Wednesday, September 10, 2008
FILIPINO IN USC TROJAN BASKETBALL
MEET ANOTHER PROSPECT RYAN WETHERELLyeah, it's him - the small guy who dunkedRyan Wetherell is a Filipino-Canadian from Calgary, Alberta. He originally favored hockey but after seeing Space Jam moved to basketball. His basketball skills didn't go unnoticed in his home country as there were two Canadian university teams after him but decided to play in the United States with the University of
Teacher's Diary: day two
The first class is grade nine class 'D', the same class I taught the Vietnam War to yesterday. So yes, today the topic is the Asian financial crisis.
I want to get across the concept of 'national reserves' by drawing a pile of money in a safe on the whiteboard. Problem is, my drawings are utterly retarded. I get the class artist to draw the pile of money. Unfortunately, he's being a perfectionist about it and taking his time. I explain he just needs to do a quick sketch but he's being stubborn and I can't get the kids to focus on me while he's drawing. We're ten minutes into class and I haven't started.
Once we get going though, the kids do great, even better than yesterday. These lot are so bright, some of them can even name the Thai prime ministers during the crisis years. Teachers are usually quick enough to tell students when they are not performing, so I make a point of telling them how well they did today. The next class will be a very different affair though, that's for sure.
Class 'A' were almost unanimously voted the most, ahem, 'difficult' class last year and this year is not much better. In the early days it was open hostility between this class and I, but it's a little better now. I've come to realise that most of these students are not obnoxious - though a few are - they are just very weak. There are actually some bright personalities but they simply cannot focus. And so it is today, as I teach my same 'Vietnam War' lesson as I did with class 'D' yesterday. I spend more time telling them to listen than actually teaching. A measure of my success could be my final question when I ask: "Who won the Vietnam War?" and a student answers: "Japan".
One boy is purposely giving me a hard time by cracking pointless jokes as I go along. He's not being humorous, he's purposely being disruptive and showing off to his mates. I'm going to let it slide now but next week he'll be sitting alone and if he is still a problem, he'll sit outside.
Next period is a free. The Science teachers are excited about the 'big bang' experiment, and I've been meaning to sit down with a fellow Social Studies teacher - a devout Christian - and get into a debate on infinite regress, but that can wait.
I then have grade ten Social Science. In fact, the grade ten curriculum is called 'Social Science' but in reality it is 'Earth Science', a fact which I didn't know when I agreed to take the class. I'm no earth scientist, but I get by. On the plus side, grade ten students are generally far more mature than grade nine and the class size is smaller. Some of these guys have known me for a while now and mostly seem to like me, so the lessons are relaxed affairs. Today we are doing a case study on deforestation in Indonesia. I keep it basic as - despite their age - a lot of these students are very weak with their English. The oldest girl in the class is eighteen, the oldest boy is seventeen, both struggle to speak English. It's a shame because both are good natured students.
That's my classes done for the day, except for 'Drama club'. 'Drama Club' is one of those extra duties that teachers treat as anathema, but I got lucky with this one. My assigned class is a small group of the brightest girls in grade ten. We are preparing a spoof performance of 'Finding Nemo' and to encourage the use of English, we have introduced a system of fining the girls one baht every time they speak Thai. At the end of the year we will use the money to buy a large take away meal to celebrate the performance. So far we only have about thirty baht so either myself and the other teacher - a Hungarian who speaks better English than I do - will have to subsidise, or we will have to order the world's smallest pizza.
The class goes well as usual but the noise from next door is deafening. In fact, this is a real problem in the school. There is always noise from somewhere, be it drum beats, singing, shouting or a teacher with a microphone. It's difficult for any teacher but for teachers speaking a foreign language, it's especially tough.
Still, overall it's been a successful day - two hits, one 'so so' and one miss. Tomorrow I'll aim for three 'hits'.
I want to get across the concept of 'national reserves' by drawing a pile of money in a safe on the whiteboard. Problem is, my drawings are utterly retarded. I get the class artist to draw the pile of money. Unfortunately, he's being a perfectionist about it and taking his time. I explain he just needs to do a quick sketch but he's being stubborn and I can't get the kids to focus on me while he's drawing. We're ten minutes into class and I haven't started.
