Angela Killian

After applying to several schools online and in person, I received a callback from a private school 1 hour south of my house – Kajonkietsuksa. They now have an international school, but I taught there when it was exclusively a private school.

I knew I was unqualified to teach Science, Math and Theatre to primary 1 children, but the school thought otherwise. It’s very typical in Thailand that people be placed in positions they aren’t qualified for. Luckily, I’m a fast learner. They did provide a brief orientation where I was able to ask veteran teachers questions. Many of the other teachers had a lot to complain about, but this school was a huge step up from the government school so I kept quiet.

I received my classroom keys and chargeable ID card. The cafeteria was open air and while the lunch was cold and inedible, they provided other (chargeable) options like fried chicken and ice cream. There was also a café across the street that had a better selection than the school so most of the foreign teachers ate lunch there. Pad Thai and a Coke = 50 THB.

The orientation was 1 week before classes commenced wherein we were required to lesson plan and decorate our classrooms. We were provided with few supplies so I had to buy things on my own. The head Thai teachers inspected the classrooms for flaws. If your classroom wasn’t “beautiful enough”, you had to redecorate until it met the head teacher’s standards. Luckily it was my Thai teacher’s 3^rd year at the school and she knew what would pass for beautiful. Although her English was elementary, she was very sweet and always tried to talk with me. I brought her a gift basket on the first day of school to ensure she was “on my team”.

The school provided us with fabric to have work blouses made, but we had to provide our own skirts. Yes, we were required to wear skirts and many of the Thai teachers even wore heels.

I was ecstatic to have several other foreign teachers at the school. The ratio of Thai and foreign teachers was about 1:1. The foreign teachers were all of different nationalities, shapes, sizes and aged between 19 and upwards of 50. It was the most exciting and challenging time in my life at that point.

A Typical Day Teaching…

6:30am – Leave house

The drive was 1 full hour. It was so early that I would often pass monks doing their morning walks for food offerings. It was stunning.

I rented an old Suzuki jeep that shook on the highway and lacked cup holders. It did have air con and a cassette tape player so it wasn’t all bad, plus I became an expert at balancing my coffee cup in the passenger seat while I drove. It was the cheapest rental on the island – 9,000 THB per month.

7:45am – 8:00am – Morning assembly

There was always a morning activity led by a foreign teacher (usually stretching or a game). The Thai teachers had their assembly activity privileges revoked because they would get ahold of the microphone and never shut up, thus making the students miss all of first period sometimes. As a teacher, I was okay with kids missing first period, but the school director had other opinions.

After the activity, we would sing a spiritual song called “Flowers Bloom”. Sometimes it was in English and sometimes it was in Thai. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTNgXPe8H68 There were hand motions associated with each line. It was surprisingly beautiful and relaxing aside from the bloody mosquitos that always crawled up my skirt. Did I mention the school common areas were open air and humid?

8:00am – Pay respect to the Thailand National Anthem and proceeded to class.

Students made two lines in front of the classroom and did their “line chant”. I don’t know what they were saying because it was in Thai, but EVERYTIME they lined up, this chant had to be said.

In the morning the students were required to wai both the Thai teacher and the foreign teacher. This was always really awkward and made me feel like a piece of shit. I don’t want people, especially children, to bow to me. Aside from the obligatory wai / bow in the morning, the students behaved like normal 6 and 7 year olds and did not show anymore respect for teachers than any other child. Although, TEFL courses would like to convince you otherwise. You can expect the students to call you “Teacher” instead of Mr. / Miss. I was “Teacher Angela” or simply, “Teacher”, but with the kid’s accents it sounded like “Teacha”.

The class schedule was very organized. I only taught 3 classes per day + homeroom every other week. When it wasn’t my turn to teach I could leave the classroom and do whatever I wanted, which usually meant I was at the mall in the air conditioning or next door chain drinking cappuccinos.

10:00am – 10:15am – First milk / snack break

All classes headed to the cafeteria for a complimentary probiotic milk and snack purchasing opportunities.

Many kids would take this time to play and / or buy ice cream. Well, really only the fat kids would buy ice cream at 10 in the morning. Others would wait until lunchtime.

11:30am – 12:30pm – Lunch

All teachers had lunch duty every once in a while, which meant it was your turn to plate the lunches on the tables and handle crowd control. The allotted amount of food per class was pitiful and many students brought their own lunch or purchased additional food in the cafeteria. I sometimes brought leftovers to eat with the white rice because I loved eating with my class and they loved it just as much.

If I wasn’t on lunch duty, I would have some Pad Thai next door and get caught up on my markings. All of the students work had to be checked in red ink. Many of the teachers, including myself, would fake the less important markings because the head teacher only checked once per month. Logistically, correcting every single error for 30 + students would occupy entirely too much time considering the kids never looked back at their busy work anyways.

The classrooms had air con units, but the rest of the school (hallways, bathroom and cafeteria) was open air. I was in a constant state of sweat and exhaustion from the heat. I snuck my drip coffee machine into the classroom for extra energy. This wasn’t allowed because it used extra electricity, but I masterfully hid it.

2:30pm – 2:45pm – Second milk / snack break

3:30pm – Homeroom

Every other week the Thai teacher would switch off with the foreign teacher. Homeroom could be used to help students with their homework or for playing games. Sometimes I would let the kids draw or color. After all, they were only 6 years old! It was common for the students to seek my guidance for drawing and coloring. They desperately wanted to be instructed on how to make things “beautiful”. I later discovered that not thinking outside the box / for yourself is deeply embedded in the Thai school system which explains so many of the frustrating cultural differences. The Thai teacher would even go as far as to NOT hang drawings on the classroom wall if it wasn’t “beautiful enough”. It broke my heart.

4:00pm – Normal classes ended

Students were required to clean their desks and pack their bags. Then they would stand up and say a Thai chant to thank the teacher for the day and say goodbye. Some of the students would even want to hug me goodbye.

4:10pm – 5:00pm – Extra lesson

Extra lessons were paid by parents who either wanted their kids to have extra help or for babysitting purposes. I usually had between 5 – 10 students for extra lesson. Each student had to pay 1,000 THB, but teachers only received 700 THB. The other 300 THB went to the school. The Thai teacher had extra lesson after the foreign teacher so some students would attend English extra lesson and then Thai extra lesson from 5:00pm – 6:00pm. The Thai curriculum was much more difficult than the English curriculum. Each week the 6 year olds had to learn 50 new Thai vocabulary words and only 10 English vocabulary words. It was intense to say the least.

5:00pm – Scan out

Teachers would be lining up outside the HR office to scan out for the day. After scanning out, I would begin my hour drive home. Sometimes I would go by the foreign supermarket to get ground beef or other western goodies to make dinner.

6:00pm – 6:30pm – Arrive home

Finally I would arrive home, peel my sweaty clothing off. After taking a lukewarm shower, I would slather myself in calamine lotion and drown in boxed wine until 9:00pm, when it was time for bed.