Summer Break

I am currently on summer break and I have chosen not to work at all during the break. God has really blessed me with my financial situation, so I am taking some time to do some traveling, entertain my family, and enjoy this beautiful city and beautiful country.

The semester ended well and my students all told me "see you next semester." During the summer break, I was invited to return to Bodindecha, which I'm very excited about. It will be good to go back to see some of the same students as well as have new students in my class. I'm already thinking of ways to improve my class including what rules I will enforce, how I will change my homework policy, testing, etc. I've decided that I will interact with the students on the first day to come up with the rules. I've heard that getting students involved will help them feel a part of the system and, hopefully, they may follow them better. I've decided to start assigning homework. I know that they have a lot of homework from their other subjects, but I feel like assigning at least some homework will be beneficial, especially learning a language can only come about from constant exposure and frequent practice.

One thing I will try with my classes this year is displaying their work a lot more. I will create Facebook pages, etc., for the classes and take pictures throughout the year of their work and productivity. I'm hoping this will allow them to be more "proud" of their work as well as their parents and friends can see what is going on in the classroom.

Last week, I took the Teaching Young Learners course from ECC Thailand. It was a lot of fun and gave me some ideas for my younger classes. I may even take the Young Learners extension to the CELTA offered in October; however, I've heard it's a waste of time. So maybe my October training will be something different.

This week, I'll be spending Song Kran in Pattaya with some friends. I'm not looking forward to going to that city, but it will be nice to get out of Bangkok for a while. I'm also planning to go to Bali in May, so more on that later.