Once we get going though, the kids do great, even better than yesterday. These lot are so bright, some of them can even name the Thai prime ministers during the crisis years. Teachers are usually quick enough to tell students when they are not performing, so I make a point of telling them how well they did today. The next class will be a very different affair though, that's for sure.
Class 'A' were almost unanimously voted the most, ahem, 'difficult' class last year and this year is not much better. In the early days it was open hostility between this class and I, but it's a little better now. I've come to realise that most of these students are not obnoxious - though a few are - they are just very weak. There are actually some bright personalities but they simply cannot focus. And so it is today, as I teach my same 'Vietnam War' lesson as I did with class 'D' yesterday. I spend more time telling them to listen than actually teaching. A measure of my success could be my final question when I ask: "Who won the Vietnam War?" and a student answers: "Japan".
One boy is purposely giving me a hard time by cracking pointless jokes as I go along. He's not being humorous, he's purposely being disruptive and showing off to his mates. I'm going to let it slide now but next week he'll be sitting alone and if he is still a problem, he'll sit outside.
Next period is a free. The Science teachers are excited about the 'big bang' experiment, and I've been meaning to sit down with a fellow Social Studies teacher - a devout Christian - and get into a debate on infinite regress, but that can wait.
I then have grade ten Social Science. In fact, the grade ten curriculum is called 'Social Science' but in reality it is 'Earth Science', a fact which I didn't know when I agreed to take the class. I'm no earth scientist, but I get by. On the plus side, grade ten students are generally far more mature than grade nine and the class size is smaller. Some of these guys have known me for a while now and mostly seem to like me, so the lessons are relaxed affairs. Today we are doing a case study on deforestation in Indonesia. I keep it basic as - despite their age - a lot of these students are very weak with their English. The oldest girl in the class is eighteen, the oldest boy is seventeen, both struggle to speak English. It's a shame because both are good natured students.
That's my classes done for the day, except for 'Drama club'. 'Drama Club' is one of those extra duties that teachers treat as anathema, but I got lucky with this one. My assigned class is a small group of the brightest girls in grade ten. We are preparing a spoof performance of 'Finding Nemo' and to encourage the use of English, we have introduced a system of fining the girls one baht every time they speak Thai. At the end of the year we will use the money to buy a large take away meal to celebrate the performance. So far we only have about thirty baht so either myself and the other teacher - a Hungarian who speaks better English than I do - will have to subsidise, or we will have to order the world's smallest pizza.
The class goes well as usual but the noise from next door is deafening. In fact, this is a real problem in the school. There is always noise from somewhere, be it drum beats, singing, shouting or a teacher with a microphone. It's difficult for any teacher but for teachers speaking a foreign language, it's especially tough.
Still, overall it's been a successful day - two hits, one 'so so' and one miss. Tomorrow I'll aim for three 'hits'.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Teacher's Diary
This diary is inspired by the Teacher's Diary that appeared in one of my favourite magazines, Private Eye.
I thought it would be interesting to see what differences and similarities exist in 'day to day' work for teachers in the UK and Thailand.
I'll try this for a week or so and see how it turns out. I immediately wish to state that I enjoy my work and life in Thailand very much and teaching is a positive and rewarding job at many times. As this diary is focusing on everyday events, the grumbles and moans that will no doubt be apparent don't represent my overall mood at work, which, again, is very positive.
Today, Weds 9th September
This is my quietest day as I have only two periods. The first is a reading and writing class in grade eight. This class causes a lot of problems for other teachers yet always seems to work fine with me as long as I'm quite stern with them. Perhaps it's because two of the nosiest students in the class seem to have taken a shine to me. It's often the case that if the most confident students are on your side, the rest of the class will come round.
Today though, these guys - all aged from twelve to fourteen - are deathly quiet. Quieter than I've ever known them. I pre-teach some vocabulary such as "physical therapy" and "pressure". I'm not on red hot form myself but this is still pretty easy stuff and they seem lost. I get into compound nouns and assign some textbook questions which they finish easily but still there is the unnatural silence. Still, they learned something. At the end of class the teacher in next classroom reports that his kids were also bizarrely silent. It's possible that grade eight had a mass scolding from one of the senior teachers in the morning.
In my free period I sit in the staff room and read. Kim - our upper grades PE teacher - comes in with a student who is clearly in trouble. Kim hands the student over to the year head and informs her that the student called him a "fat idiot". There is a long discussion between student and year head in Thai by which I can make out the student is protesting his innocence, but I don't believe him. The student is question is actually a boy who wears make up and a bra to school. Kim feels the student gets away with a lot of things because he is this way, and I think he may have a point.
