On the job & into the rabbit hole

     You may be wondering "what's with the Alice in Wonderland Reference?"  Quite frankly Cambodia is Wonderland.  Everything is so chaotic yet orderly at the same time.  It's really sinking in at this point.  I saw a shocking video on Youtube (link to maybe come) where a cop shot a woman (I think it's because he thought she was shoplifting) and killed her.  People that were at the scene just walked away or walked around the woman's corpse.  This is like Wonderland because it seems so backwards, in the States, if a cop shot someone it would be all over the news and the cop would be slandered.  Here, it's just commonplace and it only got a Youtube video and a spot on a Khmer forum.  I'm plummeting into the rabbit hole, I don't know how deep it goes but I hope I don't meet the Red Queen.

     Enough literary references, this post is primarily about my job!  Today marks my 4th day of teaching and at this point I'm really getting it.  What I like is that we have our lessons spelled out for us (there are textbooks) and that it's very strict for the students but relatively laidback for the teachers.  About my classes, I have a grand total of 6 classes (goodness) but I have a 3 hour break.  There is a morning session and an afternoon session, each session is 3 hours long.  I teach 1st and 2nd grade, 4 1st grade classes and 2 2nd grade classes.  I'm teaching basic grammar to the 1st graders and conversational English to the 2nd graders. 

     I'm loving this!  In general, my 1st graders are a delight but they eat up most of my energy.  My 2nd graders are a bit of a handful but they are focused when on task.  They all listen to me and I've definitely got a commanding presence in the classroom.  I've come up with a very good disciplinary strategy.  Each day all of my classes start with a happy face on the board.  If they misbehave or don't listen to my directions, then it turns into a sadface.  If it's a sadface by the end of class, the last ten minutes (which is usually devoted to a game) will be spent sitting quietly and studying.  It's working phenominally for all of my classes and I'm proud of myself for it.  I will share more opinions on teaching as well as anecdotes as they come up.

Til next time..