Recently we held an english camp for all of Matayom 1. This is about 300 kids so this was a big task, especially since there were only 12 teachers to manage them. Like everything in Thailand the organisation was a bit lax so it was a case of just jumping straight in and getting on with it on the day. This wasnt help when my boss jumped ship the day before since it was her idea to have it in the first place and she was one of the main organisers. So it was left to the rest of us to muddle our way through the day. The basic gist is that the day began with registration and orientation, at which the students were going to learn the words to some songs in english. After this was the main part of the day where the students would visit the teacher stations and we would all finish the day with a talent show. For the orientation our main person for making the kids sing was AWOL (my boss) so it was suggested that i take over. I pretty much laughed in the faces of the other teachers at this suggestion and almost told them where to stick their singing but managed to politely decline and swiftly suggest an alternative. So someone else got stuck with it. We also had assistants for the day in the shape of one of my classes; 4/3. Now this lot have pretty poor or in some cases non-existent english language skills so i was a bit pessimistic about how much of a help they would be. Mostly they ended up guiding the groups of students between the teacher stations which required no english and they just kind of dumped the kids on me and moved out of sight till the time was up. Useless bums.
Orientation lasted about an hour or so and with the students in predetermined groups we moved on to the stations. Now the idea here is that each teacher has a spot and will do an activity with a group of about 20 kids for about 20 minutes. The idea was the groups would visit all the stations and see each teacher. It didnt quite work out like this but was close enough. We had a break for lunch but this was my day from about 10 till 3.30. I had come up with a few ideas i though would be fun for the kids during the week. Unfortunately these mostly relied on the students having the basics of the english language. They didnt. I thought the assistants would assist me. They didnt. In fact they looked at me as if i was crazy when i suggested it. For the first two groups i attempted to explain a game called 'murderer'. In this game everyone closes their eyes and i pick one as a murderer, their job is to kill everyone else without being found out while everyone is trying to find them. The whole point of the game is the victim dieing. In my head this was fun and cool because the students would fall around screaming in ever more elaborate ways. Sadly this was not to be as i found out when they couldnt understand 'close your eyes', 'kill' and 'die'. SO very frustrated i moved to my back up plan of "Simon Says". This is a pretty basic game that they should have been able to manage. Of the first two groups one of them picked up the rules of this game. The other group had zero english and zero interest in anything i tried. I was thoroughly disheartened by the time the next group came and moved onto my third game - Rainbow Tag. This is a version of 'Bulldog' where the students are split into colours and when i shout this colour that group runs, unless i shout rainbow and everybody runs. Since i managed to explain that all they had to do was run from one spot to another this proved the easiest game of the day to explain. However it took its toll on me as i knew to convey the message i would have to show them. So i spent time with the two groups chasing them around a patch of grass..... in almost 30 degree heat. Fun but exhausting.
After lunch i was advised to move into shade as it would get quite hot in the afternoon. This meant another game had to be brought into play. For the rest of the day i played two short games. One was a game i had used on the trips to the pratom (primary) schools where one person sits in the middle of a circle with their eyes closed, one person in the circle claps and the guy in the middle has to find the clapper. This gets old quickly hence why i needed a second game. For my sins i tried to play 'Buzz' with them. I thought it would work to an extent as it relies on knowing the numbers up to about twenty or so. For those who dont know it, you count around the group with each person saying a number but instead of the number 3 or multiples of 3 you say "buzz". I did a round of the group just getting the numbers straight and then introduced the buzz idea. Some students cant count to 20 in english so that was a problem right there. A good few students got the game and had a bit of fun but there was (as there always is) a few who couldnt care less and point blank ignored me until i was in front of them demanding a number and staring them down when they would panic and turn to the person beside them for help. One group actually did quite well and some of the students were looking around counting to find out if they were 'buzz' in advance which was great to see. Thankfully 3.30 rolled up and meant it was time for the talent show.
Im absolutely exhausted at this stage. The talent show doesnt require much input from me thankfully. The idea was that each group was given a sheet with a list of basic songs in english (some composed by my coordinator apparently) of which they would choose one and perform it on stage as a group with an accompanying dance routine. They all knew the songs before the day and knew the dances that went with each one. So no problems here right? Well each group got up and sang a song and danced along to it (extremely reluctantly) with each one on stage for, oh, maybe a minute or so before running back to the safety of the hall floor. But out of 14 groups, 10 did the same bloody song! After the 3rd time in a row i was sick of it but since i was the judge i had to listen to them all. The winner was the group that had a different dance routine to the song and looked to have put a tiny bit of effort in. They also looked like they had fun whereas the others did not. So ended the english camp and after a long and exhausting day shouting at kids i was ready to flake out.
Pics: 1. The view from my spot in the morning.
2. Some reluctant singers and dancers in the morning.
3. Some reluctant dancers in the afternoon.
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