Next period is also free. I try to debate with the Science teacher about alternative fuels. He swears blind that nuclear power is not an option because we only have enough uranium for one hundred years. I dispute this, but he is having none of it.
My boss interrupts to hand me a copy of the grade nine Social Studies exam paper that students are set to take in two weeks. Our school is actually a sub-branch of a bigger school (from now on I'll call it the 'head school'). All our teachers must write exam papers for every subject and then send them to 'head school', who then decide how many of our questions to use and how many of their own to use. The official policy is: "they decide which is better, theirs or ours". Anybody who works in Thailand knows what this statement really means.
Naturally the exam is about ninety percent head school's, and ten percent mine. This wouldn't be so bad if the Social Studies teacher at head school could write in English, but instead I have questions like: "Which is the first king that is first Chakri Dynasty?" and "What is the worst demonstration event occurred in 1992?". Complaining is futile, we are not even allowed to speak to our peers at head school. I count a total of twenty one errors in the exam, then I hand it back.
Period four is grade nine Social Studies. This class is one of my favourites. They take a while to settle down but when they do, they work well. Today we are studying the Vietnam War. It's a good lesson because the students grasp the basic concepts of what happened and the anecdotes of the Thai military in the jungle quite well. This group is good at English, so they understand the concepts when I explain them. Some of the other classes have bright students but with poor English skills, which makes it very hard to inspire an interest in history. The lesson goes well but next week I have to explain the Asian Financial Crises, which will be harder to make interesting.
And so my day is done. Tomorrow is a longer day though.
I thought it would be interesting to see what differences and similarities exist in 'day to day' work for teachers in the UK and Thailand.
I'll try this for a week or so and see how it turns out. I immediately wish to state that I enjoy my work and life in Thailand very much and teaching is a positive and rewarding job at many times. As this diary is focusing on everyday events, the grumbles and moans that will no doubt be apparent don't represent my overall mood at work, which, again, is very positive.
Today, Weds 9th September
This is my quietest day as I have only two periods. The first is a reading and writing class in grade eight. This class causes a lot of problems for other teachers yet always seems to work fine with me as long as I'm quite stern with them. Perhaps it's because two of the nosiest students in the class seem to have taken a shine to me. It's often the case that if the most confident students are on your side, the rest of the class will come round.
Today though, these guys - all aged from twelve to fourteen - are deathly quiet. Quieter than I've ever known them. I pre-teach some vocabulary such as "physical therapy" and "pressure". I'm not on red hot form myself but this is still pretty easy stuff and they seem lost. I get into compound nouns and assign some textbook questions which they finish easily but still there is the unnatural silence. Still, they learned something. At the end of class the teacher in next classroom reports that his kids were also bizarrely silent. It's possible that grade eight had a mass scolding from one of the senior teachers in the morning.
In my free period I sit in the staff room and read. Kim - our upper grades PE teacher - comes in with a student who is clearly in trouble. Kim hands the student over to the year head and informs her that the student called him a "fat idiot". There is a long discussion between student and year head in Thai by which I can make out the student is protesting his innocence, but I don't believe him. The student is question is actually a boy who wears make up and a bra to school. Kim feels the student gets away with a lot of things because he is this way, and I think he may have a point.
Next period is also free. I try to debate with the Science teacher about alternative fuels. He swears blind that nuclear power is not an option because we only have enough uranium for one hundred years. I dispute this, but he is having none of it.
My boss interrupts to hand me a copy of the grade nine Social Studies exam paper that students are set to take in two weeks. Our school is actually a sub-branch of a bigger school (from now on I'll call it the 'head school'). All our teachers must write exam papers for every subject and then send them to 'head school', who then decide how many of our questions to use and how many of their own to use. The official policy is: "they decide which is better, theirs or ours". Anybody who works in Thailand knows what this statement really means.
Naturally the exam is about ninety percent head school's, and ten percent mine. This wouldn't be so bad if the Social Studies teacher at head school could write in English, but instead I have questions like: "Which is the first king that is first Chakri Dynasty?" and "What is the worst demonstration event occurred in 1992?". Complaining is futile, we are not even allowed to speak to our peers at head school. I count a total of twenty one errors in the exam, then I hand it back.
