joy joy JOY

BI have been officially teaching at Joy for almost 11 weeks now.  It has been an interesting and rewarding run. I am not quite sure how I went from working in clinical nutrition, charting on patients, to doodling pictures of farm animals on whiteboards for 62, 2-3-4 year olds. Life certainly has a special way of adding the unforgettable.

I really don't know where to start with how my past 2 weeks have gone. I have found new levels of exhaustion and overwhelming amounts of happiness I don't know that I can fully explain.

My life here is truly something that's hard to put into words. Last Thursday and Friday I experienced my happiest of moments, teaching at Joy. I would say that I have had a connection with my students from the start. Then there's my (tough) Thai teachers, who are great at their jobs. Our time together has been good and all sorts of unique. However, I think last week we all had the moments of recognizing our appreciation for each other.  Anoverwhelming, amazing feeling. The best part, I think even the students recognized it. Each day I am able to see a handful of parents, always greeting me with smiles and wai's.  I can't wait to share this with some of you in more detail, or in person. I laugh, I smile, and I love life that much more.

I think I set the scene by giving you a few snaps of my standout moments. I am excited to share.

Nadea and Jao-Nai showing me their creative discoveries.

My Thai teacher likes to punish the boys by putting bows in their hair. With the exception of Nop (2 years old), they all HATE it. They start to cry.  Another form of punishment that cracks me up, is taking a black permanent market and putting beauty marks on their foreheads and to the side of their lips on the cheek. It's funny and I need to get a picture.

A-Chin, oh A-Chin, I learn a little from this little guy each day. Turns out that this crazy raptor-frog-hopping spastic child can be transformed into a little angel when presented with marbles and a spoon. Someday I would like to put paint on this kids hands and feet and see how far he actually hops, leaps, and pounces in my 3.5 hours with him each day.  He can be frustrating and distracting, but when it comes down to helping him chill, he always makes me laugh. He just has to look at me with his giant brown eyes, extreme eyelashes, and big smile with his missing front teeth.  This is when he usually starts to blink rapidly at me and frog hop closer... Oh and talk to me in a high pitched, squeaky baby Asian voice...he sounds like a baby alien after sipping on helium. I have no idea what he is saying 99.9% of the time, so I laugh and high-five him. He the pounces away. It seems to work with him, I do this every other day.

Yes, Pruek...? You're drinking milk? What? Why don't you step a little closer.
Haha, yep a picture of him again, he's just to good to leave out of this blog. My daily goal is to make him laugh so hard he falls over. I'm not joking. It's so addicting! I want everyone to meet this guy, he's comical, smart, funny, and sweet..what's not to love.

Oh Chogoon, I will forever wonder where life will take you.  I have found a new love for this boy.  Lately he loves to mimic me, how I teach that is.  After class he comes to find me and quiz me on what I taught him for the day.  He has the look about him, "Alright, teacher, lets see if you really know your stuff." And when I get the question wrong, he's sure to correct me and happily give me a second chance.  The best part though, he has all my tones down - how I question the students, how I emphasize words, using the words I use, etc.  But this boy isn't all academic. He may be 3 years old, but he's into girls.  When it's playtime at the end of the day, he seems to find the one and only Barbie in the toy bin and take her shoes on and off for a half hour, while caressing her hair.  He occasionally comes to find me, I don't know what he's saying in Thai but I have a good feeling it has something to do with her shoes not matching.  He is a bit of a neat freak as well. The other day, I had some down time before the afternoon class started. Therefore I thought I'd have them help me with the Thai alphabet. A few students chimed in, but it was quickly stopped when Chogoon picked up on the situation. "No, no teacher. No." He then pointed to the English alphabet on the adjacent board.  I guess he's just wants to make sure I have my obligations in check at all times. Thank you Chogoon.

