The wonderful teachers

In this post I will distinguish between the full-time teachers in the schools and the volunteer teachers by referring to them as teachers and volunteers respectively. 

I heard a story today about one of the teachers at a kindergarten in which the program has volunteers. I will call her Kru (meaning teacher) A. Kru A (then Miss A) grew up in the Klong Toei area. Her family's livelihood came from collecting recyclable rubbish from the streets to sell. They were a family in extreme poverty, and whilst mum and dad were able to escape the day to day horror through cheap alcohol, which of course became a horror in itself, Miss A had no such sanctuary. One day, Miss A found a school and marvelled at the children through the windows; happy, active and socialising. It was one of the first Mercy funded Kindergarten schools. Sister Maria, co-founder of the Mercy Centre alongside Father Joe, saw her peering through the window and asked her if she wanted to attend the school. She excitedly agreed and the Mercy Centre provided Miss A with an education. At 16 she enrolled on a teacher training program, wanting to pay forward the kindness and hope she had received from her teachers.
Kru A is now nearly 50 and teaches at one of the Mercy funded kindergartens. She is an amazing and caring teacher, totally dedicated to the betterment of the children in her care. This is not an isolated story. Many of the teachers and staff at the Mercy Centre have similar backgrounds.
The volunteers who are sent out to the schools to teach are very lucky to have the class' Thai teacher on hand to help with general classroom management and any essential translations that may be needed. The teachers have gracefully accepted the volunteers into their classrooms and, for that, I am so very grateful.
To come straight to the point without pulling any punches; Thailand's education system is antiquated. I will qualify that statement by saying that I have, admittedly, only a little experience in Thai schools and most of it has been with the Mercy funded kindergarten schools. I have a lot of experience in teaching children who have come from the Thai education system and know many teachers who have trained in Thai teacher training programs. My accusation is consistent with their experiences.
It's not just the lack of funding and old furniture that makes the classroom so dated, it's the pedagogy: The teaching methods and principles. Rote learning is common, and situated, authentic pupil engagement is non-existent. Pupil's repeat what the teacher says and most mouth the words unaware of any meaning. Even those who do understand the meaning soon forget if it is not put to use.

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.” Chinese proverb 

The curriculum I use in the schools uses pupil involvement as much as possible. There are opportunities for group and paired work and new vocabulary is introduced in a systematic way consistent with current educational research on how the brain learns best. Lessons are supported by engaging resources relevant to the pupils' age (if not always their background!).
I have been teaching the first lesson of the program to classes in all of the schools for each new volunteer to observe. That first lesson is difficult. The children just repeat what the teacher says and paired or group work is a near impossibility. After six weeks I went back to first school I started the program at. The children were giving considered responses and most had some awareness of expectations of paired work. I can really see the program working.
Like I mentioned in a previous post, I would like to give the volunteers more training but I also think it's important to offer some kind of training or advice to the teachers. (Perhaps more important, since they will be the ones there all the year, and next year, and may use the advice to inform the rest of their teaching.) I am beginning to write a list of guidelines to help the teachers support the volunteers and pupils in the program:

• Allow the pupils to try to work out the meaning of vocabulary through the context and other clues we give before offering a Thai translation.
• Wrong answers are not a source of shame but a learning opportunity.
• Learn WITH the pupils. 
• ...

If you have any suggestions I can add to this list please comment below. Thank you for reading and please share with anyone you think may be able to help or may be interested. I would like to thank Kru A and all the other teachers for their dedication and acceptance. I believe education is about sharing. The teachers have shared a lot with me I and would like to pay them back by sharing some of the good practices and pedagogy out there.