Recent KK Happenings

August Pictures
Life around here has been pretty good lately. I hate being that person that only talks about her job but really there's not much else going on. Some big news in the past month has been the surprise departure of my American student. She's back to the States as quickly as she came. I was a little sad to see her go and it was just a preview of what the life of a teacher is like every year. I think this will just go down as "that time I went to a Thai kindergarten for 4 months" in her memoir but I will always remember the good and bad things she brought to the classroom :) I think it'll be great for her to be back in time to start kindergarten in the US.
Just three weeks left of our semester so evaluations are starting. Our last two themes are really fun so I anticipate a couple fun weeks of teaching (Arts and Crafts is one of the themes!) As for evaluations, this time I am happy they're not a page long but now just a paragraph seems too short. I know I'm being too picky but when I look back at the beginning of the school year to where the kids are now I'm so impressed. They have all improved on so many levels. Some of them barely said anything to me for months and now are the kids who hang around me always wanting to know "what are you doing?" or "what's this?". I answer those questions 15-20 times a day on average-if that would annoy you then teaching English to a kindergarten class would not be fun for you. They can speak in full sentences and correct themselves when they say things in the wrong order. Their writing has improved an incredible amount and I'm still impressed when they can spell numbers. I am just amazed at how much these kids can retain. I feel so fulfilled to play a tiny part in their development.
Other than teaching I have been reading, watching movies, eating , playing tennis and other normal things. Some abnormal things took place in the last week. One of the other PiAers (Alison) and I went dancing. Not to a club...to a bona fide class...outdoors. Not just any place outdoors, at the corner of a busy intersection in the parking lot of Babies Genius (side note-you'd think if you were going to be a franchise school teaching English you'd make sure you had a grammatically correct name. You'd think.)
I will try to describe the set-up first. There's about 15-20 Thais on any given night in this parking lot. There's a DJ blasting some Thai music and there is a usually one dance that is being practiced for the night. So the first night we were there it was the Samba. Everyone is practicing independently. There are a few teachers who go around and help the more experienced. There are people dancing with partners (more women than men are in attendance) and people just practicing steps on their own. We usually find someone practicing independently and then copy her steps. Usually someone else will come over and try to help us.
I was a little shy at first since I am someone who just shakes it to a beat rather than think about what I'm doing. And now I was going to learn to dance for the first time with an audience of cars and other gawkers. Luckily, Alison jumped right in and wouldn't let me feel embarrassed for more than 2 minutes. We walked over to someone practicing on her own and started to follow her steps.
We've learned the rumba, the samba, the jive, the tango, some line dance and probably others that I can't remember. Some people speak a little bit of English. At least enough for me to understand. A usual encounter is someone teaching Alison and I the basic step of the dance. They add on a little more. Since Alison is a more experienced dancer she picks it up quickly and moves on quickly. They stick with her until she's got the more difficult steps and transitions. And there I am practicing the basics by myself. They come over and help me more with the basic and that's that. We usually count in Thai (which I have aerobics and many Grease practices to thank for having the numbers 1-10 down almost as well as English! Sometimes I prefer to count in Thai because it is so ingrained from counting while practicing Grease dance numbers). So someone teaches me the basics, I practice for awhile. The male teacher comes over and decides I need to dance with a partner. This makes me nervous and no matter how well I know the dance I will for sure mess up. As as teacher, shouldn't I be over all forms of nervousness?! I messs up and he says "no no no" and we keep going until I frustrate him too much.
I have to say I love learning to dance. It's not something that comes naturally but I do like to learn something and have a clear goal to strive for and so this is perfect. And one of our dance partners told me it takes 1 year for most people to learn the dance moves AND make them look beautiful. That made me stop worrying about making it beautiful (probably to the disgust of every Thai person) and just try to learn some moves.
I will take pictures of this soon but for now you will just have to try to understand my late night brain drain. And beware...when I'm home next I might know a few more moves. But probably just a few.