Period four is grade nine Social Studies. This class is one of my favourites. They take a while to settle down but when they do, they work well. Today we are studying the Vietnam War. It's a good lesson because the students grasp the basic concepts of what happened and the anecdotes of the Thai military in the jungle quite well. This group is good at English, so they understand the concepts when I explain them. Some of the other classes have bright students but with poor English skills, which makes it very hard to inspire an interest in history. The lesson goes well but next week I have to explain the Asian Financial Crises, which will be harder to make interesting.
And so my day is done. Tomorrow is a longer day though.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sports Sci J@Jul-Aug08
This is the latest sports science journal update. ---Jul-Aug 08CoachingStressors in elite sport: A coach perspective. JSSSprint vs. Interval Training in Football. IJSMStrength & ConditioningDevelopment and Reliability of Two Core Stability Field Tests. JSCRResistance Exercise Biology: Manipulation of Resistance Exercise Programme Variables Determines the Responses of Cellular and Molecular
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Thailand twenty years from now
It looks like my friend Tom was correct. Tom is a neighbour of mine (he owns several properties) who likes to practise his English. He's a good guy who likes to help people and is more sensitive than he lets on. But one thing about Tom is that he is rich, and like most rich Thais, he likes to let me know about it. He will often playfully invite me to invest in a Sweensens franchise or some new business venture with him, because he knows I can't afford it. He also likes to jibe me about political figures, especially ones he knows I dislike.
I recall one day when I visited him and he was talking on the phone as I entered. He was talking to the controversial son of a well known politician. When he finished the conversation he smiled and told me: "Don't worry, I didn't tell him what you said about him on your blog".
Tom is a sharp guy and often tells me about business news before it happens. A few months back he told me he was ordering several large sacks of rice (the most expensive brand of course) to his 'upcountry' home. I asked him why and he told me: "There will be a civil war in Thailand soon for sure, I want to be ready". At first I thought it was another one of his jokes but it wasn't, he was serious.
He isn't the only hi-so person to suggest this to me either.
Could things really get that bad? Even if war is a bit of a melodramatic prediction, what does the next ten or twenty years hold for Thailand?
It makes me nervous to think about it. If Sondhi and his mob are successful, Thailand will move backwards in democratic terms by having far more appointed roles in the Parliament. That may restore stability to the country but at what cost? It's almost unheard of for a country to move backwards democratically and forward academically, economically or in terms of social freedoms.
Of course, there is a strong chance that this will not happen and Samak will ride the storm and PPP will continue to form the government.But opponents of Thaksin and Samak will remain vigilant and continue to apply pressure. Many of these alleged opponents - such as Prem - are elderly and in the final chapter of their lives but will stability ensue when the next generation of Thailand's elite take their place? Thais don't talk about this much but - according to Tom - there could be more problems ahead and with our senior statesmen gone, who will provide the stability?
Thais seem unwilling or unable to discuss this. Why is this? Perhaps a clue lies in the sort of behaviour we see from many of the protesters on either side of the ongoing conflict. Each day, the Thai and international press are showing us adults - from young men to elderly women - behaving like thirteen year old boys. They want to look tough so they carry weapons they have no idea how to use, they would be unable to use anyway and even if they did know how to use them, they would be of little help against trained and armed police or soldiers. In reality, the long planks of wood, the sticks, baseball bats and knives are almost entirely to pose for pictures with. Yet while these people strut around looking for attention - and student groups want to get in on the act too, now (they want to miss class, let them!) - problems continue to mount.
I fear that if we ignore our worries or problems then things are doomed to repeat themselves in an endless cycle of tender democracy punctured by conflict and coups, only in future the could become even more damaging. I just hope that this we can solve these problems before they happen. If we don't, I fear my friend Tom's prediction could come true.
I recall one day when I visited him and he was talking on the phone as I entered. He was talking to the controversial son of a well known politician. When he finished the conversation he smiled and told me: "Don't worry, I didn't tell him what you said about him on your blog".
Tom is a sharp guy and often tells me about business news before it happens. A few months back he told me he was ordering several large sacks of rice (the most expensive brand of course) to his 'upcountry' home. I asked him why and he told me: "There will be a civil war in Thailand soon for sure, I want to be ready". At first I thought it was another one of his jokes but it wasn't, he was serious.
