Our School in Singburi

Okay, so I know that most of you know that I am not very easily excited.... (HAHA!!!)....but I am very excited about this post!!! So, as I've mentioned a few times, Cailin and I just haven't been sure most of the time with what is really going on....where we will be teaching, if we are supposed to do all these weeks of oriention, the fact that there aren't any other teachers staying at the ecohouse with us, why our lady from back in New York from our organization isn't giving us straight answers, I could go on and on! This morning we were all supposed to go visit this school/orphanage...but when we went for breakfast JJ, our guide/instructor, said that Cailin and I will be going to a different school, the one that we are supposedly teaching at. So, we were very excited! This couple picks us up and takes us to Singburi to our school. James is one of the school assistants, and Pat is a teacher there and the director of MEP, which stands for Mini English Program...which we will be working at. This is the first school year this program has been running, and it's just one classroom. For the next school year (this May), they plan on having one or two more classrooms. The Thai MEP, the Thai government, and the parents are the ones who fund the program. It is based on the Thai curriculum for content and standards, and they will be getting a new, more up to date curriculum in May. This is the only MEP program in the Singburi province, in a primary school, and there is only 1 as well at the secondary level. The classroom is run half in English, half in Thai. The subjects that they only teach in English are Math, Science, Computer, Health, and English classes (obviously!). The school we will be teaching at is over 2000 kids, grades K-6, with about 6 sections in each grade level. We will be in this MEP classroom that is a 1st grade classroom, with about 35 students. I guess we kind of have our pick as to which of these subjects we want to teach. Obviously I want to teach the Math, but I would be willing to do the computer or health as well. We don't know how many hours they expect yet, but James said that we are able to work up from our starting pay...he said there is no ceiling to our pay. Basically, the more we take on, the more we could make. There is no way that I'll only do the minimum, which is probably only 25-30. I think I will definitely pick up some extra, and we have a chance for teaching possibilities outside of the school day for kids, or the other Thai teachers.
We didn't have a chance to look at the curriculum yet, but we did talk about their goals and strategies for teaching...which I absolutely agreed with. James said that he thinks there is too much focus on the output, that being homework, tests, grades, etc. He said there should be more focus on the outcome, which is if you thought that you have learned/what you have learned for yourself. He said we will talk about goals to reach, about the exams, and then the procedures to attain those. We discussed their 7 standards: 1. Moral. 2. Health, body, mind. 3. Art, music, sports. 4. Thinking-making visions, using strategy, making predictions, to analyze and sythesize. 5. Knowledge of the 8 core subjects. 6. Life-long learning-continuing education, having a thirst and wanting for knowledge. 7. Work and the social aspect. Again, I really felt connected with these standards and goals.
He also said that they place (I assume like an apartment), that they provide for us has a kitchen, refridge, stove, washer, WiFi, it's 5 minutes from the pool.....and then we asked the obvious question...does it have AC??? He said NO! hmfph. It was all great up to that point! But he said that if we commit to a year (which I already am), and if things go well and we want to stay after a month, that he could talk to some people and we could probably get AC. They basically want to be as accomodating as possible...I think they really want us to stay. They were quite excited about 2 young gals teaching. The other English speaking man there is from Scotland (not as exciting as it sounds....b/c he's in his 50's!!!), and they don't think the students like older men.
So it sounds very promising and I am extremely excited for the possibilities and it is a way better set up than I anticipated! We will see what happens in the next couple weeks! Stay tunes!