The slaughterhouse called marking
It's boring, thankless work, right? Should we even bother?
Hunting down every error is hard on a student's ego, but also very time consuming for a teacher faced with a full class-load of papers. But there are ways around it.
Perfectionists: stay away from English teaching
Some rules of the road
There are some businesses you’ll get into in Asia as a teacher where the best you can hope for is a good one year and then you leave either because the environment is just so toxic or because you are going to get burned out or maybe you’ll just get sick of living in a rural area.
Classroom management muscle
Lessons from Arnie in Kindergarten Cop
Let us spend this blog investigating the question of classroom management. To do so, I'd like to use a visual example from a movie, something we can all relate to in some way.
A very stubborn teacher
When another teacher gets in the way of you doing your job.
I walked in and smiled at the 50-something Thai teacher, who was a pretty big guy. He sneered at me and returned to the whiteboard. Feeling rather non-plussed I retreated and waited politely outside.
An undeserved promotion
Foreign teachers are powerless to stop problem students advancing
Last year in my P1 class I encountered a student named Oat (not his real name). Within minutes of meeting this child it was apparent that he had some sort of behavioral problem. He was extremely active, running from room to room, disrupting classes throughout the whole school. The other teachers tried to control him but it was close to impossible.
Is it standard to have a certain level of social engineering in the Thai university system?
Postbox letter from Humanities dept. University teaching
I don't think I've seen such blatant disregard for foreigners ever.
A short-lived teaching career?
I'm not sure whether Thailand isn't right for me or I'm not right for Thailand.
In spite of the draconian disciplinary measures, the students are basically normal, mostly happy, playful, loving children, who are extremely well behaved, and attentive to my classroom instructions - when the Thai teachers and assistants are present.
Entertainer or educator?
And somehow smiling through the pain while trying to teach a class of 50 kids
I was forced to wear sandals for at least a week as my poor toe needed some pressure-relief in which to heal properly. As I limped into each classroom, the 50 or so kids would all notice my footwear and the large bandage on my toe. But not one student smirked or laughed.
The dreaded teacher burnout
How is it caused and how can you avoid it?
"I'm a new teacher about to start work in Thailand in April. This will be my first full-time teaching gig. I often see more experienced teachers refer to 'teacher burnout'. Just out of interest, what are some of the things that contribute to such a condition?
‘Sanook’, games and the Thai EFL classroom
Should teachers be entertainers?
One would think that the Thais' love of ‘sanook' would make the EFL classroom an inviting place for new EFL teachers, but the situation can be frustrating.
