Teaching In Thailand- The Dark Side

When my husband and I were preparing for our big move to Thailand, we had many conversations about how our life was going to be different. Our hopes, dreams, and adventures we wanted to go on. Oh, the dreams and clouds were real and many dear readers! A little background- my amazing husband and partner in sarcasm is in the IT field, so he can work remotely. Me on the other hand took the public service road of education. My bachelors and masters are in education, hold multiple certifications, have received awards for my abilities, and have led teams and new teachers. 

Now, I thought I knew what I was getting into. See, I had taught overseas previously, in South Korea and China. I was experienced with being an expat and working in a new culture, assuming I had an automatic leg-up on my entry into a new school in Thailand. I also spent time doing research- reading about other peoples experiences and thoughts on life here. Everything I saw was positive!

Little did I know that all of the happy-go-lucky, life-in-Thailand-is-so-amazing, you're-going-to-LOVE-teaching-here blogs and info I had been seeing were misleading. Here's why from a trained professionals point of view...

*disclaimer- I will not be stating the name of my school as I am still currently employed here*

- In my school, I have four classes a day, with three planning periods. This is nice, and I love all the free time. However, unless I am teaching one of my classes, my only role in the classroom is to stand at the back and work as a teacher assistant. Keep kids quiet, help them answer worksheets during appointed work time, and occasionally provide examples of pronunciation on English words. I go many classes just standing around in the back of the room, sometimes shushing kids, but otherwise doing and saying nothing at all. If you are an experienced teacher, doing virtually nothing all day can feel quiet shocking to the brain and may be something you resent or feel irritated by. It's also very un-stimulating and monotonous for a person who enjoys challenges, having work, or being kept busy.

- Most classrooms don't use their A/C, or have A/C. Even for the most outdoorsy person, teaching in a room with 42 to 44 warm bodies during 95+ degree with, with humidity, gets to anyone. 

- Jumping off of the last point, you have 42 to 44 students in a room. The average in America is around 25 kids from my 7 years experience in country. While having a lot of students is not a guarantee that things will be difficult in a classroom, or that the education quality will be low, there is little question in most teachers minds that there is a direct correlation between class size and student success. Don't believe me? "The most influential and credible study of CSR (class size reduction) is the Student Teacher Achievement Ratio, or STAR, study which was conducted in Tennessee during the late 1980s.  In this study, students and teachers were randomly assigned to a small class, with an average of 15 students, or a regular class, with an average of 22 students.  This large reduction in class size... was found to increase student achievement by an amount equivalent to about 3 additional months of schooling four years later." Also, "...Large classes are associated with challenges in delivering high-quality and equitable learning opportunities (Bligh, 2002). For example, students in large classes do not have the same opportunities to interact with the teacher compared to students in small classes (Maringe & Sing, 2014)." Now you try taking 44 unruly 13 year old's, half or more who don't speak English, and try lecturing them for 50 minutes. Yup.

- The grading system set-up breaks down to 10 points of grading for 6 weeks of classwork, with most of those ten points coming from one or two activities. That means that out of 12 lessons, only work that students complete in 1-3 of them will be worth a score. Translated into normal class means that it results in students who aren't required to complete anything worth a grade and can get away with sleeping, texting, or not paying attention for the other 11 to 9 classes, as no negative consequences will befall them otherwise.

- Branching off this point, student behavior is atrocious. If you walk down the halls at my school, regardless if it is past a Thai teachers class or foreign teacher, you will see many students who have their heads down, are on their phones, chatting/drawing, or simply not paying attention. This is considered normal and acceptable, with lack of attention given to speakers commonplace even among adults. This same behavior is rampant among the hundreds of Thai teachers at all staff meetings after school once a month. By the end of one staff meeting I attended, by 6:30pm, the entire auditorium was buzzing with conversation, and not quietly mind you! This was even though an admin for the school was still presenting and the meeting was not over! Staying quiet, paying attention, even taking notes, in a foreign teachers class are unusual and abnormal things here.

- No student left behind. Literally, we are not allowed to fail anyone. Even if that student has not done any work, handed in zero assignments, or failed multiple tests through their own lack of studying. We allow for them to retake it, or in some cases as I experienced once, the teacher will have to sit with them and "help" them take the test to guarantee they pass. While I support the idea of reattempting work to correct mistakes (this was a core philosophy of my previous school), the core of this approach rests on students reviewing the mistakes they made, examining the individualized critiques and comments from their teacher, and making corrections to improve upon their score. That is not what's happening in this situation. Students simply complete assignments a second time, and often times are permitted to complete a simplified, easier, or watered down version. They aren't truly tested on what they have learned from their mistakes, or how to do better. 

