Diary of a Thai football season
(2021/22 Samut Prakan v Port FC
One of the most eagerly awaited fixtures of the season as the noisy neighbors come to Bang Plee
No matter how high Port FC are in the league, we always seem to raise our game to new levels when we play the Port Lions at home.
Richard Constable
Dodgers to dodge
My personal top five Bangkok rip-offs
Let me give you the heads-up on my most annoying Bangkok rip-offs, swiddles, swizzes, scams, rackets, dodges, I mean forms of deceit (call 'em what you will) here in the Venice of the East.
Mark Beales
Longer classroom activities
Here is a selection of tried and trusted longer activities that are much than just lesson-fillers and warmers.
Activities for all ages and levels including role-plays, debates, grammar focus and some simply to get students using their imaginations.
Ricky Batten
5 mental health tips for expat teachers in Thailand
Mental health tips to help you cope with the pandemic and get better.
According to many of my expat friends and international school clients in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on their mental health.
Richard McCully
Do Thai students want to learn from textbooks?
And how do teachers feel about using them?
Whether you are teaching in a high school, university or private language school most students will be expecting to see some form of textbook to be assigned to them. It is like a comfort blanket to them.
Mark Newman
Long term work or short term work?
What are the pros and cons?
I'll simply take a look at some pros and cons for both long term and short term teaching stays in Thailand. For the sake of this article, 'short term' is anything less than a school year and for 'long term', any work that keeps you in Thailand for more than a year.
Stephen Louw
Food and the classroom
Language teachers need nutrition expertise too!
Our students eat. That's a good thing, except that after sweet snacks things can get complicated. This is most noticeable (for me, anyway) with kindergarten children who can't inhibit their impulses. The cause?
Sam Thompson
Time management
Five tips for success
I have a few common-sense time management tips to offer for any of you newbies out there struggling to have a night on the town without stacks of work to be done nagging you in the back of your mind.
Bangkok Phil
My perilous walk to the gym
Highlighting the ordeals that Bangkok's pedestrians go through every day
It's just a ten-minute walk from my house to the local gym. Yet even in that shortest of walks, I encounter almost every hazard, peril and obstruction that your average Bangkok pedestrian knows only too well and confronts on a daily basis.
David Walters
Should teachers plan?
Is lesson planning an absolute must?
Planning comes in all shapes and sizes and there are a myriad of planning templates online for every type of lesson. No matter what type of school you work in, you are sure to be writing lesson plans of some kind, but just how useful are they?
James Humphries
Be honest with yourself
Every teacher has made mistakes - including you!
I've read many teaching blogs down the years and I generally enjoy hearing about other people's experiences. However there is one thing I'd like to see more of - honesty
Mickey Sheehan
All hail the mighty khao pat gai
Boring yes, but never a dish to be underestimated
How many times have I been out for dinner with a group of Thai friends and that enormous bowl of khao pat gai has saved the day?
John Wilson
Can you start on Monday?
What lies behind that oft-heard request?
This request often means the organisation you are joining is less than adept at hiring procedures and is pressed for time. The ‘power-dressing princess’ delegated to find new recruits may have had little aptitude for the practicalities of recruitment.
Sion Binalon
Early intervention for special kids
Experts say intervention is crucial while the child is still very young.
Evidences show that early intervention increases the developmental, educational and social rewards. Moreover, the medical field greatly supports early intervention too.
Rachel Diamond
Finding a job in Thailand - the basics
From one newbie to another
If you're considering coming to Thailand on your own to find work as an English teacher, I promise you can do it.
TEFL Course News
January 2021
Our first TEFL course blog of the new year.
The latest news and promotions from some of Thailand's major TEFL courses.
Adam Crittenden
The benefits of working in an after-school language centre
Extra cash and more teaching experience for starters!
Teaching at an after-school has been a worthwhile experience. If you are willing to build your endurance and self-discipline then you will gain the rewards of more experience and some extra cash to boot.
Megan Swanick
Ten reasons to teach in Thailand
Why choose Thailand over other TEFL destinations?
Now, more than ever, being a native speaker of English (Or even non-native speaker) is a valuable world export and can be an easy, economic, and deeply rewarding way to see the globe.
Phil Roeland
Learner autonomy
Encouraging learners to be more responsible for their own progress
There are various ways to speed up the learning of a language. First of all, students should try to develop the habit of using the language they’ve learnt in the classroom outside the classroom.
Phil Hall
Getting a job interview - part 3
Legwork and salary negotiations
I was finally being offered teaching roles but the salary was typically around the 20,000 mark and that was just too low to consider. On the other hand, in most cases I would be the only Westerner at the school.
