A Day at Secondary School

Rice fields
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Last week, Alex and I taught at the Phon Phisai primary school - grades 1-3.  During this time the secondary school, equivalent to MS + HS, have been closed as students recoup from exams.  Lee had previously taught for a month at this school, and is spending this week - her last in the program, volunteering here.  They asked Jack if I would come to the secondary school with Lee for a day, as a possible replacement when she leaves.  I've really been enjoying teaching at the primary school with Alex, but I also understand that it might be beneficial to have a volunteer at the secondary school as well as the primary school.

Kids from primary school
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The primary school goes from 9a-12n, but the secondary school goes from 10a-330p.  In the morning, Lee, Jack, and I left for the school.  It is much bigger than the 2 story wooden school where I had been teaching.  The grounds included several buildings, a football/soccer field, and 3000 students!  The three of us went to find the teacher Lee had previously helped.  She was having a free period from 10a-11a, so we sat around.  As we sat, Jack asked if I was interested in picking a Thai nickname.  Of course!  Most Thais have very long names but go by a one syllable nickname - like Min, May, or Ram.  Jack suggested maybe a flower?  My mind immediately went to Rose.  It would be quite fitting, and a nice sounding nickname.  Haha, that's how my nickname became "Gou-lab".  I guess the name Rose sounds a little different when said in Thai, but oh well :)

One of our usual restaurants - it is next to the river
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At 11a the students, 4th year (equiv to Sophomores in high school) began arriving.  Groups, consisting of about five students each, had prepared English presentation on how to make a particular food dishes.  What made this interesting is that these young students would prepare the dish/beverage in class, then serve it to the judges - Jack, Lee and myself!  I must say I felt the same fear many home-ec teachers have as they watch young giggling students attempt to cook a meal for them to sample.  The first group came up - and pulled out a bag of uncooked chicken.  Oh no!  Visions of food poisoning danced in my head.  I sighed, put a nervous smile on my face, and mentally gaged the distance to the nearest restroom - just in case.  The group had a descent presentation, besides some pronunciation and verb tense problems.  They next poured some oil in the heating pan, which was immediately spit back, and then tossed in the chicken.  Some sauces were thrown in, then the cooked chicken was plopped on some already cooked noodles and presented.  Considering most of the students had never cooked any food before, it was quite edible, and no one got sick - whew.  The next group was orange juice, easy I thought.  Then I looked at the ingredients listed on their poster board - oranges and salt.  Lee and I started laughing - what did we get ourselves into!

The path where Lee and I go running
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Well, the first boy pulled out a knife for cutting the oranges.  It was a mini butcher knife, with a blade of 5in by 3in - so still pretty large.  The boy then proceeded to hold an orange in one hand, and use the knife to cut.  Maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but new visions of blood and cut off fingers flashed into my head.  Luckily the teacher, who probably had the same vision, put a stop to this and asked the boy to use a cutting board.  Anyway, they made the OJ and presented it.  Hm, how do I describe the taste of extracted orange juice with a spoonful of salt - I know, salty, very salty!  We had to take off some points since it was difficult for any of us to drink more than a spoonful.  Anyway, one more group went, then we had a break for a light lunch.  in the afternoon four more groups presented.  We sampled lemonade, which was okay.  However, their poster board incorrectly (I hope) gave the recipe as dissolving people into water, instead of sugar.  We also had morning glory salad, which was quite good.  I always thought the morning glory plant was pretty, but I didn't know it was tasty too.  The next two dishes were yogurt fruit salad and mayonnaise fruit salad, in which they used a whole jar of mayonnaise.

Moo
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After class, we had an hour break, and then - English club.  English club consists of students who really like English, and students who have no interest in English, but really like the teacher that heads the club.  We spent the whole time going over spelling- helping the kids prepare for an upcoming bee.  I must say I was quite exhausted when the club ended at 430p.  We walked out, past the kids still busy with their extra curriculars, and towards the car.  The marching band was practicing in the parking lot as we found the car.

When we reached home, Alex had already been off for hours and was playing with Jennie and her friends.  They were busy walking under a mock limbo stick, aka a jump rope.  He said the kids were asking about me.  Alex then described how he was reviewing vocab words with the 2nd and 3rd grades.  Yesterday, we had taught the kids some basics, like teacher, student, book, and notebook.  To review, he had a girl and boy come up to the chalk board, and then would write a vocab word.  Both students would look at it- then he would then erase it, and whoever could write it correctly the quickest won a sticker.  Okay, these kids LOVE stickers.  He began to notice how as the kids came up they were looking down at their white shirts.  He realized they had written all the vocab words at the bottom of their shirts!  Haha, quite inventive, but I have a feeling their mothers aren't going to be too happy!

I'm still not sure which school, primary or secondary, I should help - but I have a feel either will be quite interesting!