Culture of insouciance

The Cambodian rubbish dump, and my not so final, final exam

23rd January 2012

Many of the students in my class with their fancy clothes, laptops, I-phones, and I-pads, rarely experience an atmosphere where true learning takes place. Outside of the odd serious teacher they may have encountered along the way, they also live and learn in a rubbish dump, an educational one.

I don’t want to learn!

The biggest teaching hurdle: motivation

2nd December 2011

Motivation in the classroom, both from the teachers and the students, is essential for learning but it is a tricky balance to strike since the two are so interconnected; if the teacher loses motivation, so do the students and if the students lose motivation, so does the teacher.

Student mistakes

Thoughts on error correction

4th October 2011

As teachers, do we sometimes get too caught up in finding and punishing mistakes? Can more focus on creating quality work as opposed to avoiding errors improve the learning process?

The enemy within

The evil side of the TEFL industry

7th March 2011

It is a complicity of silence that sees many foreign teachers working hand-in-glove with a Thai administration that cares only about money and maintaining an educational system mired in cultural backwardness and social repression.

A teacher, an old wise man, two punks, and a chicken

Taking responsibility for your teaching

5th October 2010

Every once in a while I get frustrated with my students. Yes that’s right; I’m not a perfect teacher. But the person I should get most frustrated with, however, is me.

Handling a ‘sanook’ class

How to handle a classroom full of badly-behaved children

13th September 2010

Success in handling naughty students calls for common sense, creativity and resourcefulness on the part of teachers. Furthermore, a lot of reasons that trigger students’ behavior have to be addressed too, for if they are not, problems will surface

Taking responsibility - Mai mee rapitchorp!

We are more than just robots with marker pens.

3rd September 2010

How many teachers have really thought about their responsibility as a teacher in a classroom and the effect their teaching can have on future generations of people – lawyers, doctors, teachers?

Concerning plagiarism and copying

Sent in by Ralph Sasser

2nd August 2010

Plagiarism has been a problem here as long as I have been here and long before that. I hate to be the barer of bad news, but every teacher I know of has tried to stop it, including myself, with no success.

Skirting around the problem

Why focus on issues that have nothing to do with problems in education?

30th July 2010

Why are these banal topics regularly raised when so many critical and more pressing problems are evident in the Thai education system? What about the huge shortfall of qualified teachers? The embarrassingly low salary offered to them?

Great Expectations

When parents of students are simply too demanding

2nd October 2009

The demands and expectations that some parents burden their children with are alas often too great. At the moment I’m teaching a kid who hasn’t even turned six, yet his life revolves solely around learning.

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Fear of change?

In Thailand the government has set 2012 as English Speaking Year with a goal of encouraging students to converse in English every Monday. Such policies are useful but the major leap of enacting legislation to make English an official language for Thailand is also needed

Software for student tests

The integration of internet and computers with education and English learning is something students find normal, and classrooms without some access to educational software may seem quaint. Some students may even feel they can get more ‘professional' teaching from the numerous online ELT sites if a school is behind in IT.

Whatever happened to the shopping mall teacher?

They are the shopping mall English teachers - gliding like pale, undernourished phantoms amid the hordes of weekend Thai shoppers. The main reason I empathize with the shopping mall teacher is because I was once one myself. I know how desperate and soul-destroying it can be.

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About Ajarn.com

Ajarn.com was started as a small hobby website in 1999 by Ian McNamara. It was a simple way for one Bangkok teacher to share his Thailand experiences and pass on advice. The website developed a loyal and enthusiastic following. In 2004, Ian handed over the reins to Phil Williams and 'Bangkok Phil' has run the ajarn website ever since.

Ajarn.com has grown enormously and is now the most popular TEFL site in Thailand - possibly even South East Asia. Although best-known for its vibrant jobs page, Ajarn has a wealth of articles, blogs, features and help and advice. But one principle has always remained at Ajarn's core - to tell things like they are and to do it with a sense of humor. Thailand can be Heaven or Hell for an English teacher. It's always been Ajarn.com's duty to present both sides of the equation. Thanks for stopping by.