In a previous blog I rambled on about the poor educational system in Thailand. I noted the diluted field of teachers and the incompetence that erodes the system. Well, that system took a turn for the worse. I am now in charge of imparting knowledge onto the next generation. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Weep for the children…I sure do.

Recently a teacher quit and I had to pick up her Social Studies classes, which consist of three two hour classes a week, ranging from 3^rd grade to 6^th grade. I have a little experience in education (my first three semesters in college I was a pre-Ed major) so I wasn’t too worried. After my first five minutes in class all the reasons why I ended my pursuit of an Education degree came screaming back. The students were loud and obnoxious and not too interested in Australia’s history (we use Australian textbooks). I came in determined to “make a difference” in their lives. I began by quizzing them on previous lessons to gauge their prior knowledge. After about three minutes and a bunch of blank stares I pondered what was going on. As I was asking the class about Aboriginals and the early colonization of Australia by English convicts it hit me. I was quizzing the 4^th grade class on the 5^th grade material! I had read all the textbooks the night before and all the material was all jumbled in my head. No wonder they had no idea what was going on. It was quite embarrassing on my part but I rebounded quite nicely.

I am awful at lesson planning and have no idea how I am grading my students. One time during class I arbitrarily shouted out that the homework is worth 10 points. I have no idea how to assign 10 points to their assignment. In fact, I have no idea what homework I assign to each class, I kind of just make it up on the spot. I don’t have answer keys for some of the textbooks so I have to do the assignments myself before hand. Well, Monday I did the wrong homework! Trying to correct their homework was hell. I apparently assigned them a review sheet and part of it had to do with a map of Australia. I had no idea where the Murrumbidgee River was in relation to Wagga Wagga. I had to take them to the computer lab and Google an Australian map. Well, it turns out that finding a map with all the physical features we were looking for was quite the task. After about 20 minutes we finally were able to answer the three questions directly related to an Australian map and class was over. Again, weep for the children.

* My students think I assign too much homework. Wait until they take my mid term exam, they are going to HATE me!!!!! Muhahahahahahahah!!!!!