Welcome to Class

Curious how a typical English class goes with me as the teacher? Time to find out!

4:30 – Class starts in 15 minutes so I wander into the classroom to turn on the A/C, lights, and drop off my materials. Often I then scurry off to fit in one more snack before class because I’ll be teaching until 9:00PM.

My classroom, pre-students.

4:45 – I usually have 3 or so of my 10 students. Still, I get the process going. Take attendance, check homework, etc.

4:50 – Students have arrived. I get pleasantly flustered as they wai me apologetically. Class continues, often with me teasing them for being late.

4:45 – 5:30 – “Sentences” – Every night 10 new words are assigned from the list of most commonly used English words which was compiled by Dr. Edward W. Dolch (I don’t really know what that means, it’s just what the course material says). A typical day includes a word list like, “who, what, where, good, well, better, best, drink, eat, ate”. During this portion we go around and students read all their sentences. It’s my job to correct grammar and pronunciation. Some days it’s fun and easy, other days are excruciating. Still, it’s the portion of the class I get to be the most creative so I really enjoy it. And if I don’t get my students laughing during some portion of this section there’s something wrong. I want to pump up their enjoyment of the language during this section as much as possible.

5:30 – 5:55/6:00 – “Sound of the Day” – During this portion I give a 20 question quiz on the previous day’s “sound” and then move on to the new list. Today’s lesson was Z or S. So I gave a word list including words like “zero, zinc, zoo, zipcode” etc and they have to learn to pronounce these correctly as well as learn to differentiate from their S counterparts such as “sink” and “sue” for “zinc” and “zoo”. We get to make funny sounds and they just repeat after me a lot. At first this section was tedious, but I actually enjoy it now since I can tell a HUGE improvement since the beginning of the session only 9 classes ago.

6:00 – 6:45 – “Bookwork” – Here’s where they finally open the course materials. In every session after Pre-1 they cover 4 chapters. In my Level 1 class they are expected to complete chapters 1-4. Each chapter has 20 sections including things like pronunciation, reading, questions, grammar, games, and essays.

Some of my students working on bookwork.

I used to be worried about filling up a full two hour class, but time actually flies by. I adore my students. They’ve already much better than when we started. By no means are they fluent, but we’ve come to understand each other and know how to circumnavigate each other's language barriers. Besides, they’re great at teaching me (and mocking my) Thai. Besides, now that I’ve provided them with the space to come out of their culturally-shy shell, they do. And it’s entertaining (and educational) for all involved.