Bekah in Wonderland

Every year in Thailand, some English language education body headquartered in Bangkok selects a theme for a national English camp. From what I understand, not every school or district must put on the camp, but many do. This year, the theme was “Wonderland of English Camp”. Pii Som mentioned to me a few weeks ago that Wat Bot School was holding one. While I knew I would be teaching at it, I was unsure of what my role was in organization and planning. English camps are an inevitable part of Peace Corps Thailand life- Thai people love them. Camps usually last anywhere from 1 to 3 days, can be localized at a school or district-wide, range in size from 50 students to 200, and can be themed or not. I, and others, doubt the effectiveness and sustainability of English camps- how much will the kids really gain or learn from a few intense days? But there are always banners with the title of the camp, certificates handed out at the end (Thai people love certificates too), and something tangible to put in a report. No English camp is complete without a farang, and many volunteers dedicate a significant amount of time to attending and putting on camps. I do think camps have some value-namely in getting the kids excited about English and showing them learning can be fun- but I am not the biggest fan either. Regardless, my school and co-teacher sponsored this one, so of course I would be involved.
Pii Som took care of logistical stuff, like funding, food, inviting teachers and students, so my responsibilities were centered on what to teach. This camp was district wide, so two sixth grade students from somewhere around 20 schools in the district came with an accompanying teacher. There were about 60 students and 14 teachers. Dan and Kelsi, the two volunteers in Sukothai, were luckily able to come and help out. Pii Som wanted the camp to be a general overview of English subjects: “about me”, “shopping”, “directions”, “health and the body” etc…, with 9 rotations total. On Wednesday, there were three sessions where all 60 students learned together. Dan, Kelsi, and I taught about American holidays. We made giant flashcards with colored pencils, did a New Years countdown, and Dan acted like a turkey. Thursday and Friday morning, there was a series of 6 rotations, 10 students per group, each rotation 1 hour and fifteen minutes. Each group had a color.
My topic was “Wh questions” words. I decided to create a “mystery” story and then scavenger hunt, where the students had to collect clues by answering “Wh questions”. I wrote a short story titled “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?”, and made serious use of clipart to make a visual storyboard, to help the students understand words they did not know, like “kitchen” or “stole”. I randomly had a 26 year old Danish teaching assistant named Klaus, who teaches at a special education school in Phitsanulok. Each farang teacher was supposed to have a Thai counterpart, to give the camp an element of teacher training, but my counterpart was Pii Som who did not have time to teach with me because she was in charge. Klaus however made an excellent assistant.
First, we taught the kids “who, what, where, when, and which” using charades, dialogue modeling, and Thai translation. Then we went through the story slowly, using pictures and actions to help them understand. Klaus took one group of five and I took the other (in each rotation) and we went through 5 reading comprehension questions about the story (“Who baked the cookies?”; “Where did Johnny bake the cookies?”; Which types of cookies did Johnny bake?”). Once they completed the worksheet, each group got a manila envelope with a question mark on it. They pulled out the piece of paper with their group’s color and read the clue. For example, “who is the foreign teacher who lives in Sukothai, with blonde hair, and a big body?” The students would think, yell “Dan!” and set off running for Dan’s classroom, where they would find another envelope. “Where do students eat lunch?” “Roong A-Haan”. “Which building does pratom 6 study in?” etc… etc… After they made 5 stops and collected 5 clues, they returned to the classroom. There, they received another worksheet and had to match their clues to the questions. “Who stole the cookies” “Where did they go?” “When were they stolen?” etc…
It was an activity that took a lot of work on my part, but the students responded incredibly well. They seemed to be having so much fun, and maybe even learned the question words. The running all over the school caught the attention of teachers as well, and I had people coming up to me all day asking about the activity. Many teachers even asked for copies of the worksheets. It showed me that many of Thai teachers really want to do creative, exciting activities with their students, but do not know how, because they have never been taught about student-centered learning and being innovative in the classroom. In addition, Kelsi, Dan and I lead many games and songs for the whole group. We played an awesome game where the kids pretended to be riding various vehicles, sang silly songs, and organized a round of steal-the-bacon.
Dan and Kelsi were the first volunteers to visit my site. A few weeks ago, the Peace Corps director in Thailand came to visit for a few hours, but Dan and Kelsi were genuinely my guests. I met them at the market on Tuesday evening, and we went bought things to eat for dinner and snack on, like fried chicken (for Dan) and locally made popcorn. Back at my house, the three of us kicked back and relaxed. Since our daily lives at site do not involve farangs, sitting around a table with two friends is quite the luxury. They stayed for four nights, each night upon returning home, we pretty much did the same thing, involving beer, fruit, fried chicken (for Dan), and various arts and crafts with music in the background. Kelsi and I attempted to choreograph a dance for our friend’s birthday, inspired by Thai aerobics.
On Wednesday evening, Pii Orasa took us to an event in a nearby village. Boy and girl scouts are big in Thailand, and every school has a scouting day where the students wear scouty uniforms and do vaguely outdoorsy activities. This event was for all the adult scouting groups, 10 groups with 10 people total. They were all drunk, all wearing colored neck kerchiefs, and there was dancing around a bonfire involved. We only stayed and watched the “show” until 9, and then went back home 1) because it was bizarre, and b) because the mosquitoes were attacking our sweet foreign skin. Pii Som took us to dinner at her favorite restaurant/som tum place and then the weekly wat market on Thursday. Then on Friday, all the teachers had a little party to celebrate the end of the camp. In Dan’s honor, there was fried chicken. It was a fun and exhausting week, but I am looking forward to a bit of “normalcy” next week.