The ajarn.com quiz

Have you got what it takes to be a teacher in Thailand?

Why should women's magazines have all the fun? Try our ten questions and find out if you're cut out to be a teacher in Thailand.

It's not the 'Land of Smiles' for us

Facing challenges as a black teacher in Thailand

For the sensitive minded people who live in utter oblivion about skin color, this is probably not the article for you. But this is the cold hard truth.

What makes an ideal school to work for in Thailand?

Postbox letter from Tom

If the teacher is not motivated, creative, happy, calm, realistic, reliable, patient, resourceful, pragmatic, disciplined, then it is the fault of the school and the way it is run

Class control

Tips on how to make your kids classes go smoothly

You need to know how to control kids better than they know how to control you. The way you control any class depends on what size class you have and also on the age of the children, but here are some tips on how to keep your class together.

Teaching 'with' students, 'to' students and 'at' students

Sometimes I decide to just look on the funny side of trying to teach

I've been teaching in various capacities almost two years in Thailand now, and the differences between teaching students who want to be with you versus those who must be there are quite clear.

At least nobody died

Sometimes just be thankful that's as good as it gets

I'm now in my third year as an English teacher at a secondary school in Thailand. I guess you could say I'm a veteran now, though this is a job which 'veteran' doesn't mean much

Work with the tools you have

Postbox letter from Khru Mark

On the topic of Thai classroom assistants and are they useful to a foreign teacher? I have six teachers with me. (One for each level that I teach.) They are all different and they all need to be treated differently.

What labor laws?

Postbox letter from Russell

Well, we find ourselves again at the end of the school year and for many the end of our contract. If like I and my three colleagues, you're wondering if your school will reward you financially for your services for the past year, think again.

Time for a change

I've had enough of the Thai government school system thank you

I’ve managed to locate my frustration and work out a solution - the Thai education system just isn’t for me. Not the government schools anyway, or at least the school that I have been teaching in for the past 18 months. So I’ve decided to get out. Not out of Thailand, just out of the system.