Today was a very good learning experience! We traveled West of Kampaeng Phet to Maesot
where we visited a secondary school (grades 7-12). At this school, students are divided into 3
groups of instruction. All Thai, some
Thai some English, and mostly English.
For the first period, we divided and taught 3 classes of 7/8
graders. We taught them a game to help
with equivalent fractions. This is the
same game we played with the Thai college students. The group I had in Maesot was very difficult
to work with. It was a group of all boys
who knew very little English. It took a
while for me to get the concept of the game across. After helping walk them through a few rounds
one on one, they finally got the hang of the game. The students were very excited and worked
together to move the pieces.
We then observed 2 different classes. One was taught in Thai and the second in
English. Even though we could not
understand what the Thai teacher was saying, we were able to follow along very
well since math is a worldwide language.
We just read the math sentences
and we able to assume what she was saying.
During this class, the students were very active in the lesson. They were all spoke as a class to walk
through all examples. The class then had
a board race between the two sides of the room.
The students freely got up and went to help at the board throughout the
time. They were also very slow and
precise about their work. In America,
students would most commonly be going very fast to actually beat the other
side. Here, the idea of beating the
other side did not seem to be a factor.
During this, however, there were a lot of students just drawing
pictures. This is very similar to
America. Some students want to learn and
some do not care.
In the second class, we were able to follow right along
since it was taught in English. Like
most American classes, both this class and the last were taught as a teacher
based lecture. Like the last class,
students did approach the board to solve examples. Although, the same two students were asked to
1. complete the problem, and 2. explain the problem. This teacher had the students divided into
different teams for the semester in which she awards points for
participation. I think this is a good
idea that I would like to bring back to my classroom. It is a motivation for participation, and the
students are working as a team to help each other instead of all competing
individually. We noticed in this class
that the English language is very tricky.
It was hard for them to explain correctly how to read a mathematical
sentence. This was an eye opener for me
that as a teacher I need to be aware of the working I am using when teaching
and what the best way to explain is.
We then went to lunch with the administration at a very cool
restaurant. It was outside in a “Rain
Forest Café” kind of setting. It was
beautiful. We got interviewed by the
local news, which was again a shocker to us since we do not consider ourselves
to be very important or special people.
We simple wanted to bring an American idea of math games to their
school.
After visiting the school, we traveled to a few markets in
Maesot and then headed home. We went to
lunch with the Thai professors at a local restaurant. Come to find out, it was owned by the
grandparents of the winner of the Voice for Kids in Thailand. She came out and sang specifically for
us. She was amazing!
Today we get to participate in KPRU’s math camp….very
excited to see what this is all about!
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