments

  1. HannahAugust 10, 2015 at 12:03 AM

    Miss you, Raquel! It was such a privilege to have you here. Just plan on making it longer next time. :)

    ReplyDelete

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