Photo Gallery & Impressions 24

PHOTO SAMPLER - Teacher Seminar, Zola Asphalt Class, Other Teaching/Learning - Aug.-Sep. 2003

In addition to teaching at the Nursing College, we had other experiences related to our volunteer objective of helping with the teaching of conversational English to Thai native speakers.  Along with professional English language teacher, Yupadee, we were asked to present one day of a multi-day seminar for area Thai English teachers.  We also taught employees of a local company, Zola Asphalt.  Photos of our work with these two groups, plus some other related experiences are presented here.

At a conference center just outside Ban Pong, on Aug. 25th, talented musical folks (shown standing on right here) lead the teachers in some lively opening singing.

Looking out over the audience of professional teachers, Peg & Keith are at first a bit intimidated & wonder what they can offer to help with the tough task of teaching English here.

All we can do is share some of our ideas, perceptions & experiences coming from our weeks of teaching English in this country.

It seems useful to share some of the lessons that seemed to be productive with our nursing students.

We share a "body parts" exercise that gets everyone involved in listening, speaking and physical movement.

We also stress the importance of "having fun" - & this is particularly the case when Peg gets down with the audience as we do the Hoky-Poky.

The musical folks are a big help here in getting the singing and dancing moving lively.

Happy cooperation & plentiful smiles are prevalent as this exercise continues.

It is also time for some serious talk as Yupadee here explains some of the problems of teaching English to Thai students.

As we finish with our part of the day's program, American friend & local English teacher, Roger, gives a presentation on inexpensive games & techniques he has found useful in teaching English to young boys at a local school.

We also had the very interesting experience teaching a group of employees of a local company, Zola Asphalt. This was at the end of their day's work for one or two days per week.

We took this photo at our Zola class just after we share the tiny serapes that Ted & Susan had left behind for them.  Ted & Susan had also done some teaching with this group.

In addition to Zola folks, we had a couple of local English teachers attend, the one here brought her husband & son who were welcome additions to the class.

Outside the modern Zola main office north of Ban Pong, we find (left to right) another local English teacher Rita, Yupadee's brother & Zola owner/Managing Director Sombat Pisanuvisayavat, Yupadee & Keith.

At our last class, Peg & Keith are presented fine gifts from Zola consisting of padded Zola brief cases & napkin/placemat sets of Jim Thompson silk.

Time for another group picture at our last class meeting with the Zola group. We were sad that our relationship with this group was coming to an end.

After our Zola class, we would usually go out for another interesting & delicious Thai dinner with Yupadee & in this case with English teacher Rita.

At another after-Zola dinner, we dined with our 2 English teacher friends and Rita's social worker friend who also attended our classes. These were times for us to learn much about life in Thailand.

On this particular evening we also had one of our Nursing College students stop by. More about why we wanted to talk with Thom in Photo Album 25.

We also tried to hold English classes for nurses of the large Ban Pong hospital. Scheduling problems prevented this plan from working out. However we did meet fairly regularly with Nursing Supervisor, Kesera, & worked together on a valuable medical intake data form translation project.

We also had good intentions of working with some of the English teachers at the vocational college just next to our nursing college, shown here with Keith. While never able to coordinate our schedules, we were able to connect them with another local American English teacher whom we hoped could help them more.

We probably learned more about teaching English in Thailand from our dear friend Yupadee. Here we look through the tinted glass at the classroom she has in her home for young students. She holds these evening classes after her "day job" of teaching English at Nakhom Pathom Vocational College. 

During our last week in Ban Pong, while living at Yupadee's home, Peg presents one of her favorite lessons based on the children's book, Little Bird. 

Even the boys in the back of the classroom get actively involved with this story and Peg's lesson.  We were very favorably impressed with the level of English competency shown by these young students. They clearly understood the story & could answer our questions based on their understanding.

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