Teacher Training

Hi everyone :) I have just returned from 4 days away at a resort located about 20 kilos from home (the third resort at which I have stayed in the past 2 months...geez, life is hard). Teachers from the area gathered here to write the Provincial test...I was there as the "talking dictionary". Besides feeling slightly used, I had an absolutely fantastic time. Yes, it was absolutely beautiful, the food was great, and company was fun. The best part though was that I spent four whole days working very hard on the teacher training seminar I explained in my last blog.

Here's the deal (at least the deal from my perspective): Thailand has a problem with the school system (a big problem) and it is no secret. Pretending the school system is void of problems would be comparable to pretending the country is void of heat. I believe all levels of government know that there is a problem and as any good government should, they attempt to tackle it. Their attempt comes in many forms but two very interesting cultural forms are by holding English Camps (an attempt at teaching english to massive amounts of students at one time, gone terribly, terribly wrong. I swear this had to have started as a bad fad at some point) and Teacher Training Seminars (less ADD versions of English Camps but for teachers). I must give credit to where credit is due of course: they are trying. But (does it surprise you that there is a but? because it shouldn't) there are two problems: these camps simply aren't effective (which, understated, is a big bummer) but probably most significant: nobody is actually questioning the effectiveness.

Teachers always sing songs and play games during these seminars which is...good I suppose (though there are innate problems with this as well that I won't get into) At the last seminar that I attended the teachers were required to write a lesson plan according to a random topic and then act out the lesson plan as if they were in the classroom. I was pleased with this idea of having to actually write a lesson plan during the session but there was absolutely no evaluation of the lesson plan afterwards. In the long run it seemed more like meaningless entertainment than a fruitful activity for the teachers. 7 out of the 9 groups that performed sang a song during their lesson. Singing songs to help faciliate a lesson isn't such a bad idea. The problem though was that every single song used the exact same tune (Brother John) just with substituted words according to the topic they were teaching. I wondered how many times teachers had used that song to teach a lesson and did they acutally even understand why they were using a song or were they just simply following through on the information that songs supposedly made classes more lively? It struck me during the last session I attended that teachers are given a good amount of songs and games that they could potentially bring to their classroom but as far as the deeper meaning of the songs and the games, knowledge was limited. Knowledge seems to be limited in quite a lot more ways than that as well and thats where my ideas come in.

What I'm going to do (with the help of my fantastic superviosr) is find 10 teachers within Prachinburi (I have 4 so far) that speak english reasonably well and are more progressive in terms of teaching is concerned. I will train these 10 teachers first. They will be students through all of the sessions I have included in my tentative schedule because I feel like this is the best way for them to grasp the full intention (the best teachers are critical students). We will then work together to modify anything that needs to be modified. They will have experienced first hand what they will eventually teach themselves so they will know best the way things should be changed. They will help me come up with skits that will put into light some of the common problems teachers face in the classroom and the best way to move past the "grang jai" culture to get the teachers to be critical (the only way we can improve the teaching environment is to look at the positive AND the negative) about those skits. I will be training these teachers first but then I will be a facilitator after that. Through all of my planning I have tried to keep sustainability in mind as I am only here for two years and can no way fix Thailand's education problems. There will be follow up evaluation after the session and then I will choose several of the teachers from that seminar who will then work with me to be trainers for a second teaching seminar.

One of my favorite parts about the sessions is my inclusion of actual english classes. Every morning the teachers will break off into smaller groups to learn english. My theory behind this is two fold. First, it's really hard to teach a language if you don't speak it and as many of these teachers don't really speak English, this is intended to give them a boost. I in no way do I believe that 5 hours of learning English is going to give them all the skills they need but I hope that it will give them motivation to continue learning English on their own and that being an adult learner can be damn fun. Second, I wanted the teachers to be students. I want the teachers to actually participate in a lesson that was student centered. The government wants teachers to move to this method of teaching but teachers across Thailand are still unsure of what it means, what it looks like, and certainly how to accomplish it as a teacher. Puting these teachers in the place of students will, I hope, give them insight into the needs of a learner thusly, giving them more knowledge about how to actually teach and help their students learn English (and hopefully other subjects as well).

Yah, thats what that's about. I have put hours upon hours into this project and have an uncountable amount left...two years of hours left I supposed you could say. I am really really excited about this project and will pass on more information when it comes. For some reason hotmail wasn't working when I got online so no responses from me today...I hope everyone is well. The picture above, if it actually went through is the golf course at the resort. I slipped that one in there for my brother in an attempt to lure him here ;)