At about this time last year, I had an important decision to make. I could get my career under way and start grad school in LA to become a teacher, or follow my instincts and go off to see some more of the world.
As I struggled with the decision, I suddenly had an epiphany; I could teach while at the same time travel and explore. It was about this time when I stumbled upon Open Mind Projects on the internet.
Volunteer overseas - Mike Isenberg's Letter
At about this time last year, I had an important decision to make. I could get my career under way and start grad school in LA to become a teacher, or follow my instincts and go off to see some more of the world.
As I struggled with the decision, I suddenly had an epiphany; I could teach while at the same time travel and explore. It was about this time when I stumbled upon Open Mind Projects on the internet.
Mike Isenberg
I chose OMP for a few reasons. It seemed to be cheaper then most of the other volunteer organizations, and it offered a wide variety of placements and types of positions. It was also based in Thailand, which I had heard only good things about and which I figured could use some help after the tsunami. I filled out the application and after only a couple of days was accepted. In the acceptance email, it said I was to go to the south and volunteer somewhere in the Phang-Nga province. About a month later I got another email saying that since I was staying for a long time, I should start in Nong Khai at the temple school for a few weeks before going to the south. This sounded like a good idea to me because I could meet some other volunteers and see different parts of the country.
However, a few weeks later, I got another email saying that I should go to Krabi for my placement. As you could imagine I was slightly confused, as this was my third placement, and I hadn’t even left the country. After a couple emails everything was straightened out and I was heading back to Nong Khai. But I think the one area that OMP needed to improve on was the communication between the north and south.
I arrived to Nong Khai on the 5th of September. I missed the orientation by a couple of days, but I was filled in by the staff members on what I needed to know. The morning I arrived I was sent to the temple school, and immediately began working with Nikron and Matthew. I felt the temple school was a good place to start because I was never alone, as there was always another volunteer and Thai teacher with me. At the temple school we worked on simple things like basic reading comprehension and vocabulary. I felt my main role was to help with pronunciation and also get the young novices to have an interest in English. During this time I was living at the OMP house, which I also thought was a good way to start my trip. Puy, Toto, and Yoon did a very good job of introducing me to Thai culture and customs, which would help me later on my journey.
After three weeks in the north, I then headed down south to volunteer at an English camp for children in the tsunami affected areas. It was the first year for the camp, and in some ways you could tell. Initially the camp was supposed to last four weeks, but it only lasted around two. This was no problem, though, as it gave me some time to travel and see the country.
The leader of the camp was Bao, and he was a very friendly and gracious host. Toto also came down to help us out. The camp started with a two day orientation where Anders and Maddy gave us some teaching tips and explained how to use the textbook that they had created for the camp. I then helped Karin in Takua Pa for a day before heading to Khoraburi for my placement.
At my placement I worked with two university students from Bangkok who were there to help explain the lesson to the students. We stayed in very nice bungalows. I had about 15 students, ranging from 15 to18 years old, and taught them about five hours a day for one week. It was a very challenging experience as it was up to me to create a lesson plan that kept the students busy while having fun for five hours every day. It was hard at first, but as the camp went on I really started to bond with the students and we had a really good time. It was during the camp that I felt more like a real teacher and less like a volunteer. I also thought the students did improve some, even though the camp was only for a short time. Looking back on it, the camp turned out to be a very valuable experience for what was about to come.
After a couple more weeks of travel I then headed to my next placement at Ban Ta Din Dang, a small primary school in a small Muslim Village, where I was supposed to stay for four months. I would be teaching with Karin, and over time we would become great friends. We were told that we would be staying at the teacher house, and as we pulled into the driveway I think we were both a bit nervous about it. The house kind of looks like it is falling apart, but it turned out to be a very nice place to stay, and I would recommend it to future volunteers. We then met Sommai, who was the other teacher that lived in the teacher house.
At first I think he was a bit nervous, as we were the first volunteers to stay at the house. But after a few days he made us feel like part of the family. We were always fed very good food, and he would always help us in whatever way we needed.
The school itself is very nice and all the staff is very friendly. We taught grades 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (there was no 2 because no students enrolled that year), each class three hours a week. We pretty much always taught by ourselves as the Thai teachers usually left the room when we came. I think if I had come straight from the temple school this would have been difficult, but as we had both somewhat taught alone at the camp, we were both confident we could do it, and I think the kids got more out of it when it was just us there.
We focused our teaching on simple conversation and some basic reading. We would usually start the class with every kid having to introduce themselves and we would ask them some basic questions such as their name and their age. The lesson would then vary depending on the class level. For the smaller kids we usually did very basic reading using lots of word searches, puzzles, and having the kids draw pictures using English words. For the older kids we had some more advanced lessons like simulations and word problems.
The main thing to recommend to future volunteers is that it is essential to plan ahead. This involves print-outs for the students, and also some visual aids to help them. The students can tell when you have not planned so well, and they are much harder to control. Also, I think repetition is important. The students don’t work so much out of the classroom, so you have to repeatedly do the same things in class for the students to pick up on it. I think it is also vital for the volunteer to try and adapt him or herself to the Thai educational system. It is much more relaxed then Western systems, and if you try and change the system, it will just end up in frustration.
Overall, I had a great time at Ban Ta Din Dang. The students were incredible. They made me feel like I was not only their teacher but their friend. I was able to do activities with them out of school like going fishing and being an assistant coach to their football team. Although naughty at times, they were always polite and they made it fun to teach them. The staff was great too. Sommai and all the other teachers made sure that we were always taken care of, and we were treated to parties, weddings, cremations, and much more. I don’t think I could have asked for a better placement.
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