He isn't the only hi-so person to suggest this to me either.
Could things really get that bad? Even if war is a bit of a melodramatic prediction, what does the next ten or twenty years hold for Thailand?
It makes me nervous to think about it. If Sondhi and his mob are successful, Thailand will move backwards in democratic terms by having far more appointed roles in the Parliament. That may restore stability to the country but at what cost? It's almost unheard of for a country to move backwards democratically and forward academically, economically or in terms of social freedoms.
Of course, there is a strong chance that this will not happen and Samak will ride the storm and PPP will continue to form the government.But opponents of Thaksin and Samak will remain vigilant and continue to apply pressure. Many of these alleged opponents - such as Prem - are elderly and in the final chapter of their lives but will stability ensue when the next generation of Thailand's elite take their place? Thais don't talk about this much but - according to Tom - there could be more problems ahead and with our senior statesmen gone, who will provide the stability?
Thais seem unwilling or unable to discuss this. Why is this? Perhaps a clue lies in the sort of behaviour we see from many of the protesters on either side of the ongoing conflict. Each day, the Thai and international press are showing us adults - from young men to elderly women - behaving like thirteen year old boys. They want to look tough so they carry weapons they have no idea how to use, they would be unable to use anyway and even if they did know how to use them, they would be of little help against trained and armed police or soldiers. In reality, the long planks of wood, the sticks, baseball bats and knives are almost entirely to pose for pictures with. Yet while these people strut around looking for attention - and student groups want to get in on the act too, now (they want to miss class, let them!) - problems continue to mount.
I fear that if we ignore our worries or problems then things are doomed to repeat themselves in an endless cycle of tender democracy punctured by conflict and coups, only in future the could become even more damaging. I just hope that this we can solve these problems before they happen. If we don't, I fear my friend Tom's prediction could come true.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
SEE THE FUTURE OF PHILIPPINE BASKETBALL IN TRAINING
MEET GREGORY SLAUGHTERGregory Slaughter - the Giant Guy from University of the VisayasWatch the training pool of the RP Youth Team in action. This is for the NCR region. Tryouts were also conducted nationwide in an effort to find the best of the best young cagers in the country. It is in preparation for the Southeast Asian Under 16 Championship next year. I'll keep you posted, my readers.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Students being students
Part of student life is finding an identity for yourself and giving yourself a reason to exist. For some (like me) that can mean attaching yourself to a certain type of music culture. For others it can mean finding a cause to support, often a perceived moral cause so you can imagine you have some high ground. This is a natural stage that we all go through and in any country, student politics can be a powerful and important movement.
That said, the latest student protests in Thailand have a farcical ring to them.
A look at the photos on the home page of The Nation tells the story. In the last week we've seen student group after student group melodramatically protesting the state of emergency, comments by the education minister and now a wave of protests calling for Samak to resign. This bandwagon has been jumped on now only because the international media are watching and Samak is under pressure. The students have decided they want some attention now, but when the PAD protests first began, the student response was minimal. The student shootings were tragic, but the wave had begun just before this happened.
What's more, inviting school children up on stage to tell Samak to resign seems in bad taste.
Here's one more thought: if you were a person of influence watching the events in Bangkok, what would you tell the people? If you supported democracy you could tell the PAD they were wrong and things should be resolved peacefully. If you were neutral, you could say the same thing. But what if you supported the PAD, but could not be seen to be condoning their actions? I guess you'd have to stay quiet.
That said, the latest student protests in Thailand have a farcical ring to them.
A look at the photos on the home page of The Nation tells the story. In the last week we've seen student group after student group melodramatically protesting the state of emergency, comments by the education minister and now a wave of protests calling for Samak to resign. This bandwagon has been jumped on now only because the international media are watching and Samak is under pressure. The students have decided they want some attention now, but when the PAD protests first began, the student response was minimal. The student shootings were tragic, but the wave had begun just before this happened.
What's more, inviting school children up on stage to tell Samak to resign seems in bad taste.
Here's one more thought: if you were a person of influence watching the events in Bangkok, what would you tell the people? If you supported democracy you could tell the PAD they were wrong and things should be resolved peacefully. If you were neutral, you could say the same thing. But what if you supported the PAD, but could not be seen to be condoning their actions? I guess you'd have to stay quiet.
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