So, I've mentioned Pruek above. Turns out that my Thai teacher was waiting to fill me in on a little classroom romance. Pruek loves Thank (in the picture above with her arm around Rut).  We were all sitting in a circle in the classroom and the kids were really listening and having fun.  We just finished our lessons for the week and were having some social time, learning about each other.  My Thai teacher informed me more on the romance between Pruek and Thank, how Pruek kisses Thank every morning before school starts.  So, as she's telling me this, the class starts to follow along as my Thai teacher makes gestures and dramatizes.  Soon enough she gets up and has Pruek move to the other side of the circle to sit by Mook (a distracting, disruptive little lady). You can observe her feelings on the action in the picture below.  She literally sat like this the rest of the class. Pruek seemed slightly open to the idea. She then moved Rut closer to Thank as seen in the above picture.  The teacher put Thank's arm around Rut to see what Pruek would do.  Rut seemed ok with the idea. Thank, well, as you can see, I think she's playing it off well. She kept her arm around Rut for the rest of the class.  Lucky for her she's got two of the smartest boys in the class, which my Thai teacher confirmed several times.  I got the impression that this is a good way to aim if you need a desire a man in your life.

Mook and Pruek. Mook is clearly not thrilled with the situation as you can see.

My recent attempt at a homemade art project, with limited and inexpensive resources. We reviewed shapes, colors, boy, girl. 

Report books that I just love to fill out at the end of each class. I have gone through some serious amounts of ink.

Nap time preparations. Oh how I wish I was in the classroom to experience nap time.

Last week's gym class, tossing some tennis balls.  The best part, the balls ricocheting back at the vertically challenged, naive children. To which they would respond with lots of giggles.

Color fun!

THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN. 

My Thai teacher filmed the whole thing, I had no idea. She is going to get me a CD of it to share with all of you. Until then here's what I've got for you. 

Alright, bare with me on this. I couldn't film it from the beginning. I did my best to prevent small bodies from diving into a tray of rainbows.
See Clip

Me working on the report books while tiny faces peep up at me showing their latest and greatest. Pang Pang on the left showing me his Toy Story-looking character..doesn't it look like something out of Sid's room?

Pang Pang (Left) Chogoon (Right)

Numbers. A simple number for a simple boy..so I thought. He nailed his math midterm assessment this week. Wow, the child that never speaks and only repeats what I say. With all seriousness, most days I wondered how he got one foot in front of the other. Over the past week he has actually started to make conversation with me. Love the reality check. Never assume. Well done, Jorn.

 

Khunkaew, one smart, sweet, beautiful little girl taking on number 6. They really liked this activity. The little things.

And now a final moment to leave you with. I have but seconds to free hand pics on the board before my tiny minds set out to explore their vocals and spastic movements. This was my attempt at a random girl, objective..body parts and boy/girl. Not my finest drawing but the kids had fun with it.

Here is what I hear as I am drawing it..

"Teach-uh, teach-uh..SEX-Y. Sexxxy."

"Sexy!!!"

My Thai teacher starts laughing and explains that long curly hair in Thailand is sexy. I had no idea. Now I know why I have never seen my Thai teachers draw curly hair on their drawings. Oops. 

"Teach-uh, teach-uh... nohm hohm" - followed by giggling.

'Pure' starts to point to her chest saying, "nohm nohm," with lots of giggling.

"Nohm" in Thai means milk and breast, there is no difference. I was aware of this. Pure clearly thought that my picture was missing some important assets.  

Wow, so I don't know who learned more during that lesson, me or my students. Leaning more towards me. But I will say, the kids were extra attentive and took in every word that was said.  

I love how my Thai teachers made me handle the whole thing, smiling and giving me smirks. They were truly enjoying the scene. I'll take it.

Final word.  I just got word from my manager on Monday that he needed to give me some feedback.  He had this odd look about him, not really that odd actually...kind of his awkward default to be honest. I was slightly annoyed that I was going to have to listen to him fumble through his British English. And that was when he said, "so feedback for your teaching at this point...um so Kru Nok (female, head principal), and all of your Thai teachers are very impressed with the work you are doing. They have all personally came up to me and informed me. I just wanted you to know that. So thank you Holly, thank you for your excellent teaching." 

To be honest, I already knew. I could feel the love in my classroom, but it was nice of him to share and to also know that Kru Nok has been observing my progress (I had no idea). So yes, that's where I am at. 

-Stay tuned to more blogging. I had an hour to brief you all on a little of what's happening with me. I'm about to set off on a four day break, Buddhist holidays. I'm excited.-