Welcome to Sunday Summary. This is a meme in which I attempt to summarize the week that came before.
This was our last “teaching” week at school with a new topic (“Non-Living Things”) and the last opportunity to review the children as best as we could for the upcoming final exams. I took my review sessions very seriously as this will be my students’ first-ever tests in their learning lives. The days were rather rain-free in Phuket with afternoon and evening thunderstorms making my downtime rather boring. I listened to some music, read a bit, ordered-in, and was generally rather lazy. My LL called most days which was quite welcome, as always.
Working
With the end of Term 1 rapidly approaching, there seemed to be a struggle to fit everything in before the students go on their holidays. There is, as of yet, no word as to whether the term break will be one month or two (I am certainly hoping for the former); thank goodness I will still have my weekend lessons come October 1st. The teachers were told early in the week to make sure we had plenty of selfies of us doing routines such as Gate Duty, Morning Assembly, and Teaching, of course.
The teaching photos have to be of us doing things listed in our lesson plans; a photo of a nice-looking whiteboard isn’t enough. In the past, the staff would come around occasionally to take in-class photos but they have become quite reluctant to do so since the Pandemic. I also used to give my phone to students to take shots when needed but I cannot exactly do that with Kindergarteners and I don’t yet feel enough of a rapport with most of my Thai teachers to ask them to take photos. So, I just made a few selfies of the kids giving me thumbs-up in the background.
The other photos were not a problem as I have been making a few here and there throughout various activities, mainly as a way of passing the time. There were a couple of extra opportunities this week with a magician performing for the kids on Monday and an awards ceremony of sorts on Tuesday. The magician (whom, I suspect, they got on a coupon or deep discount as he simply wasn’t any good) got me up on stage to assist him with one trick. Too bad that I hadn’t thought to pass my phone to another teacher as that would have made a great photo to include in my portfolio!
The sun was out in time for the Morning Assembly on most days which meant the return of the 20-minute exercise routine. It had been over two weeks since we had done it and all of the teachers were quite rusty on our first attempt Wednesday. I wore the wrong shoes (I usually change out of the dress shoes right after Gate Duty) and kept slipping and sliding through the dance parts and jumps. I managed to video-record a couple of small clips on Thursday.
The week’s topic was “Non-Living Things” which I decided to just have two batches of vocabulary — one for each lesson. First up was “Toys”. I had made a few flashcards but mostly I relied on realia — a few objects that I brought from home (a toy car, a game board, a hand puppet) but mostly things I found in the classrooms. Some classrooms were better than others with Teddy bears, Lego’s, bouncy balls, and more. This was a big hit with the kids who got to play with some of the objects; in some rooms, I think this was the first time they had been allowed to TOUCH the toys! (Some of the Thai teachers are VERY strict as this school.)
The second lessons evolved around “Classroom Objects”. Most of the kids knew the English word for “pencil” but had no idea on such things as “pen”, “marker”, “book”, “clock” and much, much more. I kept the vocabulary list to around five or six objects in each class as they really couldn’t handle any more than that.
Eating
I bypassed the school lunch most days last week but had some nice evening meals brought to me by FoodPanda, this included my favorite spaghetti Bolognaise twice and a nice grilled chicken with fries. One afternoon, I’d planned to venture to the west coast of the island where a Subway Sandwich Shop is located but a thunderstorm kiboshed that idea. Instead, I bought a loaf of bread and some sandwich fixings to make my own “mini-Subway”. I was disappointed that the local grocery store didn’t have onions or pickles so, sometime during my upcoming holiday, I will visit the big mall in the center of the island to stock up.
Reading
I didn’t finish any books this week nor did I start any new ones but I did make some progress in Stamping American Memory and Black Earth City. I hope to start one of the QEII books this coming week.
Blogging
This was another low-blogging week with only two articles published: A Philatelist’s Tribute to QEII and Thainess Part 6: Names & Nicknames. I think that the next installment of “Thainess” will feature acceptable attire in the Land of Smiles and some of the laws against certain articles of clothing. There are a few new stamps that I would like to write-up for the blog. The just-announced Christmas stamps to be issued by New Zealand are quite appealing.
Listening
My musical week started out with a “new discovery”. There was a song on a compilation by a female singer called Clairo. I really liked it and ended up downloading her full discography (one EP and three albums). In some ways, it reminds me of early Dido. I listened to both artists for several days this week. Good rainy night music! The rest of the week, I added some live recordings and a box set by The Faces and listened to them and the early Rod Stewart albums chronologically for most of the week (I am now up to 1977 which is where my interest in Stewart starts to decline).
Walking
I walk to work every morning and walk home every day around noontime. The walk is nice, full of interesting sites of the Phuket Old Town with its iconic Sino-Portuguese architecture. When the weather is nice, I usually take a few photos along the way. This week, I did not go anywhere else.
Loving
Kan is still stuck up in Buriram with no end to mini-obstacles in sight. Enough said.
Photo of the Week
I hope the week to come is just how you want it to be. Cheers!
Mark Joseph Jochim 