โรงเรียน - The School

Today is Satuday, and I have been asking the other teachers what day it is because it has been hard to keep track. But today is Saturday and we have a BBQ tonight!! So, ILP has teachers (me), head teachers (supervising teachers) and native coordinators (Natives to the county who hire ILP for their schools). Our native coordinator is Tang, and she is wonderful. She is a native Thai but went to school in England when she was nine. She speaks English flawlessly and has an English accent which we all love. Here is a picture with her and some of the kids (we'll talk about their outfits later).

My class (the oldest class)

Tang has helped us so much, her family has adopted us teachers into their family and we go to their house for the BBQ tonight. Now you have a face to put to the name. So the school. It is a fairly new bilingual school here in the small town of Phichit. Tang grew up here and I think she just didn't want to leave, and after being here for a few days I can understand why. She is a civil engineer and when this school began it was nothing more than a nursery. But Tang's boyfriend at the time (now husband) had heard about ILP when he was studying at BYU. Tang knew that ILP's teaching method was for her and she has been taking care of American teachers like myself ever since. There are four classes as of now, but hopefully they will grow (Pre-K, K1, K2, and K3). Here is what our school looks like, Tang said that hogwarts was her inspiration and I think that it shows. 

It is a beautiful building and we live in the second floor. We have ladies that cook and clean for us and they are constantly smiling! The food is cooked from the fresh garden daily and has been nothing but delicious so far!! There are five teachers and here is our room complete with AC and microwave. 

We were surprised by our students yesterday who came into our room saying, "Teacher, teacher!" We have met the students already even though we don't start teaching until Monday, Tang introduced us and we have played with them after school as they wait to be picked up. The kids were all dressed up and we soon found our from Tang that they were presenting today on an assigned country in Asia and were dressed up in their country's traditional dress. They looked beautiful and we were able to watch some of the presentations as well as play with them. Here are a few shots of them. 

Mhew

Moo Pee

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Some of the kids who knocked on our door.

This is MeMe. She and many of the other girls wore Disney princess 

dress-up shoes, you can kind of seem them in this picture. So cute!!

Just a shot that shows some of the teachers dressed up as well as some of the kids parents. 

This is just the kids cooling off in front of the fan and being wild; they are too much fun! 

I can't wait to start teaching them!! They are extremely smart! One boy I met, his name is Fei-Fei is only around 5 years old and already learning basic multiplication. They speak English pretty well, but it will be fun to see them in the classroom setting!