School Visit

On Thursday we returned to the school that we had postponed our visit to on Monday, only to find the place all closed up and no-one there, except some workmen collecting rubbish. I had arrived before my coordinator, so with my very basic Thai I managed to establish from them that there was indeed no-one there, the teachers having all gone.... somewhere. I didn't get that bit! I was assured that everyone would be back the next day. So it was back to the office for another day of reading up on principles of pre-school teaching practice and curriculum (2-4 year olds being my area of least expertise!) One of the Thai team in the office phoned the school director for us and it turned out that an emergency meeting of teachers had been called by the ministry the previous day, and the director had forgotten to inform us.

So we went back on Friday, and this time everyone was there! This is the one remaining school that I will be working with (as opposed to pre-school centres). The story by now is too complicated to try and recount! The idea is for me to work with the Kindergarten classes (4 and 5 year olds). We spent most of the day in the KG2 class with the 5 year olds, just observing and interacting a bit with the children. The really frustrating thing for me is not being able to communicate directly with them in the way I normally would. But then that is exactly the frustration that the teachers feel when trying to communicate with the children who do not speak Thai, so I won't have any problems putting myself in their shoes!

The main activity that we observed in the morning was what I suppose would be called a "phonics and handwriting" lesson in the UK, which seemed to go on for a very long time, with lots of practice in exercise books. At one point we left to go and see what was happening next door in KG1. When we came back, some children were still carrying on with their letters, and the rest were playing with plasticene. There was some very imaginative play going on, including a whole meal being meticulously prepared in one corner, and a complicated outdoor lake scene complete with boats being created in another corner.

At 11.00 they stopped for lunch, which was eaten in the patio area just outside the classroom. After lunch, they were able to play outside, though by this time it was pretty hot, being almost mid-day.

When they returned to class, the idea was for the children to have a sleep, though none of them seemed especially disposed to the prospect! After  a bit of poetry recitation and Buddhist chanting and meditation, most of them did settle down, and we were able to spend some time chatting to the teacher. She gave us some very useful background information about the curriculum expectations, the background of the children and the challenges that she faces in trying to support them, in particular with their language development to get them to Grade 1 standard. There seems to be a strong emphasis on writing, which probably explains the length of time spent on writing practice in the morning.

We will need to return and spend more time observing to get a clearer idea of the areas for support, but already from this one visit I can see there is plenty of scope for developing practice in a whole range of areas from interactive and child-centred learning activities to classroom management and discipline. Main question is, where to start?