English Comprehension

Being a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand as a teacher is really hard. My program is designed so that we work with teachers to teach them about student centered learning. To do this we co-teach in English classrooms. The problem with my program is we usually work with more than one teacher and in several schools. I work with 6 teachers in 3 different schools from grade 1 to grade 9. Only one of those teachers do I actually get to see more than once a week. Thus, I am not with any one student more than an hour a week sometimes not more than an hour every two weeks. Now the problem. The problem is there is no follow up with my students. I cant give my students homework because they have a whole week to do a homework assignment and they generally forget to do it or have forgotten the lesson by the following week. Homework is not counted for points in the grading system, like at many schools in Thailand, and a lot of times I have no idea if my co-teachers actually go over the homework or collect it at all. For the most part, the teachers I work with try to seem interested while I am with them but then when I am away don't continue my lessons and go back to their old teaching methods, thus never actually learning anything new. I know this because the students I work with never remember anything when I am back in their classroom the following week. Your question for me may now be...then why do the teachers you work with want you to teach in their classroom with them if they dont actually want to use the method you are trying to show them? This is because if a teacher can manage to get a foreigner at their school it will boost their order in the hierarchy of things, hierarchy in Thailand is very important. Thus, it doesn't matter what or why I am in the schools, only that they have this smiling caucasion face working at their school. I do have one great co-teacher that I have continually taught with two days a week for the past two years. He is genuinely interested in my work and actually finds importance in me working with him. I have watched him use a lot of my methods, which shows me he is actually listening and finding use to the student centered method I am trying to show him. I am prefacing my excitement with this knowledge to show that I generally don't get to see many results, it is very frustrating for me, and I often feel a lack of use as a teacher and Peace Corps volunteer. Today, I had not one... but two amazing things happen to me with the co-teacher that actually finds importance in me. Usually when I ask my students how are they, they just say "I am fine". This is what all Thai students are programmed to say when asked this question in English. A few months ago I had taught my students about being sick and what to say if you are sick. I have one little student in 6th grade I absolutely adore because he is always trying and always has a big smile on his face. Today, he came in and said "how are you?" to me...like he always does. I said "I was good" and asked him how he was and he said "I am sick". I asked him why and he said "I have a cold". Not only did he say something other than I am fine, but he gave me a clear answer to my question of why he was sick...which shows English comprehension. Then, in the same class, we were working on creating sentences. I had been reading about new techniques on how to teach this last night, as it wasn't really working last week, and had come up with a new method of making the sentences for the children... only scrambling the words and have them put them in an understandable order. Not only were they able to do this, but I watched several of them write a sentence, read it to themselves, and then self correct themselves. This is absolutely amazing! Self Correction is a very good sign of English comprehension. Then after a few goes, I gave them the word butterfly and had them make a sentence using their own words. Almost everyone in the class was able to make a sentence on their own. I feel like such an amazing proud teacher today!! I had to share this information with everyone because this is one of the first times I have actually felt validated in my primary program objective as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Noah at 6 months

Ok everyone....here is my Nephew Noah at 6 months. He is getting so big I cant believe it. Brandi just took him to the doctor and he weighs 21 1/2 pounds and is 28 inches tall! I thought these two pictures were really cute of him. The first one is of him swinging and the second one is of him laying with a tv remote on Shawns arm and their dog Beans looking over them.

The Tiger temple

Two weeks ago my parents and I went to Kanchanaburi in central Thailand. There we went to a very special place known as the tiger temple. It is a temple where some monks take care of some abandoned tigers. It was so amazing! My parents and I one by one got led around to touch and meet the tigers. They were so cute that I wanted to play with them like I do with Eleanor. Unfortunatly, these guys could do a lot more damage to me than Eleanor could. This was absolutly one of the coolest experiences I have had while in Thailand!!

Wat Phra Keo

A few weeks ago, while in Bangkok, I took my parents to see Wat Phra keo (Temple of Emerald Buddha). This is the temple that houses Thailands most precious Buddha statue. It was originally thought to be made out of Emerald, but in reality is made out of jade. This tiny little Buddha has its clothes changed three times a year, one time for each season, by the king. You arnt allowed to take pictures in the building where the Buddha is, so my picture is a picture from outside in. Apparently, this is ok to do. I also have taken pictures of the royal palace and the three jedis that are right beside wat Phra Keo.

