Friday, July 30

We are settling into a kind of routine here, which I think is a helpful way to get through lockdown. We usually wake up around 7:00am, and I make us breakfast—cracked wheat cereal or oatmeal with fruit, or toast with a little sliced cheese and fruit, or pastries from BBC, or else sticky rice with coconut milk and fruit, with hot tea for me and instant coffee for Roman. We meditate and then take a walk around the neighborhood before it gets too hot. Then I have a couple hours to lesson plan or write while Roman either teaches or lesson plans or plays guitar. Before lunch, I usually do a Youtube yoga class in my office.

For lunch, either I make us something simple, or we pick up something on the street and bring it home, or we go down to the cart just outside our house. 

Me with vegetable stir-fry and kra pow moo, Roman's fried chicken and khao neo

Roman putting an insane amount of chilies on his kra pow moo krob; my pad see ew

After lunch, I put on my school t-shirt and some lipstick, review my lesson, and then teach all afternoon. Between lessons, I'll sweep the house or chat with Roman if he's free or do a crossword puzzle—I have too much excited energy to do much else. We have an early dinner—usually I make us either a stir-fry or some kind of Western style meal made with local ingredients, or sometimes we get something delivered.

Roman with homemade meal of sticky rice, salmon, salmon skin, cucumber slices, and garlic yogurt sauce

After dinner, we take a walk and pick up whatever items we need for the house (usually beverages, sometimes a sweet), and then we head back home to talk and watch a movie, sometimes do Facetime with friends or family, and relax for the night.

That's the simple routine for now. My school projects we will be teaching online through October at least, so, I think it's good to have a routine and try and enjoy the small things.

I'm settling into teaching, too. The main challenges are figuring out how to fill thirty minutes when we're not learning that many new words and the activities I can do are limited (since it's all online). In some classes, the kids are way more active than in others, so that also makes some lessons go longer than others. And some lessons lend themselves to more games—it's easier for me to figure what to do with a lesson on colors (find something in your house that's...blue) or animals (make a noise like a...lion) than fruits and vegetables (guess the fruit based on the outline!).

The classes are also pretty tiring, especially on my voice—after all that enunciating and encouraging, I end up with a pretty sore throat by the end of the day. And I've had some technical issues—in the same class, I've twice had parents using multiple devices, which creates an annoying echo that only stops when I mute all the kids one by one (and then they unmute themselves, even when I ask the parents causing the echo to stay on mute)...or one Zoom class unexpectedly ended five minutes early, kicking everyone off the meeting (thankfully, the kids all rejoined). It's all a little flustering, and it's hard to try and problem-solve while I'm also teaching a class. I've asked for some help with communicating with the parents on the echo issue, and the head of Kindergarten said she'd follow-up.

All that said, the kids are pretty fun. I'm getting to know the different vibes of the different classes and, in general, the kids like having the chance to talk and play, and to say what their favorite things are. The older kids have a pretty good grasp of English and if I take the time to say hello, they'll say things like, Hello Teacher Rachel it's good to see you—so cute! And the littlest kids just kind of slay me—one kid gives me the biggest grin with a mouth full of missing teeth, and another almost always has his fluffy white stuffed bear with him...and oh, they are just so unselfconscious and sweet.

I don't really know how much English they're learning—they obviously do a lot better with words they already know—and this is where I really feel my lack of training. But I think the best thing is just to give them an opportunity to practice listening and (especially) speaking, and make it feel fun? I am little daunted when I think about doing this for three more months, but I guess I'll just take it as it comes. Pandemic Times!

At least there's still cake