Investing in people or rolling out policies?
Let's evaluate what happens here in Thailand as something we can learn from rather than condemn.
I firmly believe that we can look at Thailand and learn a lot about how we prepare our kids to enter society and live rewarding lives with the resources they have and priorities they live by.
The good, the bad and the virtuous!
By just being here, you are making the education system better.
I've isolated the most compelling reasons why people teach long-term in Thailand and there are four of them as far as I can see... we like doing it, we can do it, we get paid for doing it, and 'purpose'.
Keeping hold of good teachers and other reflections on the education system
Postbox letter from Martin
To keep teachers longer will be hard. The demand of good teachers is high and many native English teachers will go to international schools. Even good non-native speakers go to international schools. What is left are many teachers, but nowhere near enough to fill schools with middle-class children.
Things I admire about the Thai education system
Foreign teachers shouldn't knock it as much as they do.
Some teachers like to put the boot into Thai high schools - but I’ve recently been looking at it in a new light and have seen lots of positives.
Not your typical day at the beach
Choosing and then studying for a degree in Thailand
I came to study in a graduate program at an international university in Bangkok. I hope that by sharing my scholastic experience in Thailand, those people who are considering a similar move may gain some beneficial insight, helping them to make more informed decisions.
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.
Thai education and TEFL class management
A look at three practical examples to use in your classroom
Class management, although employing techniques, isn't so much a process as a mind-set requiring a separate skill set from that of delivery, a point often missed in progressive education orthodoxy.
The system is a mess!
Postbox letter from Wilf
In my time teaching in Thai schools in the Thai system, I could manage to control most of my classes, but some were simply impossible. The reason for all of this is not always the teacher's fault. Nor is it really the pupils' either. It's the system as a whole.
Teaching in the sticks
31 cool and awesome things about living and teaching in rural Thailand
Before we get into the list I just want to mention that everything is written in good fun. Expats and Thailand veterans will understand more than first timers. Certain sentences and parts reflect my own specific experience more so than the general one. Some of it might come across as sappy, but I've had a very positive experience in Thailand and the glass is half full for me.
Discipline in the classroom
The 800-pound gorilla no one talks about
On more than one occasion last semester when I was teaching at the local high school I walked out of classes because I wasn't able to control an unruly crowd of 35 teenagers.
