Koh Tao

So we had a long weekend a few weeks ago, so me an my roommates (both who happened to be named Sarah... that gets a little crazy sometimes) decided to go to Koh Tao, which means turtle island :) Apparently sea turtles used it as a mating island, but since people began inhabiting it, they all went away, so we were hoping to see some, but didn't. Although it turned out to be a wonderful weekend.
It all starting in a bit of a hurry. Sarah G and I had gone to get the tickets earlier that week, and one of the ladies who worked in the office had arranged it to have a taxi come pick us up on Thursday at 7. Well... of course it would have to start to rain! Rain here stops EVERYTHING. You would think they would have a plan, since rainy season is an annual thing, but no, traffic STOPS. So our taxi drive was stuck and wouldn't make it on time, and due to what would now be an hour or more of extra travel time, the lady from the office called at 6:30 and said we needed to leave right away. Of course I wasn't dressed yet or done packing, but it was quite a scramble. We were out by the sidewalk a few minutes later attempting to hail a taxi in the rain. 5 taxis probably passed us by before we finally found someone who would take us. It ended up taking about an hour to get to the bus station, but it was a VERY eventful ride. Our young taxi driver was very entertaining. He was teaching us Thai and telling jokes and telling us about his life.



We got to the bus station with some time to spare, and of course had to stop by 7-eleven to get snacks. We finally loaded our bus (which pulled into the wrong terminal #... thankfully a nice Thai woman was there to help us out) and got ready for the long 6-7 hour drive. I of course slept without any real trouble, I just bundled up and dozed off. My roommates didn't fare as well. We arrived at the bus station in the south around 4am and had to wait there until 5 to catch our shuttle to the pier. Once we got to the pier and boarded the ferry, it was a 3 hour trip out to the island! In all it ended up being a 15 hour journey to get there, but it was SO worth it!!
We checked into our cute little hotel, and then set off to explore.



We walked all over the island. We saw some whale bones! and then hiked up to an overlook point. NEVER have I ever hiked something so steep! One nice woman let us come into her house halfway up for a break and a look at the view! Then we continued on. We got to the top and saw an overlook of a beautiful island next door that we were bound to get to the next day.







We went back to our hotel and swam for awhile before venturing out to find dinner. Being teachers, and having worked so hard the month before, we decided to go to bed at 9 :) We got up early the next day for a full day of snorkeling! A car came and picked us up and took us to the docks. We were supposed to leave at 9, but being Thailand, this company didn't have any way of capping the number of customers, so they had 300 people to accommodate. We ended up waiting for an hour before we could board a boat. There were some Thai people there who wanted to take pictures with us (we get this request a lot). So we took a few jumping pictures and talked to them for awhile.
We finally boarded the boat and it took us all around the island. We stopped at about 5 coves to snorkel. The fish were beautiful, but I have seen a lot of them before in Hawaii and Koh Phi Phi. What amazed me the most was the coral, and the amount of it! It was SO colorful and abundant. I wish I had an underwater camera so that I could show you! We had lunch on the boat, and then our last stop was the island we had seen the day before at the overlook. It was GORGEOUS! We hiked up to an overlook and then around a boardwalk that wrapped almost all the way around the island. Of course there were more Thai women up at the overlook wanting pictures. We were really sad to leave this island. And then of course being so tired, we went to bed early again that night.











The next day we did some shopping until it was time to board the ferry again for the long journey back. We were shuttled back to the bus station only to have to wait 2 hours to board our bus. We decided to go next to to Splinter's for some dinner. It was a really awesome restaurant. They assured us they were open, eventhough there wasn't another soul to be seen besides the workers. We sat down anyway, only to find out that EVERYTHING was in Thai. Of course we can't read Thai, and there were no pictures. Luckily we knew a few dishes in Thai and were able to order them. I'm not sure if they actually had them on the menu or not, but they made them for us. It was SO good!!!
Then another 6 hour bus ride and an hour taxi ride, and we were back at school. It was a wonderful vacation, but I wish it could have been longer!! We have another 3 day weekend coming up in two weeks, and I think the plan is to just stay at home. I need some rest, and I REALLY need some time to get my room clean and get things organized.

Year 2

Well, I've been back now for about a month and a half. It's gone by so fast! This year is quite intense for me. Last year I co-taught grade 4 with Jill, who was amazing! It was a great way to start, because she taught all of the science, and I taught all of the math. We were also able to level the English classes. It was great, but now I find myself at a bit of a loss. Teaching math isn't too bad, I've done it before, and although not all of the kids understand it, I feel like I really know the material and it's easier for me to help them. Science and English on the other hand are quite a struggle. There's so much more that comes with teaching science... it's such an abstract thing to teach sometimes. The students don't know English very well, and so a lot of the science vocabulary is totally new for them. I've been trying to use a lot of pictures and videos, and I also am not using the book aside from looking at pictures, because it's just full of words that are overwhelming to them. So I take a lot of time to really learn the material, and then I just teach it, as opposed to them reading it out of the book. But this takes a lot of extra time! There are also a lot of experiments that we do. But these books are designed to be taught in America, so some of the materials are difficult to find, and I don't know where everything is because I've never had to use it before. English is just as challenging. I have students who can't read, and students who are on grade level, so it's hard to know what to teach and how to teach it when the ability levels are so vast.
Not to mention all of that, I have 25 students! It doesn't sound like much, I know they get about 30 in the states, but when it's a bilingual classroom, 25 is a lot! It's actually the maximum number of students they will put in a classroom. There are also a few students with special circumstances that need to be considered. It's hard to stay on top of everything.
But it's been good so far. I've worked some days from 7:30am-10:00pm, but you do what you have to do I guess. I don't really know how to not work hard :P But after this year things should get easier (if I stay). I will be familiar with all of the curriculum and will have a better idea of what I'm teaching and how to teach it.
The students are great and I really enjoy them. They are funny and very talkative (which also means I am a very strict teacher!) but we have a good time! Here are few pictures, I don't have many, but I will get more soon.






I just got back from a great 4 day weekend vacation and I will post pictures of that soon.