Welcome to Lertlah, Campus 2

Macro Bangbon... Ra rien Lerlah... If you start at the Piya pet apartments and give these directions, you will get to Lertlah Campus #2 75% of the time. At least, those were the odds today. Out of the 8 cabs that left the apartment this morning, two cab drivers did not know where "Macro Bingbon" was and tried to take us there anyways.  Luckily, we were able to correct him in time for him to turn around at the next u turn. Not bad considering we can't speak Thai and we don't even know what Macro Bingbon means. 

This is a picture of our school. It is four stories tall and several buildings. Most rooms in the school are air conditioned and mostly every area outside is covered (I'll post more pictures later). 

The kids haven`t started school yet, the school year starts May 17th. I`ll be teaching P3, which means Primary 3 (grade 3 in Canada), which is good because that is what I taught in my practicum this year. The school system is different here, there is Nursery which is optional, but then there are 3 K level which signify Kindergarten. I believe they start in K1 when they are 3 or 4 years old. After K1, K2 and K3 we go to P1, P2, P3 and P4, which are again the same as back home. In grade 5 the student move into the ''M'' stage until they reach grade 9 and then they go to another school.

The school is owned by a the Sari family, with one ''Ajarn Sari'' at each school, which is the director. I was a bit nervous to meet the director of my campus, but there really was no need. Although she is very important, she is extremely welcoming to all of the foreign staff and I don't think of her as more than a regular principal.

In our offices there are several staff that are there to support us. There are foreign staff administrators who are very approachable and nice. There are all key stage leader who take care of each of the K, P and M levels. My key stage leader is extremely helpful and is ready to lend a hand whenever you need it. There is definitely a hierarchy in the school, but I find it very fair and helpful to have so much support whenever I need it.

Myself and my teaching buddy, who I came here with from U of M, as I said have P3. We will be teaching Math, Science and English classes to two groups of kids. I have the /1 and /3 groups. The strongest students in each grade are put into the /1 class and /2 class accordingly and the rest are put into /3, /4. Before school starts, we will plan our units and decorate our class rooms. So far, we have already planned science and math, and we still have to do English. We had to type up a letter to the parents describing to the parents what exactly we plan on doing this year, along with a little bio on ourselves. 

Right now my days look like this:

5:30am - Wake Up, eat a snack, pool run or swim

6:15am - Get ready for school

6:45am - Go downstairs for breakfast and jump in cab (80 baht = 2.50 CAD between 4 people, drive to school)

7:30 - get to school - Get some coffee, snacks at 7-11 (45 baht)

8am-11:30 - Meetings/Thai Lessons/Planning

11:30 - Lunch in Cafeteria (free)

12:30 - 4:30pm - Planning/Prepping for kids  

4:30 - Jump in Taxi back to Piya Apartments

5:15 - Run followed by swim

7pm - dinner on the Soi (street food) Salad rolls and dragon fruit smoothie = yum

9pm - Bed

They are long days but it seems to be working for me. That's all for now.

Alice