Cambodia 1

Last week my parents came to visit me! I was so very excited to see them after being apart for almost 2 years. The day after they arrived we went to Cambodia. We went to the city of Siem Reap where the famous temples of Angkor Wat are located. Angkor Wat is said to be the world's largest single religious monument. These temples were built over a period of 300 years, between 900 and 1200 AD. The city has more than 200 temples in it. They were rediscovered by the western world in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, many of them were destroyed during the time of the Khmer Rouge. Also, many of the statues were beheaded by the starving and impoverished village people and sold to other countries in the 1980s. They are simply the most amazing temples I have ever seen. They are unbelievably huge and detailed. The top picture is of my parents and I posing in front of the most famous temple known as Angkor Wat. It is massive! The second picture is of my parents in front of one of the many gates. The third picture is my parents sitting in a window of one of my favorite temples known as Preah Khan. It was incredibly destroyed, but it was a maze of door ways and passages. Once inside this temple you were kept cool from the heat outside. The last two pictures are of my favorite temple known as Bayon. This temple is covered in over 200 of these large stone faces depicting Lokeshvara, a Buddhist deity that projected benevolence outward to the four directions.

Cambodia 2

The top picture is of a little Cambodian boy playing and searching for crabs at one of the temples. The next picture is of my Mom and Dad posing in front of some elephant statues. There was a very long terrace of these statues and elephants carvings that stretched for about a quarter of a mile. The next two pictures are at a temple known as Taprohm. Many huge trees had grown over this temple making for a very beautiful and interesting site. The people are very proud of this temple because the movie "Tomb Raider" was filmed here. The bottom picture is of me sitting under one of the trees. That should give you an idea of how huge they are!

Cambodia 3

The top picture is that of one of the many gates to the temples. Notice the many faces at the top. The temples of Cambodia were simply covered in intricate rock carvings. Each one was a beautiful piece of art. It was so sad to see so many of them faded and destroyed. The temples also had many children surrounding them selling postcards and handmade goods. Above is a picture of a little girl that sold my mom 10 postcards for a dollar. Something interesting about Cambodia is that they prefer American money to their own currency of Riel. One dollar was equal to about 3,800 Riel. All of the temples had children who were constantly trying to sell products to you to help support them and their families. The last picture is the saddest. The last day of our tour we went to a land mine museum. There we saw some land mines that they found and were able to deactivate. The museum is run by people who have lost limbs from land mines. It was in an area of town where the streets were destroyed and never repaired by the mines. Poverty was everywhere in this area. The saddest part is after almost 30 years there are still many mines that have not been discovered and wait for victims. In the picture I am sitting beside some of the bigger land mines. Cambodia was both an eye opener and amazingly beautiful. Its sad to know that these people in the 70s were devastated and almost all of their educated people killed. The country is still unfortunately covered in poverty. There was a striking difference between the current construction of the town and the existing poverty. In all, Cambodia was amazing and a must see when going to Asia!

Bonn Om Teuk

Last week my Mom and Dad came to Thailand. Then the next day we went to Cambodia. We arrived in Cambodia on a major holiday known as Bonn Om Teuk. For my Thai friends, they have the same holiday in Thailand only they call it Loy Gratong. This is basically a holiday to give thanks for water and the rivers. I found it interesting because this holiday differs a bit in Cambodia than it does in Thailand. First you go and buy, or make, a floating basket that has incense, candles, and maybe candy or coins in it. In Cambodia they are made out of plastic, Styrofoam, or paper....and in Thailand they are made out of banana leaves and flowers. Then you light the incense and candles and you take it down to the river and say a prayer for thanks. Then you give it to a child that is waiting and they swim the basket out to the middle of the river. This was really fun to watch because in Thailand you just set the basket on the river by yourself. The kids really seemed to enjoy this! By the end of the night the river is covered with lots of floating luminaries going down the river. Its truly a wonderful and stunningly beautiful holiday.

The Fellowship of the Ring

Yesterday I finished The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien. This is the first in the Lord of The Ring trilogy that follows the Hobbit. Bilbo ends up leaving the shire leaving Frodo, his nephew, behind to keep the ring he found. Gandalf the wizard finds out the ring is the powerful and the dangerous one ring that is being sought after and sends him on a quest, with some fellow hobbit friends, to go to the elves in the wood. On his journey he is pursued by 9 black riders. When he finally gets there a meeting was held to figure out what is to happen to the ring. They decide to destroy the ring and a fellowship of 9 people, including the ring bearer Frodo, set out on the first part of the journey.
I give this book a 4 out of 5. It was very exciting, but there were many boring parts in the book that were difficult to get through. Regardless, I am excited to read the second book in the series. If you can get through some of the boring parts this book is really awesome!