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School stuff....

It was my last day of teaching today.

I found this out at 9am this morning. The other teachers and I were just about to start our first session of the day when our little Thai boss announced that Wednesday morning's English class has been cancelled. The kids are going on a field trip with their Thai teachers instead.

My class was cut short too, so that the kids could recieve their certificates and have an end of summer school 'party.' It wasn't much of a party. My English boss has the day off, and everyone else claimed to be too busy to find the time to organise anything. There were no prizes and no party games. I felt quite sorry for the kids. There was nothing much for them to be interested in or excited about, though, to a Thai kid, the chance to eat french fries and KFC is probably enough of a treat in itself.

I arrived at the so called 'party' to find that the Thai staff had got all the kids to sit around the edge of the room. There were a couples of tables, with trays of chicken and french fries, in the middle. As soon the kids had stuffed enough fried chicken wings and french fries down their gullets, they were encouraged to leave. The whole thing can't have lasted more than 15 mins. It was embarrassing. There was no atmosphere at all, just kids cramming food down them, getting their bag, and getting out of there as soon as they could.

Looking at the students, giggling between themselves, pulling faces, and trying to see whether they could get 4 chicken nuggets into their mouth in one go or not, I realised, I'm really gonna miss them...

They're great kids... and I hope the new guy realises that, and treats them that way too.

They still don't know that I'm leaving. The Thai staff haven't said anything, and I'm not sure that its my place to either. Whatever I say will be wrong, so, best not to say anything for now. It's kind of sad though, not being able to say goodbye to any of them, but I don't leave the school till the 31st. I should still see most of them milling around on the landing and playing football and chasing each other in the car park at break.

Although there's no more teaching, I still have to hang around at school as my contract doesn't finish till the last day of the month. Walking out early would mean kissing my bonus (and probably my last months salary too - Thai school's are notorious for cheating foriegn teachers out of their last month's salary when they leave) goodbye.

It's not as if I'll have time to be bored though. There's a desk to tidy and clear, worksheets and flashcards to organise and hand over to the teacher most likely to be able to make use of them, class lists to print out and go through, and almost 1gb of teaching resources and downloads; music, pictures, movies, e-books, worksheets, and ideas for projects - things I thought I would be able to use in class one day - to sort out.

Payday's the 31st, so a good halloween party is guaranteed.

I moan about school a lot. The Thai administration is shockingly inefficient, and our Thai boss unbelievably petty. I hate the fact that there's a Berlin Wall sized gap between the Thai staff and ourselves. Apart from our teaching assistant and afformentioned Thai boss we rarely talk to the other Thai staff, something I find quite sad.

But, whinges aside, I've had an interesting year there. I've learnt a lot and I know I'm going to miss it. I can't believe I'm writing this (bring me a sick bag.. pleeeeeze...) but, my ineffectual teaching assistant, the thai boss and the gossipping visa man, the people I usually do nothing but complain about. I'm even gonna miss them too.

Create Date : 22 ตุลาคม 2550

Last Update : 22 ตุลาคม 2550 21:47:32 น.

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