Now that the fun orientation week was over it was time to get down to business. Due to the holidays at the end of December and the fact that the Thai semester was already underway, the 120 hour TESOL course was squeezed into two weeks(including one full day Saturday class). It was a lot of note taking, lesson planning and homework.

As tiresome as it was to have to be in class so much while in Thailand, it was necessary and helpful. Before I left everyone would ask me how I was going to teach English if I didn’t speak Thai; I had no idea. This course provided a basic structure of how to teach language, a lot of practice lesson planning (my least favorite part about teaching), and then two full days teaching at a school to get some experience.

The first day we went to teach at the Thai school I wasn’t that nervous. I’ve been in a classroom before and I felt confident that I could handle it. I was teaching four 1st grade classes and two 2nd grade classes with a partner from class. By the end of the day I was drained and laughing at myself for my lack of hubris when the day started. The students were so silly and wild and the language barrier is a real challenge. Needless to say we all went and got some much needed drinks that night.

A week later was our second day at the school and this time I was teaching alone and had 8th and 9th grade classrooms. I was much more nervous than before but the day went so much better. Don’t get me wrong, the older students still misbehaved (of course), but I was ready for it and I had more fun with them. It’s amazing how much I learned in two days of teaching Thai students after working in schools for 4 years in the states.

The most important part is to have fun with it so the students have fun learning English and want to continue. I realized that and then it was no problem because being silly and laughing at myself is something I do on a regular basis.