Welcome to “The Sunday Summary” in which I try to summarize the week that came before. This is the 171st installment, covering the week ending today, the 30th of November 2025.
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.
Here we are at the end of November, a month fraught with difficulty and uncertainty. The thumbnail for this post serves as a beacon of gratitude that I endured it — I used this Thursday’s Thanksgiving to do just that — and also a prayer that December will offer a way forward. The sweeping changes in Thailand at the moment cause a rethink of plans each and every day and it appears I will soon have to deal with yet another major change to my life. I should know more about that by next week’s Sunday Summary.
Indeed, the bright spot this week was Thursday — perhaps the best solitary celebration I have had of Thanksgiving since my earliest years in Phuket two decades ago. The first part of the week had been extremely difficult just trying to get from point A to point B due to the continued poor weather. Thankfully, that seems to be in the past as we have now experienced several rainless days. The disaster in Hat Yai, just a bit farther south in Thailand than my home, makes one even more thankful for anything we have as those there have lost so much.
My students and lessons remain enjoyable. I feel a bit more confident about teaching Math and Science than I did last week (I made it past my first bout with Word Problems and did my first in-class Science experiment) and we have started a multi-lesson project to do in the IEP English classes. We had been learning about “cool gadgets” which gave me the idea of having the students design their own. In each of two different classrooms, I put the kids into groups of four and simply told them to “be as creative as you can.”
We spent a couple periods brainstorming ideas and doing initial design sketches. It worked out that I could start the production part of their projects during my last lessons of the week. While I was expecting the students to draw images onto poster board along with a nicely-lettered title and short descriptions of their new “cool gadget”, most actually began making prototype models! I was extremely impressed not only by their creativity and ability to transfer ideas into actual physical objects, but also in their teamwork. Every child helped each other in their groups; I saw no evidence of laziness although a couple of Thai teachers thought they were too loud at times.
They will present their gadget designs in the regular classes starting on Tuesday. I have been staggering book-work lessons with the project-work classes since last Wednesday and doing so really helped the last part of the week go by much quicker. As I see the P5/2 class a lot less than the others (only three times per week compared to seven and eight), I have decided not to do a full-blown project with them at this time. Instead, each student will design a gadget in their notebooks — a drawing and a cool name should suffice. We will be at that point at the end of their lesson on Monday.
On Thursdays, my first lesson isn’t until right after lunch — a Math lesson at 12:50. I have loads of “free-time” from about 7:30 until then; last week, I did some blogging but this week I spent most of it on lesson-prep.
Generally, I jot notes into a book I carry around — reminding me of page numbers and a few tips on whatever the lesson happens to cover. I had already created a few “digital flashcards” for vocabulary last week — formatted images that I can project onto the large video monitor in each classroom. This week, I decided to do more than that, first creating projector cards containing additional word problems for students that finished the problems in the workbook early. That led to me creating cards better explaining what we are learning in Science (not only for the students but as a reference for myself; I can glance up at the screen if I lose my spot or forget how to explain something). I continued with cards for the upcoming lessons, adding better images than the textbook contains and a few expansions on the material.
This is a lot of work but it makes the lessons a lot more visual. Also, I do not have to write as much on the whiteboards thus saving from having to buy more markers every time I turn around (I ran out of ink in FOUR just the first week-and-a-half!). Eventually, I will start making some games and puzzles that can be displayed on the screen as well.
In the midst of all that creation Thursday morning, I decided I would do a brief warmer in my classes that afternoon about Thanksgiving. Specifically, I taught the kids the word “gratitude” and the benefits of its practice. That led into telling them about the American holiday and what it means to me (it’s my favorite of all holidays due to its aspect of celebrating with family). I made a few cards for this gratitude/Thanksgiving warmer as the last of my morning tasks and then went downstairs to see what they were serving for lunch.
I was shocked as the lunch of the day was massaman chicken curry. I have mentioned in this blog repeatedly that massaman is my favorite of all Thai foods. I was thrilled they were serving it on Thanksgiving and it put me in a joyous mood. I loaded up my plastic lunchbox and took it upstairs (a very long distance in very confusing stairwells) where I ate it in the back of my homeroom while the students were being taught the Chinese words for different cities. It was delicious with the proper blend of spiciness and creaminess. Even the potatoes were cooked correctly (you often get ones that are hard as rocks in restaurants). I liked it so much that I once again navigated the maze down five levels to refill my box for takeaway.
I enjoyed my second helping of massaman curry at home while watching “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” I had never seen this cartoon before but happened upon a blog posting about it earlier in the day. It was a quick download and was pleasant enough. I much prefer the more famous “A Charlie Brown Christmas” which had its television debut on the night that I was born.
The rest of the week is a blur of reading (I finished several books as you will see in a bit), watching some episodes of “Watson” season 2, and a bit of at-home lesson planning while trying to stay on top of flood and immigration news. Oh, and texting back-and-forth with fellow teachers, also concerned and affected by Thailand’s overhaul of the rules to stay. More on that, I am sure, in weeks to come.
I finished FOUR books this week. Granted, two were thrillers while one was about writing thrillers. The fourth was read in under a day, a collection of short stories tied together by fleeting connections of travelers. Turbulence was a discovery when I searched for “short novels” to place on my December TBR. At this point, I am eleven short of completing my Goodreads Challenge of 100 books in 2025. As you will see when I publish the TBR article tomorrow, I chose a number of books I believe will be quick reads so I can try to reach my goal. However, I decided to place a couple of lengthier books on the list as I am determined to mark those off (including the latest Dan Brown tome).
I should have some extra time to read this month since we have a couple of extra holidays coming up — December 5th is Thailand’s National Day (AKA Fathers’ Day) while the 10th is Constitution Day. We are hoping that the government holiday for New Year’s this year is longer since the 26th is a Friday; with the weirdness happening lately, I am betting they will make us work the following Monday and Tuesday with the actual holiday starting the 31st and returning to work on January 5th, a Monday.
Currently Reading
Recently Finished
I was thrilled to come to the end of Nonfiction November with 25 new titles to add to my constantly increasing TBR. I have already found copies of several of these books. Whenever I have a cover or several with a relevant cancellation, I try to sit down and do a “Cancelling My Life” although I did skip a few days this week. I did not want to post every day so I had to be selective of which days had either interesting 1965 news events to write about or an interesting postmark source. Being able to write something about the stamps helps, too.
Recently Published
- Cancelling My Life No. 20 – Dec. 02, 1965
- First Chapter, First Paragraph: Tuesday Intros #126 – What Moves the Dead
- Cancelling My Life No. 19 – Dec. 01, 1965
- December 2025 TBR
- Cancelling My Life No. 18 – Nov. 30, 1965
- The Sunday Summary #171
I have been hard at work designing a digital replacement for my physical Bullet Journal. I am calling it the “digiBuJo” and the more I learn about the Craft app, the more I can think of how to create something that looks great while functioning well. I have already redone much of what I posted here last week. I feel like I am on the right track. It helps my ego when I watch YouTube videos showing how others have created their own digital bullet journals using Craft, Note, Obsidian, and other apps but none look nearly as good (I think) than what I have produced already. I will share more in a later post.
Lots of photos of food (mostly school lunches) as well as some exterior shots of the school this week. The lack of rain certainly helped. There are also a few pictures of my students as they worked on their projects, starting Wednesday.
I don’t recall what Wednesday’s lunch was. Perhaps I didn’t eat. Anyway, a skip to Thursday finds the students working on their gadget projects:
More clear-sky views from the fifth floor of my building at school:
And a few of Friday afternoon project-work. . . .
See you next week!
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