Pictures of Me and Small Children

Throughout the year, I have been randomly taking pictures of my classroom and students, both with the low pixel camera on my computer and my actual camera. Figured I should throw them up in an album before I have too many that it becomes unwieldy. First half of the album is pics from my computer (you can notice the different days by my different shirt and tie combinations), followed by better quality pictures of our classroom, an art class, and finishing up with the pictures from the field trip last week. Hope you like it!

Pictures: Click Here

Field Trip!

Had our first field trip of the year today. Grades 1-3 in the English Program (about 175 kids) came to school in our PE uniforms, loaded up in small vans and headed out on the town. We were originally supposed to head to a pottery making camp out in the forest, but because of dengue (still no, but I got bit three times today, so I'm 97% positive I've contracted it), being in the forest, and this being the rainy season, we changed plans and instead headed on a tour of some of Chiang Mai's more famous wat's. (temples). Walked to three of them throughout the morning, then loaded back up in the vans and headed to the Chiang Mai National History Museum, for both lunch and a tour of the museum. About to head out for burgers, some thoughts on the day:

Have been looking forward to this field trip for weeks, since they announced it. Day out of the classroom, no teaching, it was on Thursday, my busiest day of the week. Pretty much a win-win...win. Plus we are going on a field trip! But on about Monday I realized, wait a second, I am not going on this as a student, or even as an observer. No, I'm the teacher, and I'm going to be leading 32 six year-olds around town, crossing streets, and then into some of the most holy and reverent places in Northern Thailand. This wasn't going to be a rest day, if anything it would probably be way more stress and work than on a normal day. In truth, it was somewhere in the middle. No, I couldn't take my time after lunch or peruse ESPN.com on my free periods, but it was nice to get out of the classroom, and nice to be able to chat with some of the grade 2 and 3 teachers who I don't get to see that often. The kids were mostly very well behaved, and they had fried chicken legs and sticky rice for lunch...and I had 4 of them.

I guess I should know this because it the same for me and I'm 24, but is amazing how much young children's moods are affected by being hungry. We were walking through our first wat at 9:30 and they were already moaning about being hungry! At each wat we would go into the main part of the temple, the students would wai and bow and sit down and we would listen to a monk who lived at that particular temple talk about the temple and its history or Buddhism or whatever he was talking about. This is all in Thai of course, so I'm sitting in the back with Mai and she is roughly translating whats going on for me if it was interesting. So at the first temple, its maybe 9:45, this monk is talking forever. And he is telling this long beautiful story about this goat that outwitted a tiger, some metaphor for something or other. And he is going on and on and the kids are kinda losing interest. So finally he stops, and he asks if there are any questions. And this little girl Lily stands up and goes, 'When do we eat?' Haha, brought the house down.

The temples are beautiful, but when we come in and sit down, its on a hard floor. And its very impolite in Thai culture to point your feet at someone. So when you sit, you have the option of sitting cross-legged, kneeling, or in this sort of, on the side of your legs with your feet to the side and pointing back behind you, position. All of them...terribly uncomfortable. I could not be Thai, if only for my lack of floor sitting aplomb.

The museum was cool, but most of my time was spent herding children and trying to keep them from running ahead or falling to far behind. I joked to the other 3 1st grade teachers that I felt like a sheep dog trying to heard sheep and keep them in a pack. And by the end of it, I could tell my kids were pretty tired and worn out from the day. We trudge back to the hot van and all 16 boys in my class climb in. Scarcely had we sat down when the whining began. 'Teacher Mike, Chan is annoying me.' 'Teacher Mike, Poon move AirCon.' 'Teacher Mike, Teacher Mike, Teac...' 'ENOUGH! EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE QUIET FOR TWO MINTUES! SONG NATEE! SHUSH!' (Silence) And after channeling my inner father, I literally climbed in the back of the van to reallocate all of our air vents. And what do you know, by the time we got back to school, half the van was asleep.

TPWWLT - Anamanaguchi - 'Jetpack Blues Sunset Hues'

Hello Dengue

Got back to my classroom today after lunch and the entire class was dousing themselves in bug spray/lotion. Why you ask? Oh because of the recent outbreak of dengue fever. What is dengue fever? Also known as bone crusher disease because of the incredible pain it puts in victims in, it is a life threating, tropical fever spread by mosquitoes. According to Wikipedia, its symptoms include; headache, muscle and joint pains (the pains that give in the 'bonecusher' nickname), a distinctive retro-orbital pain, rash, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting coffee-grounds-like congealed blood, and diarrhea. (It can also lead to DHF, which leads to variable hemorrhagic pneumonia including bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth and ear, blood oozing out your pores, fluid in the blood vessels leaking through the skin and into spaces around the lungs and belly. And finally shock from the blood loss and death.) Oh and 3 teachers and who knows how many students have already caught it, and a language center in town was shut down because of an outbreak. I mean, I think a large percentage of my life is the same as it would be back in the states, but sometimes you get put in situations that make you appreciate the good ole U.S. of A. Oh, and give me some of that bug spray.

TPWWLT - Hootie and The Blowfish - 'Only Wanna Be With You'

No Water?!

So many little moments in my life here that I wish I could bottle up and share with everyone back home, just had one with my kids.

Sitting at my desk after lunch, headphones in, working on my afternoon lessons. The kids are playing in the classroom, when suddenly I notice a commotion in the corner of room. From their reaction, my first thought is that someone is hurt. I start to half stand up to see whats going on as half dozen kids run up. 'Teacher Mike, Teacher Mike! Water!' Uh oh. The water jug is empty.

I stand all the way up, straighten my tie, and clear my way through my entire class, all of whom have immediately made a beeline for the water dispenser. (There is nothing like a lack of water to make ever kid in class immediately need a drink.) 'Move back, move back!' I call out as I reach the spare jug on the ground. I lean down and slowly unscrew the cap. I can hear an intake of breath as I bend down and wrap my arms around the jug. Kids in the front of the mob are yelling 'Move back, move back!' at their fellow classmates. Gasps shoot through the crowd as I stand, full water jug in my arms. As I slowly tilt the open nozzle into the bowl, I can hear the boys in my class groaning and flexing their arms. As the tilting continues, the groaning and gasping reach a crescendo. The fear that I am going to miss and spill water all over the floor is almost palpable. I complete the placement of the jug and am instantly mobbed by my class. "Yeaaaa!" "Teacher Mike stronng! Teacher Mike strong!" They gimme five's as they stream past me, metal cups extended in to get some of that sweet delicious H2O. My mission complete, I make my way back to my desk with the satisfaction of a conquering general.

Now, I know some people may disagree with me on this one, but for my money, there is nothing that makes you feel stronger than replacing a water jug in front of 30 gasping first graders. :) Hope everyone has a great week!

TPWWLT - B.O.B. - 'Airplanes'