Day 4: Standing at the front of the class

photo courtesy of Manja

Tuesday's English class had a new teacher: Teacher Me! As Manja and I are on our own here for this week, I'm helping out with the teaching load a bit. The boss of our organization, teacher Fitz, is off in Laos to extend her visa. Manja has already mentioned in her blog that the border crossing here (5km away) is closed due to the latest regime drama. Machine gun toting Thai soldiers patrol the river bank on our side. More on that in another post.

Wooden scaffolding on one of the many building sites. No serious OH&S rules here.

I started off the lesson with the class workbook, just working through the exercises for the first half. Then, to liven things up a bit I did a lesson on Aussie Slang. I never thought teaching could be so much fun! We learnt some words and phrases, then moved on to simple slang conversation. They're so receptive, and really keen to learn. It was an amazing experience to hear all 12 shouting back the phrases after I said them! I'll continue with this half slang/half correct English format for the next week at least. I hope I don't get into too much trouble from the boss when she returns to "G'day teacher Fitz, how's it goin?"    :)


Today, Wednesday, is National Karen Day, a celebration of the Karen State region, just over the border from us. So Manja has taken the group to a temple for some morning festivities. They're all back after lunch for at least one lesson. I'm staying at the house with one of the boys, who is sick, so I have to miss out. They'll bring me back some pics, I hope.

This ute was still being loaded up. Room for lots more boxes yet!