METHIPRAMUK SCHOOL

I didn't feel nervous about my first day at the school as everyone I had met so far had been so kind and welcoming. Even though I had ZERO teaching experience I felt ready to approach the classroom, knowing that the English teachers would be by my side to help me. Refreshingly, I wasn't worried about asking for help as I knew they actually wanted to be involved and were genuinely excited about me being there- it wasn't me alone at the front of a class like I had expected, it was more of a group effort.

FIRST DAY
- I arrived at the school at 7am, personally I thought this was a little early and that I would have to hang around for a couple of hours till the students arrived, how wrong was I. As soon as we pulled up in the carpark (the headteacher picked me up) I could see the school swarming with students. I found this quite shocking as in England we usually arrive as the bell rings to start the day, these kids obviously enjoyed hanging out here..?

- I was shown to my 'desk' which was located in the headteachers office. It had a photo of me in a gold frame, flowers, pens, pencils, post it notes. Stationary galore! I sat and had coffee with some of the teachers and they gave me my timetable, this usually consisted of three hours a day but here and there I would have four hours one day and two the next. It was all planned for the entire time that I would be at the school, 7 weeks of lessons looked quite scary to say the least.

-Next I was given a short tour of the school before assembly. This was my first interaction with the kids, they screamed and ran away at the sight of me. One asked the the teachers why on earth did I have blue eyes, what was wrong with me? Was I ill? 'She's a foreigner' was the response- I have never been called a foreigner before, that was a weird moment.
The school was so different to what I had expected. It's a secondary school with 1000 students, so I knew it wouldn't be tiny but it was huge!! It looked just like an English secondary school, minus the palm trees and blue skies of course. There are different blocks for different subjects, a library, canteen, offices' etc. The classrooms were traditionally Thai though with dark wooden floors, desks, chairs and shutters on the windows. There was just a blackboard and a few fans to 'accessorize' the rooms. Oh, and sometimes the odd dog chilling at the back.

- Next was assembly. There were sooo many children and I was told that I would be going on stage to do a 'short speech' about myself and my hobbies. Hobbies?! Did shopping count as one? Anyway I realised that most of the people in the room would have no idea what I was talking about, which calmed my nerves a little. Plus they were all so excited and happy that I was there, so any worries I had soon vanished. I had to sign a contract on stage with the headteacher whilst all the kids cheered and screamed. It was all very official- I had a translator and a microphone, photos were being taken every two seconds which were then uploaded onto the schools website two minutes later, this school was not what I had expected at all!!

- I was then taken to 'relax' again and drink more coffee at my desk before my first lesson.
at 8:40 I had my first lesson. It was with my mentor, Euon, who has amazing English so it ran pretty smoothly. The lesson basically consisted of introductions, any questions that the students had- 'how old are you', 'where are you from', 'do you have any brothers and sisters' etc. The biggest reaction would be a high pitched scream if one of them accidentally made eye contact with me.

- At lunch time I chilled in the office- literally chilled. The heat in the classroom was intense for a Yorkshire girl like myself so I had to take quite a few breaks to regain consciousness. I also managed to find some yogurt and fruit at the local market the day before, so I brought this in for my lunch as a break from rice and noodles.

- In the afternoon I had a few more lessons another tour of the school from some of the older more confident students. The head of English told me that I would get a chance to meet every student in the school as I would teach with a different English teacher each week. The younger kids were sooo cute and small but I was also looking forward to working with some of the older ones (16,17) as I could probably talk to them more and learn about their lifestyle, too.

- At the end of the day I was literally ready for bed. The early morning, mixed with the heat and excitement had really taken it out of me and I had some dinner in a local restaurant with the headteacher and then passed out for about 14 hours.

The first week consisted of 'getting to know' each other, it took a long time for the students to dare to attempt a conversation with me, but I knew this was only natural. I was told that the majority of them had never seen a white person before in 'real life', so I had to work on letting them know I was normal, even though I looked like an albino.


This sign was printed on a VERY large scale and hung on the motorway outside the school...what is going on

                                         Signing the contract and introducing myself in assembly