Teacha Lala no more

Our time as teachers has officially come to an end. If I could sum (get it...because I'm a math teacher) up my experience as a teacher in two sentences this would be it.

When I try to get my students excited about math using playing cards:

When my students present an English project and I have no idea what they are saying:

When I cover another teacher's class:

When my students ask if we can play a game:

When my students ask what workbook pages we are doing for the 18th time:

When there are 15 minutes left of class and we have completed everything:

When my students complain about how they don't want to be in class:

When my students are being loud and out of control when I want to explain the rules to a game:

When my students try to argue with me and I think they might actually be right but I don't care:

When I write anything on the board:

When I take out my phone and my students want to see my Facebook:

When I try and teach anything:

I joke I joke. I was extremely qualified.

Now that school is over I am free to love my students because I no longer have to worry about getting through workbook pages, explaining vocabulary words, or making up grades grading tests! When I walked into my homeroom on the last day of school, all my students started cheering and clapping and giving me wonderful cards and gifts (one of my students gave me three of her old stuffed animals and I'm just not sure what to do with them?)!  

It was probably the cutest thing that has ever happened to me, but then I got something in my eye and had to leave. Okay fine I sobbed. Sobbed like a blubbering baby. 

But then I remembered I had to grade 90 students' tests that were around 100 questions each and those tears quickly dried up.

At least it was slightly entertaining. 

^I'm expecting my Teacher of the Year award in the mail any day now.

After grading was over I was able to go through the cards my students gave me.

^from Mine...he cackled when he gave this to me and asked if I thought it was beautiful

^From Lumpsum...."Sometime I'm not gave your work" that's right Lumpsum I'm still waiting on those workbook pages....

^from my favorite boys- apparently I taught them ABCs too

^my favorite card because it has all my students' names!!!! <3

^I now have YouTube subscribers so...

^my 6th grade homeroom...LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE!!!! my heart breaks looking at this picture.

^my fourth grade...the one and only time they are not running around the classroom hitting each other with rulers

^aaaand we are back to being crazy. I love them 

^My 5/5 class <3 Most well-behaved!!!

^And my 5/6 who are psycho <3

^MY FAVORITE TEACHAS I WILL MISS YOU ALL <3

It was really hard saying goodbye to everyone. While my students drove me crazy 3/4 of the time (what percent is 3/4 everyone?? this is how I think now), they were amazing kids and I am proud to have been their teacher. The lyrics from See You Again were written on almost all of my cards from my homeroom because we listened to that song almost everyday (...while doing math...) and it makes me so sad. But I am so lucky and fortunate to have done something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

After we stepped out of school for the last time, Chelsea and I went home and blasted Graduation by Vitamin C on repeat for a few hours. We also did this the morning we graduated from college. Nostalgia.

The only thing that got us out of our funk was the fact that we were about to start our backpacking trip! We are traveling for around 3 months, starting in Vietnam, then going to Indonesia, Australia, back to Thailand/Cambodia to meet my fam (BRING ME PEANUT BUTTER MOM), then Laos, and finally ending in the Philippines. We fly home on December 23^rd (I am so lucky that the only Christmas present my friends and family are expecting is my safe return…..) into JFK and then from JFK we fly into Dulles. On the day before Christmas Eve. During rush hour. We really timed it well.

If you want to follow our travels I made an extremely organized and detailed travel calendar while I was supposed to be grading my students' tests in my free time!

Deciding to waste no time, we are leaving a mere day after our last day at school. Considering my bag was a full 15 pounds over the weight limit when coming here (RIP jar of JIFF you have been missed) packing has been interesting. I know I will be wearing the same three shirts and shorts until they have fallen apart but I feel the need to bring everything I own, including my headlamp (when will I ever need this? my inner girl scout is screaming at me ALWAYS BE PREPARED), 10 bags of PopSecret homestyle edition (this is necessary), a jar of peanut butter (shoutout to Emily’s mom), my entire makeup bag (I wore makeup maybe a total of 7 days the entire time I was in Thailand but WHAT IF I NEED IT) a bag of Sweedish fish (this is also necessary), my coffee pot (I figured I would save money on coffee if I just brought along my own coffee pot…I am a genius) my journal (upon arriving in Cambodia back in March I swore to myself I would write a single sentence a day describing what I did. My last and final entry was “Class was hot and boring. Stepped in mud.” It was day 6.) to name a few. After packing everything and ripping my bag in the process (off to a good start) we were READY.

^4 in the morning. Delirious. 

Unfortunately I had to leave Mr. Latonya and my blankie behind because he is just getting too old to travel like he used to and I am 23 years old and probably should not be traveling with a blankie/stuffed caterpillar named Mr. Latonya. Mr. L is also missing an eye, antenna, leg, and his dignity thanks to Hannah Gutcher's dog so he needs to stay home and rest. 

Maybe I'll update my blog but most likely I'll be too lazy! WISH US LUCK!

Bpen cru ka

A lot of people have asked me about teaching in Thailand. Would I recommend it? What was it like? Was it life changing?

If you are okay with students having no motivation to learn/complete work/ pay attention in class then yes, I 100% recommend it. I knew somewhat what to expect with regards to the students and their expectations in class because of my TEFL training, but at the time I figured I wouldn't be bothered with the lack of motivation. I wasn’t the most motivated student, but I did complete my work and I didn’t talk in class (at least until high school). Sometimes I fell asleep in class but I can’t help that I can fall asleep in any position. Some call it a gift.

If you are okay with school management not telling you the criteria for testing the students until the last month week of school, then yes. If you are okay with the school telling you that too many students have too low of grades, but to make sure when you go back and change them (because you can change grades simply because) that you can't make them too high either. If you are okay with students passing each and every class, simply for sitting there and converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, then yes. 

Did I enjoy teaching in Thailand? Absolutely. Was it one of the most testing and mentally exhausting things I have ever done? Yes. Granted, I haven’t done much job wise, but I would say this takes the cake. I can somewhat keep 32 11-12 year old Thai kids under control. My patience has increased ten fold, but it will eventually run out, and you will write “I will listen to Teacher Laura when she tells me to be quiet” 100 times.

I can pull a math lesson out of my ass. I can pull any lesson out of my ass because sometimes we will have to cover other classes 5 minutes ago because our agency forgot to send a substitute teacher. I can remember 90 Thai students’ nicknames even though ¼ of them look same same but different. I can maybe sometimes somewhat keep the attention of 20 kids who have severe ADD. My times tables are the fastest they have ever been (were was this skill when I was in grade school?!) I can drink an entire pot of coffee and not feel a single jitter (this could be labeled as an addiction). I can speak a little bit of Thai. Mostly related to food but hey, priorities. I can act like a complete idiot in front of my class but they love it. I can pretend not to know what my student is saying when she asks me “Teacha what does porn mean?” Not today young grasshopper, not today.

                                                               

 

^testing my patience

Sometimes I will be doing something and all of a sudden I remember I am a teacher. A math teacher. In Thailand. It’s like realizing you are in a dream while you are still in a dream- some Inception shit.
I am very fortunate to be able to have had this experience and I am so happy my parents are supportive of me putting off starting my career traveling across the world to attempt to teach math. A lot of my friends have told me how jealous they are I am doing this, how they wish they could have travelled, how they hate sitting in their offices all day. My answer to them is if they want to travel, do it. Putting off one or two years of your “real life” and taking the time to do something you have always wanted to do is going to be more beneficial than sitting in an office staring at a computer screen and refreshing Facebook every five minutes. You are going to be working for 40+ years most likely. Think about that. 40 years. Is taking off one year to do what you have always wanted to do really going to matter in the long run? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