The first full week of teaching is officially done. The first weekend trip is also done. I bought a chair, spoon, fork, bowl, mug, and coffee maker for the apartment, so I guess that counts as settling in. And yes, to my mother’s concern, those things are indeed spelled singular on purpose. I am recognizing my landmarks (gym, restaurants, 7-Eleven) and main places in the town, so things are feeling more normal and less new.
After one week of shadowing the Thai teachers teaching all in Thai, it was finally my time to start. I am teaching 8th, 10th, and 12th grade math. But, for some context, it should be known that out of the 110 teachers in my cohort, there is a huge range in terms of the teaching jobs themselves - 2 year olds to 18 year olds, public or private, city or rural, subjects, seriousness of the school, etc.
My school, Ben 2, is a 2,000 student public/private hybrid in a suburb (Chachoengsao) 40 miles east of Bangkok. Within that larger school, I teach only in the English Program (EP) which is a smaller school within the school that has 300 students, smaller classes, costs 10x as much as the main school, has a test to get in, and draws students from farther away. The point of the EP is for students to take 50% of their classes fully in English taught by native English speakers. To compare, the normal school has about 4 periods per week of English.
Interestingly enough, I don’t think I really put too much thought into what teaching high school math would be like on a day to day basis. What it is like when you have to raise your voice to quiet the kids or when you’re walking around helping them on problems. I think it’s a little funny that I had no interest in being a teacher and now I have the same job as my own high school math teachers from MHS. We have our own EP English teachers’ office and everything that the students are always nervous to enter. The other five English teachers are all super nice and have been at the school from 2 months - 15 years. They’re from the Philippines, South Africa, and Kenya. One of them even makes dinner with his girlfriend every Wednesday and delivers it to people in the town as a side hustle. The butter chicken was delicious, Jesher.
My plan so far with the teaching (haha my full time job) in order to figure this whole thing out is to plan every lesson in advance, and then go in and execute the plan. This is good for a few reasons, mainly because without doing this it is overwhelming, there is too much unknown, and my head would explode.
This method of breaking down a big goal into much smaller, achievable goals is something that I kind of did, but never really thought about, until the triathlon.
Back in April 2023 at Lake Lanier, Georgia, about fifty meters into the mile swim, I freaked out and thought I wasn't going to be able to finish. However, I knew I did not drive for ten hours and spend months training and learning to actually swim to not finish. So, when I was out there holding onto a safety kayak, I thought that instead of swimming a mile, I only have to swim to the next kayak, which was about 100 meters ahead. This was a goal that I knew I could do. So I did that and then once I got there, I rested and swam another 100 meters to the next kayak. Little by little I chipped away, one kayak or buoy at a time, until I completed the swim. 16 x 100 meter swims equals a mile swim.
Hence, a big goal is the sum of many smaller goals added together.
Formula:
Big goal = small goal + small goal + small goal…
In the context of teaching, I can not think about teaching math to three different grades of Thai high schoolers, each with a curriculum that I have to create, for six months with zero teaching background. It is simply too much.
The ancient Chinese proverb that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” resonates a lot here. To teach Thai kids math, I must teach them one grade, one topic, one 50 minute class at a time. That, I know I can do.
Now, that is the 100 meter swim.
Whether it is a triathlon, teaching math, or so many other things, breaking the big thing down into little things and then doing the little things one by one is quite a handy way of doing things.
There are a few other little strategies and ways of thinking that I’ve been using, but I will save them for another time.
On another note, I went on my first weekend trip with nine other teachers to Pattaya. Pattaya is basically the Amsterdam of Thailand, for better or worse. We rented a beautiful villa with a pool two minutes from the beach for $20 per person per night - $40 for the weekend.
We did a lot of exploring during the day and at night, but the highlight had to be taking a private speed boat to a nearby island, Ko Lan, and hanging out on the beach for a couple hours. The sand was perfectly smooth and white and the water couldn’t be clearer.
But, there was a moment where I was in the water, waist deep and talking with the other teachers, refreshment in hand and sunglasses on, when I had my first glimpse of how special this time might be. It has been quite a whirlwind so far of new everything - people, places, job, culture, feelings, etc. - but it was in this moment that I realized that this new chapter of my life was just beginning.
Until next time.
Great strategy!
Looks awesome Ben