The Start of the Real Deal
On the 25th day of January, I started my day early for we are about to be introduce in the faculty of Chiang Rai Municipality School 6. Of course, I felt so nervous because I somehow imagine myself together with a fearsome cooperating teacher.
At 08:00 am, I met the teachers of both Thai faculty (comprise of Thai teachers) and the International faculty (comprise of foreign teachers) and I can say that they are nice and really professional in looks and attitude. After a few moments, I met my coordinator and his name is Mr. Baptiste Mauerhan, a teacher from France and he is teaching Science in the school. I was given a short time to discussed, together with my coordinator, about the topics, schedule and the activities that I must deal for the whole duration of my stay in the institution. For that day, I have a class to observe and for the next day, January 26, I must observe two classes.
As I wait for my first observation, I gathered some useful information about the school that I’m with. I found that CRMS6 have both Junior High School comprise of 3 levels M1, M2, and M3, and High School comprise also of 3 levels; M4, M5, and M6. Furthermore, their school follows on the curriculum given by the Ministry of Education of Thailand, and variation on the programs being offered in each schools depends on themselves. In the case of Junior High School of CRMS6, they offer SM Plus, a program that is concentrated in Mathematics and Science, and EP Plus, a program that uses English as medium of instruction. On the other hand, the High School of CRMS6 have the 4 programs; SM Plus and EP Plus with almost the same nature with that of the Junior High School, and MSc and ESC programs that prepare students for Engineering Medicine and other Sciences as for their course upon College. They have 3121 students, 315 Thai teachers and 18 foreign teachers. Furthermore, their school is fortified with facilities like canteen that caters both students and teachers, library with books mostly written on Thai, Science laboratory with different apparatuses, recreational centers and parks, and sports facilities like swimming pool, and courts for ball games The school is located in 421 Village No.6 Wiangburapha Road, Rimkok Sub-district, Muang District, Chiang Rai 57100.That’s all I congregated for today.
As a summary of my 2 days observation, I have observed the class of M2.12 on the
25th of January and M3.11 and M2.9 on the 26th January. As I entered the class, I immediately noticed the classroom facilities and equipment. Each rooms were equipped with a projector. Each students have workbooks and textbooks and each room has a learning support staff. Furthermore, I noticed that each room have a bulletin board that is, for me, a great source of information. The classrooms are well-lighted and air-conditioned which for me is an ideal room for learning. Furthermore, the student’s ratio to teacher, for me, is also ideal.
As for the student behaviour, I can say that they were totally similar yet different from what I have before when I’m still in the Philippines. They are both noisy and I bet that is their common thing. But then, Thai students have shorter span of attention and somehow, majority of them have difficulty in expressing themselves in English whenever they were asked in such language.
As for my mentor, I can say that he was a great teacher; he was totality knowledgeable about the subject matter and he gave examples that can be seen around them, thus students can easily connect with the lesson. He also used video clips that are definitely related to the lesson. But I observed that he lacks authority over the class. I mean whenever he asked students to be quite, it’s hard for him to make them quite. So, he ended up continuing the lesson for those students who are willing to listen to my mentor.
Another thing that I had observed is the presence of a learning support staff inside the classroom. They are staffs in each classrooms that provides aid to foreign teachers whenever there are concepts that cannot be grasp by the students using English language. They somehow translate the concepts and discussed in to the class for a short period of time. I viewed this as a great thing because it really help foreign teachers to become more efficient since they lessen the burden of making Thai students learn. But then I can say that somehow it becomes a hindrance. They are occurrences that I observed in which some learning support staff cause commotion on class. I mean, they tell something to the class which I guess is not part of the discussion, and it makes the students very noisy and uncontrollable. But then, I can say that it is a natural thing for them.
After the last observation that I had during the 26th day of January, I asked my mentor about the lesson plan that I should create. I asked him whether I can use the format that we have in the Philippines or the format that they are using in the school and he said that I should use the format that we’re used to. I also asked him how and what does his lesson. Lastly before I leave, I requested him to gave me already the lessons to be taught.