With all this being said, there are many who enjoy what they do here at my school. There is a lot of free time to relax, the work load is easy and split among the members of your team so that you aren't having to create everything by yourself, and you often receive at least some help from your Thai co-teachers. There are many holidays, so you get at least a day or so off every month, and the hours are nice (7:45-4pm). Additionally, rarely do teachers stay late, and additional tasks that fall after school or on holiday breaks are optional but not required. For a trained professional, I can finally breath compared to my previous work in the States, and have been able to just slow down again. I have time to grade, lesson plan, or prepare worksheets without taking work home, plus extra time like right now when I'm writing this blog! Everyone always talks about how cute the kids are, suddenly finding meaning in their lives with teaching, how it's such a great way to travel, blah-blah. Well- sorta yes sorta no. It's not always all its cracked up to be, and if you've got prior experience to compare to, this might not be the haven you're looking for. Come in with eyes wide open and an understanding that not all things are perfect, and you might have an easier time adjusting than I have.

Always,

Rita

Remember to Remember

Take a moment and try something with me here- just stop where you are. If you're standing, take a seat, even if on the floor. Relax your shoulders, arms, legs. Become aware of your jaw and any tension you are holding there, let your body come to rest, just for a few seconds. Allow the your stress and anxiety from the day to dissipate out of your body and leave you.

It's amazing how much worry we carry in our body, and the way that it manifests itself into numerous discomforts, pains, and burdens. Additionally, it astounds me how much we learn to carry with us, the manner in which we so easily adjust to that burden and learn to shoulder it on a regular basis. Here I am sitting just shy into my third week in Thailand, and I find the fact that I have free time disturbing. Should that be the case? Hell no! But I do. The reason is simple, I grew accustomed to it while living in the United States. By the time that I left my role at my last school, not only was I teaching 7th grade social studies, I was also the head of the 7th grade team, the head of the mentoring program for new teachers, a mentor to two new teachers, and a member of the school improvement team. My regular days had me arriving at work easily 30 minutes early, although usually 45 minutes honestly. With the plethora of responsibilities that I was bestowed (not all willingly...), my work days were pushed back to ending normally 30-45 minutes late (although there were days where I did make it out on time, this was rare). The first three months of the most recent school year saw me leaving the school one hour to an hour and a half after our work day ended almost every day. Let's do the math- that's anywhere from 45-60 hours in a work week. And I was only compensated for the mentoring role, nothing else. 

Is that a crazy large amount? Realistically, not really compared to others I know (My husband once worked around 90hrs/week for a job). At the same time, when did it become normalized to expect people to sacrifice their lives to their job? To give up so much to a job that only cares about how much the employee is willing to do for free, and only compensates their employees if its necessary or they feel pressured. My former employer specifically tried to keep me by negotiating pay benefits to keep me from leaving on the requisite that I take on additional responsibilities. Do you know, the reason that I only had to work the extra 1-1.5 hours every day that I did with the number of roles I was carrying was due to my extreme ability to organize, years of previous work accumulated that allowed me to simply modify instead of have to create all my lessons, tests, quizzes, and activities, and amazing team that had the best damn collaborative dynamic I've seen in my adult professional career. To take on more work would be insanity for me. In the beginning, those first three months saw me crying from stress basically every week, and breaking down from the workload thinking I wouldn't be able to do it, fearing that I might need to leave my job from the anxiety and pressure I felt. And keep in mind, previously I have worked a full time job while also studying for my masters part time, and leading a volunteer program at an orphanage in the past. I didn't feel even 1/3 of the stress and anxiety I describe during that time. One job shouldn't have done that to me. 

Which led to me here, sitting at my desk in Chiang Mai, Thailand, breathing in the rain air. Reminding myself and all of you that it's okay to slow down in life. Never in the United States, during my seven years of working as a professional educator would I ever have had time to sit down and blog, study, learn about eco travel, or essentially anything that wasn't work. While I haven't fully adapted to the amount of free time I have yet, I am learning to remember- remember what it was like in Seoul, when I could sit and enjoy a book between classes, making travel plans, and write emails. Remember what it was like in Qinhuangdao when I would go for a run between classes, finish my class and go back to my apartment without staying late, and explored my passion for cooking. Life doesn't have to always be 100 miles an hour, and I knew this once upon a time ago. It took moving to the other side of the world to relearn this, but I will continue relearning until it sinks in, taking each day as it comes, and grating myself grace.