Jesse Sessoms
Species extinction
Reflections on how technology has changed the way we travel
We have lost our identities; we are lost to ourselves. We are but a series of endless reactions to online stimuli. Before we have time to think and form our own perspective on anything, we are looking to see what our family, friends, and peers said; what the reviewers said; what the online influencers said; what the experts said.
Steve Schertzer
The selfish generation
Covidiots and their dangerous ways
Unfortunately, the coronavirus has not brought out the best in us. To the contrary, it has brought out the worst in us. It has thrown the curtains wide open to reveal a human population so scientifically ignorant, many seem to be regressing back to a time of human sacrifice.
Mark Brown
Beta testers wanted!
Testers who provide useful feedback will be given additional free materials as they are developed
California Accent provides over 300 TEFL lessons organized into 16 courses and 5 curriculums. These lessons are intended to be used by TEFL teachers in Thailand to supplement (not replace) the standard teaching materials issued by the provincial administrative organizations.
Tom Tuohy
Teaching in Thailand post COVID-19
The 'new normal'
What does the future hold for education in Thailand? With the “new normal” in full swing, a “tourism reset” on the way, will there be any other meaningful changes in education, as some are hoping for?
Kylie Millar
Five myths about being a TEFL teacher
I'm sick of the moaners.....I really am!
I am sick and fed up of people coming out to Thailand with stupid misconceptions and then moaning about how awful it is to live in Thailand. Shut up and go home then!
Parin Hemtanon
How to gain teaching experience when you have none
Could lack of experience be the reason why schools aren't replying to your job applications?
When I realised that I was an inexperienced teacher, I decided to create my own life-changing “teacher training program”. These are things I did to pack my resume with relevant teaching skills and experience, which I believe helped secure my first teaching job.
Nick Tarver
The pee, the nong and the wai
Aspects of Thai culture
Although ajarn.com has never shirked from handing out some just criticism on Thai education and culture I felt it was only fair to balance worthy criticism with worthy praise.
Kink Bundy
My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 7)
Poor facilities and poor student attendance make teaching difficult.
Many of the students had taken out loans to come to this school. The loans could often be too much for their families to repay and they’d need to drop out for financial reasons, and end up leaving the school with no degree and a staggering pile of debt that their families would struggle to repay.
- My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 6)
- My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 5)
- My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 4)
- My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 3)
- My experiences of working in a college in Bangkok (part 2)
- My experiences of working at a college in Bangkok (part 1)
Charles Green
The teacher mindset
English teachers are all business owners
In Thailand, I have found that people quickly get labeled and categorized as either good or bad, helpful or unhelpful, good teachers or bad teachers, etc. Then once you are labeled it is a long and difficult process of changing your projected image.
Karisa Blake
Confessions of a new teacher
What I learned in the first five months
I'm Karisa and I couldn't be more of a cliché: a blonde, American, recent college grad who decided to go teach in a foreign country! Don't be too impressed with me; I'm hardly unique in this expedition to teach English abroad.
Jessica Watson
Dealing with the troublemakers
Discipline: tips on control in the classroom
Troublemakers. We have all seen them do their thing, causing mayhem and disorder in the classroom; perhaps you were even one yourself at some point during your time as a student. Troublemakers are the bane of every teacher's existence and they make our job go from difficult to pounding headache and hair-tearing proportions.
Dr. A.E Schneider
Things I learned about recommending students for graduate and professional school
Ways to truly support students’ path forward
Once applicants have accurately assessed their skill set, standing out amongst the crowd of outstanding applicants is surprisingly straightforward and achievable with enough hard work and preparation.
Jocelyn Pollak
Three fun warm-up activities
Games designed to get students focused on using English and getting comfortable with their classmates.
Have fun with these games and consider joining in with your students! Great EFL warm-up activities really set the tone for a great class. Enjoy!
Ben Bartee
Stumbling blocks
What I didn’t learn in my 100-hour online ESL course
I can see my skin through my dress shirt because the thin layer of fine linen is totally soaked through. In short, it’s too hot to care about anything academic.
Lee Lepper
An amazing TEFL journey
From Saudi to Thailand to China (and a bit of America in-between)
China is definitely on the upswing as far as English teaching goes. Thailand is a place I love but professionally dead to me. Saudi was challenging, interesting and of course lucrative.
John V
Excuse me, haven’t we met before?
A satirical look at TEFL personality types
If you’re just an average teacher struggling along in a sea of two legged sharks trying to do your best give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back, because you sir or madam are gold dust.
