TM Volunteers had to say good bye to our volunteer Karen recently. Here are her final comments and tips after her four week stay in Thai Mueang:

I’m not going to lie- when my last day of teaching arrived, I was somewhat relieved. Teaching and lesson planning were a huge challenge for me, as I knew it would be coming in. When I was saying bye to the kids I was silently willing myself not to cry…but I did. What happens when a grown-up starts to cry in front of 8-11 year olds? They cry too- though I wonder if a few of them really understood what was going on! I will look back on Thai Mueang and surrounding area with fondness; I made some great friends here in the community and they will stay with me in my heart!

My favorite memory: Trying to spread myself out and give the desired attention to all twenty students who were constantly waving their paper at me and shouting ‘My teacher’ or ‘Miss Karen’, wanting me to give them a smiley face or my signature on their paper as my seal of approval. 

I was surprised that… No matter how much I feigned anger or raised my already hoarse voice (out of real frustration) or slapped the bamboo stick on the desk (which I just did because the students loved it) they were still just as excited to see me arrive at the beginning of each school day as they had been on day one, and just as sad to leave at the end of every day. 

The most difficult thing I experienced was… Trying to explain games / activities at the very beginning when I hardly knew a word of Thai and the students hardly knew a word of English. I also wasn’t a very experienced teacher, so this didn’t help! 

My best received lesson: Anything involving charades, Pictionary, or a game that involved someone getting ‘out’ like Magical chairs or hot potato. 

Tip for Future Volunteers: Don’t kid yourself- this is really hard work! Arrive a couple of days early and take time throughout to lesson plan!!