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.

Construction

So, things are pretty upside down around here. Offices have been shuffled and furniture has been moved and who knows where half of the stuff ended up! But it's definitely going to be beautiful when it's all said and done! I can't wait to see the finished product... they are saying the end of July, which probably really means around September, or at least that's my guess.
To cover up the construction, they have posted HUGE posters of us teaching. They just choose random pictures from throughout the year and post them up, sometimes around the school, and sometimes randomly on billboards around the city. I made it on one this year :) And it's actually a decent picture.
Here's a bit of what the construction looks like right now... I wish I had before and after pictures, but you'll just have to go with the in-between pictures.

So, we're just going to skip the being at home part... I pretty much just did what I did before I came here... I hung out with friends and family. Not much to report there, but you can see pictures on facebook.
I'm now back in Thailand, and it feels like I never left. Except for the fact that they tore up half of the school and there are some new teachers and some that didn't return. But it's good to be back. I have two awesome roommates, both happen to be named Sarah, and there is also another Sarah who lives across campus. There are 4 new female teachers and one new couple. There are a lot of returning teachers which is unusual, but really awesome.
I've been here for 3 days now and still haven't unpacked, pretty typical. I need to go get coat hangers but I just haven't felt like walking to the store, so things have just stayed in my bags. I'm okay with that for now. I have an awesome new wardrobe that's really big and a nice new desk where I can sit and grade papers into the night. I'm probably going to be doing that often now that I have a class of 25! That's as big as classes get here, and I'm definitely going to have my hands full for the year!
We had our first day of orientation today and went over all of the changes and the new rules. We are blessed to have some awesome administrators that really want to help make things go well for us. With all of the construction going on and having to move offices and the staff room and so on, they've been great about trying to keep things as normal and un-hectic as they can. But that's what living overseas is all about, at least in the countries that I've been to. You just have to learn to expect the unexpected, be flexible, and go with the flow. It's not always easy, but you make it work.
After orientation my roommates and I cleaned out the entire kitchen and re-arranged the living room. It feels good to have things in working order. Now if I could just get my room that way.... of course we all know that's probably never going to happen, but we can hold out hope...
Here are a few pictures of the construction going on... they were taken a while ago... since these they have torn down pretty much all of it.. no walls or floors or anything. It's going to be a few months before it's done.

Home

Hello!!!
I'm so sorry I have been so slack in updating this. I am back in the states now! I have been home since April 1st and will be here until June 2nd.
Between finishing up the semester, packing up classrooms, cleaning the apartment, having my sister visit Thailand, and packing to come back... there wasn't much time to blog. And since I've been home, well... I've just been lazy.
I will post a more thorough update soon with pictures and everything that you've missed over the last month or so.
Thanks for being patient!

Thinking back...

Today was graduation. We actually had 4... one for kindergarten, one for sixth grade, one for ninth grade, and one for twelfth grade. I was fascinated by the fact that graduation here really isn't a very big deal, in fact, most of the parents didn't even come. Students and teachers spoke and every grade had a slide show and remembered the good times they had together. They even played the Vitamin C Graduation song :P And it just got me thinking back to my graduation 7 years ago, I can't believe it was that long ago!! It was so scary leaving the only school and the only people I'd ever known (even though most of them I didn't even know that well, I was pretty shy in high school!). Back then, I never would have guessed I would be where I am today. It's crazy how things work out and how much people change. It's been a little over 2 years since I've been out of college, and time has just flown by. The experiences that I've had and the things that I've gotten to do are just amazing, and I'm only 25! There's still so much more of that to come.
I am very thankful for where I am today and for the experiences that I've had that have taught me so much. I'm thankful for this year (but also soooo ready for it to be over, haha, I'm ready to go home for a bit), and I'm excited to see what's to come.
God has definitely brought me a long way, but there's still a long way to go.
Congratulations to everyone at home who will be graduating soon!

Mae Sot

This past weekend we had Friday off for a Buddhist holiday. I had the opportunity to go with a few people from my church to Mae Sot. Mae Sot is a city right on the border of Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand. There are about 100,000 or more Burmese refugees that live here. A good number of them are children whose parents have sent them across the border to try and give them a better life. So there are tons of kids who need a lot of help. They live in schools that have been set up. They sleep on the floor and pretty much only have the clothes they are wearing and maybe a few school supplies. The schools are lacking in materials and curriculum and are struggling to get by. And most of these refugees are illegal immigrants... right now there are supports set up for them, but as soon as that changes, they will have to go. They never know when or if that might happen.
SO, I had the opportunity to go visit one of these schools. There is an organization called Imagine Thailand that has built relationships with these schools and so we are able to go in through them. Because it's about 7-8 hours away, we didn't have a whole lot of time. Some of the girls got supplies for the school and played games and did crafts with the kids. I helped paint the girls dorm. The walls were terribly dirty, so we gave it a few good coats of white paint, and then painted flowers, butterflies, and bees all over the walls. It turned out really pretty! The kids are so adorable and loving. It amazes me how easy it is to be with kids and have fun, even though we speak different languages.
One day after we had finished lunch, there were a lot of people painting, so I took a break to go outside and hang out with the kids. They had gotten into our trash and were cutting up the orange peels and the Styrofoam containers and mixing it with dirt so that they could play "chef" and make food for each other, and we would pretend to eat it. They stored this "food" mixture in an empty potato chip bag. I'm sure most of us have played "make a meal and pretend to eat it" when we were younger, but I highly doubt it was with someone else's trash. They have that little that they have to play with trash. It's really sad, but at the same time, we had a great time making "food" and pretending it was delicious.
It's just such a different life. It reminds me a lot of India. My life here is very comfortable. I have a nice apartment, I get paid, I live in the city where I can find almost anything I want, and my kids come from fairly well off families. I know I'm supposed to be here right now, these kids need Jesus as much as anyone, but I can't help but think... how long will I stay here? At least another year, but then what? Part of me is ready to move on and go live in the slums and the refugee camps, where there seems to be a bigger need. We'll see where life takes me. Until then, here are very few pictures from the trip... we didn't take a whole lot, sorry!

Valentine's

I had a fabulous valentine's this weekend. 6 of us girls got all dressed up and went out for a night out on the town (which actually ended at 10 because we are teachers and get tired pretty quickly!).

We went to one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever been to! Well, we actually didn't eat there because it was crazy expensive and of course booked for the night, but we enjoyed some time hanging out in the bar/lounge area. They are both on the very top of one of the fanciest hotels I've ever been to... there's even a dress code! But it overlooks the whole city, and is so stunning right at sunset (despite all the smog in the city!)





We hung out there for awhile and took some pictures and I had a wonderful peach/strawberry smoothie complete with a flower :)






From there we went on to a cute little Italian restaurant. We were one of two parties at the entire restaurant, so we got a lot of attention :)

Then we topped it off by going to a cheesecake place at the mall. The plan was to go dancing or hit up some karaoke afterward, but being the teachers that we are, decided to call it a night and go home and go to bed.

Hope you had a fabulous Valentine's Day!