Happy Teachers' Day (THAILAND)

By: iamAldonLopez | January 15, 2019

Teachers in Thailand are highly respected and treated as very important people by locals, and especially by the students’ parents. Thus, Thai people have 2 important ways of showing their respect for educators. These are ‘Wai Kru’ ceremony and ‘Teachers’ Day’. This ‘Wai Kru’ ceremony take place at the beginning of the school year. It’s either June or July, on a Thursday. The ’Wai Kru’ means a Thai ritual in which students pay their respect to us (teachers), in order to express their appreciation, gratitude and to formalize the students-teachers relationship. Students bow before us and offer us flowers with candles incense in a gold container. The other one is Teachers’ Day. It’s a national holiday in Thailand. It takes place on the 16^th of January every year. Thailand has been celebrating this day in honor of educators since 1957. It’s a day to remember their importance in the lives of children. In Thailand, we, teachers are seen to have a position of high honor. Schools are closed so we can have the day off and so that children can show respect for us, teachers.

“Wearing black and white are the foreign teachers.”

While we are thinking where to spend the holiday tomorrow. I will share with you my usual daily routine teaching here in Thailand:

7:00 AM GOING TO SCHOOL

I usually walk to school as it only 600 meters away from my apartment. It’s also a way of exercising every morning.

heading to school

7:30 AM GATE DUTY

This is one of the teaching responsibilities. Gate duty is when a foreign or Thai teacher is told to stand in front of the school building – usually in the morning or at the end of the school. We are divided into groups and different schedules. I do this every Tuesday morning.

8:00 AM FLAG CEREMONY

It always starts at 8:00 AM the national anthem and the raising of the Thai flag same with other schools. All the students stand in straight lines facing the Buddha shrines and Flag pole. Each class has two lines; one of the boys and girls.

8:50 AM – 12:10 NN Morning classes and 1:10 – 3:50 PM Afternoon classes

After the flag ceremony, I head to my first-period class for the day. And start teaching them what’s in the lesson plan. Basically, as a foreign teacher, we were advised to teach Thai students a very basic speaking lesson with very interesting topic. I tried to discuss all that’s in my lesson plan; however, on the next meeting, my students tend to lose their interest. So, I figured it out that I must divide the topic into 2 in order to engage my students and get their interest every meeting. That way, I still able to manage my classroom and maintain their interest and gauge them. This means one topic per week and I will only meet each class twice a week. The only challenge is to create a very easy and appropriate test relating to the topic. Also, when each period finishes, I have to rush off to my next class. This repeats in each class.

*“My schedule all throughout this semester.”*

12:10 NN – 1:10 PM Lunch break

I ate at the school canteen every day because it’s very inexpensive. In fact, 2 dishes with rice are only 20 Baht. Lunch break ended at 1:10 PM for the entire school. Any free time after eating was considered relaxes time. Some days I stayed longer in the admin office to socialize with the other teachers but most often I’d catch up on grading.

4:00 PM log out

Finally, it’s time to go home! I normally go to supermarket and buy food for dinner before heading home.

*“Are you as happy as me after all your classes ends?”*

I’m writing this blog because tomorrow is our day. It’s a teachers’ day! And, I want to share you all about what is my daily routine whilst I’m at school.
What about you? What is your typical day as a teacher? I would love to know! #happyteachersday