Welcome to “Sunday Summary” in which I try to summarize the week that came before. This is the 96th installment, covering the week ending today, the 23rd of June 2024.
Each week, we link up with The Sunday Salon, hosted at ReaderBuzz, and Sunday Post at Caffeinated Reviewer. Check out their posts and the links to see what other book bloggers have been up to in the last week.
It was real whirlwind of a week — felt like it passed in the blink of an eye, the first of its kind since the school year began in early May. We had a series of heavy downpours which produced a few cancellations — Monday’s first Swimming class was a no-go as was our Friday morning outing in the playground. Due to flooding and the resultant snarled traffic, I was late to school twice and so took a taxi on Thursday and Friday to prevent additional tardiness.
We really have settled into a well-oiled teaching machine — the Thai homeroom teacher, our Thai assistant, and myself found ourself functioning on all cylinders throughout the week. We make for a really good team; I will admit that I was worried at the very start of the term as we have more than our fair share of overly rambunctious children this year but we have put together some solid plans for dealing with the more severe behavior issues. Those are lessening as time moves forward and the classroom is becoming a happier environment day by day. It is near perfect at this point.
The main topic for the lessons during Week 6 was Good Behavior and Manners with the first half of the week looking at what those in the West would view as “normal” parts of the curriculum. The last part of the week focused on matters more Thai in nature such as different forms of the “wai” greeting towards one’s elders and the deep-respect prostration towards monks. This is in preparation for next week’s Wai Kru (“Honor the Teachers” ceremony), a solemn affair with bunches of flowers.
The upcoming Week 7 will feature lessons in healthy eating, how to brush one’s teeth and wash one’s hands, plus the wonderfully titled “Excretion Habits”. The Thai teachers will handle the how to poo and pee lessons, although I do have some comical flashcards if needed. I do expect that there will be some disruptions in the schedule during the week as the children will probably decorate and practice for Thursday’s Wai Kru ceremony. Wednesday happens to be Sunthorn Phu’s birthday; he is regarded as Thailand’s equivalent to WIlliam Shakespeare. Most schools put on performances from his various plays on 26 June and ours had an assembly honoring him last year.
I spent most of my evenings reading and returned to stamps, on a small scale, at the end of the week. In preparation for next year’s “Project 65” I have started to re-do parts of my Philatelic Pursuits website. I am looking at different themes in order to redesign the site and have also begun the process of converting a number of pages listing new stamp issues into updated posts. As a result, I am working on my collections of France and Germany for the first time in a number of years.
I really enjoyed my book set in Antarctic read for this month’s Crossing Continents challenge; it wasn’t at all what I expected and I will probably read the next book in the series relatively soon. I had planned to write a review of How the Penguins Saved Veronica last night but a lengthy power outage played havoc with my intended tasks. At least it was light enough to read by during most of the blackout so I may finish yet another book tonight. I only have two more left to read from my June TBR.
Recently Finished
Currently Reading
I spent some of this week planning for the “Project 1965” blogs which will consume part of 2025 and much of 2026. I also wrote my usual three memes but missed out on the Saturday book review due to a power outage. I thought I would return to “5 On My TBR” by now but the weekly topics still do not interest me; in fact, the only ones that do occur in August (“Mystery” on the 5th and “Books About Books” on the 19th).
I didn’t do much in either of the Bullet Journals this week other than recording tasks and reflections into the previously made dailies and weekly layouts. The Brain Dump page got a little fuller and I am looking forward to continuing that next month. I really need to start sketching out July cover page ideas as the month is rapidly approaching. Perhaps something U.S. patriotic.
This was another light photo week, both in the classroom and out of it. I spent some time last Sunday preparing “digital flashcards” that I put on our class YouTube channel. These went over well during the lessons as I could pause each one to explain it before moving on. I did not make a class video compilation this week as I shot so little video (a total of just three minutes!). I think from here on out, I will only film unique events to avoid repeatedly showing the kids sitting in classrooms, sleeping, running around the playground, and dancing. This upcoming week’s Sunthorn Phu Day and Wai Kru Ceremony should provide some video-worthy material.
See you next week. . . .
Mark Joseph Jochim 
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