Teaching

I taught at 3 different locations while teaching in Thailand:

 Chiang Mai

My first stop in Thailand, while I was there I volunteered at a language academy which also helped out at some local schools. The volunteers would plan out the lessons, which I really enjoyed as it was great to see the students improving each week. Also, since it was small groups (only 3 or 4) of students and there was always at least 2 of us teaching, we could give more individual support and help them focus on the areas they were having difficulty with.

Me in a local school newspaper

Phayao

My second location, where I taught at a small local school. The kids there were a whole range of ages, from 3 all the way to 16, and I taught each year group once a week. It mainly involved working through exercises with them in their English textbooks, especially focusing on their pronunciation of words and helping them to improve. I also taught a couple of art classes, getting them to draw a scene and practice the vocabulary involved in it. These went pretty well, despite my (lack of) drawing ability:

 

"Art" lesson

What I really noticed while teaching at this school was the difference in culture and attitudes to education compared to Scotland. All the kids were well-behaved and for the most part tried hard to learn. They also showed lots of respect to me and the teachers. I never had any issues with bad behaviour, except sometimes the younger kids getting a bit too energetic (it’s hard enough to control a group of excited 6-year-olds when you speak their language, let alone when you don’t). All of the kids were very sweet and it was a shame to leave.

 

Saying goodbye to the kids on my last day :'(

Bangkok

My last location for teaching in Thailand, working with an NGO which travelled around to different schools and taught English through various activities and games. This was definitely the most work out of the 3 but also the one I found most rewarding. We had to plan out and deliver lots of different learning activities for the kids, at one point creating an entire 2-day English camp for one of the schools. But it was a great environment working with the NGO and the other volunteers to do all of this, collaborating on different ideas and plans. And it was amazing, after putting all of the work into preparing the activities, to see how excited the kids were and how much they got out of it.

The NGO's learning truck