A Tribute to Paperclips...

Paperclips are probably the best invention that I know of. Without them my life would be in a disordered array (at least more disordered than it already is). You can buy big ones and small ones. I like the big ones cause cause they're the real deal. People know you're not messing around when you slap a big paperclip on something. You can buy funny coloured paperclips but I'm old school and stick the aluminum paperclips. The French word for paperclip is trombone. I used to play trombone. I guess from a young age I was meant to be with paperclips. Anyways, life goes on as usual here. Obladi obladah. Work all day then go to bed basically. What a blast. Next week we have PD days on Thursday/Friday. So we'll be going to Pattaya for that, so next week will be pretty sweet. Tomorrow is pay day. Now I can get a bicycle!

First Time in a Philipino Church...

Forgot to mention yesterday (Saturday) that I got my haircut. What a nice experience compared to the haircuts I get in Canada. Walked in, and they gave me a magazine for me to show them how I wanted it cut. Then they wash your hair. Shampoo and lather. You get a nice head massage as they lather the shampoo. Then a rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Then back to the chair to get my hair cut. Then back to the sink to rinse off my hair. Then back to the chair for some more cutting. Probably took about 30-40 minutes in total. All for 3 bucks. Today I spent the morning and afternoon working, then left at 4 with Carrie to go to a Philipino church. Took the bus there. The church actually takes place in someone's house. There were about 20 Philipino people there. At least 3 of them were missionaries. Very friendly people, and their English is pretty much just as good as mine. Very nice to go and be able to communicate with other Asian people without having to speak slow and enunciate. I even talked Canadian politics with one of them. After the service we had a meal with eachother. I hope to go there everyother week or so. Can't go every week because there is a mandatory foreign staff service everyother week. It's about 10 here and I'm done working for the day, so I think I might head home, do a bit of reading, have a neocitron (some kind person put it in my mailbox), then get to bed on time.

Bit of a cold...

Last night at 5 I went out with Mike, Vicky, and Colleen with some parent's of a few grade 9 students: Math's mom, Pan's mom and dad, and Tee's mom. They took us to some restaurant and we had fish, sticky rice, some sort of soup, catfish, som tam (some sort of papaya salad) and other stuff. It was a pretty nice evening. Got back a bit before 8 and watched Young Frankenstein at Mike and Vicky's. After that watched a few episodes of Titus with Nathan, Justin, and Tim. Didn't get much sleep last night. Someone was ringing our doorbell at 6:30 and then the rest of the morning it sounded like Noah was building his ark right outside my window. There's this storage shed attached to the side of the house filled with junk, and some guys were empyting it. I've been having a sore throat for the past few days, but woke up today congested. At noon today I went with Mike to see Attack on Precinct 13 at The Mall. Pretty good movie. Lots of action. Also had Laurence Fishburne who played Morpheus in my favourite movie. Spent most of the afternoon and early evening entering grades into the computer and working on monthly evaluations. There's about 10 different categories that we have to rate our home room students on a scale of 1 to 5. I find such scales hard to fill out about myself, let alone for other people. Was hoping to work more in the evening, but wasn't feeling up to it so I went to Big C to get some cold medicine but the pharmacy was just closing as I got there. Got back home and some people were watching Rat Race at my place so I watched that with them. Tomorrow I hope to go to a Philipino church. I was invited by Jezreal, a girl who works at GES. It's an evening service so I hope to sleep in a bit then spend late morning and afternoon working.

Wai Kru...

Today was Wai Kru. Its the day that students pay respect to teachers. Wai is the Thai hands in front of your face bow thing and Kru means teacher. So in the afternoon all of grades 1 to 9 gathered in the church. The event started with the King's anthem followed by some kinda loud chant that the kids said and then they sang some sort of song by repeating what one of the grade seven students sang into a microphone. Of course everything was in Thai so I didn't really know what was going on. The teachers would go up according to their grade level and a couple representatives from each class would wai (there are different levels of waiing, in this situation they sat on their knees, placed their hands palm to palm in frong of their face and bowed their heads so that they were half way to the floor. Kinda weird. It doesn't mean a whole lot to the older grades, and the 2 students who waied me were laughing the whole time. But it was still an interesting ceremony to be part of. We didn't get to keep the flowers we got, but 3 students gave me flower wreaths once I was back in my classroom. So now the rotten smell in my classroom is temporarily replaced by the fragrance of flowers. After school we had to be in our classroom from 4-7 for open house. I had 5 students come with a parent. Spent rest of night working. Please pray that my sore throat gets better soon as its hard to teach with a sore throat.

Professional Math Teacher in the World...

Been a couple of very busy days. Yesterday I gave a test to my grade nine's on indices. Today was a chapter quiz for grade 7. We're supposed to have portfolios for our students and I'm not really sure what to put in them so I've been photocopying their tests and putting those in their portfolios, which can become quite a lengthy process. For the grade 9's I had them do a self-assessment, where they wrote about how they did on the test etc. One of things I had them write about was whether they like math. One student, responded with "I like math because I have professional math teacher in the world." If only he knew...

Sunday morning...

Good weekend so far. I worked hard all week so that I could have Saturday off. On Friday night I went to The Mall and watched Batman Begins. On Saturday I slept in to about 10. In the afternoon I went swimming at The Mall with Nathan and Justin. The swimming pool is located 7 floors up on the roof of The Mall. The waterslide is kinda boring because you go too slow so we spent most of the time on the lazy river. As soon as the kids saw 3 farang in the lazy river with our tubes they were all over us: pulling us around the river, tipping us over, climbing on, etc. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the kids. After swimming we went to Sizzler for the salad bar and then got back here at around 8 maybe. Today I'm gonna go to NBC for church. I hear that today they will have a Philipino pastor that will preach in English. This afternoon I will be busy working and then at 6:15 there is a mandatory foreign staff church service.

Apartment Tour...

Tour of my apartment, now on Flickr!
www.flickr.com/photos/samzondervan

A Tuesday in the Life of Mr. Sammy...

Well, I guess there is no such thing as a typical day here but here goes. A little before 6:30 alarm #1 went off, shortly followed by alarm #2. I waited in bed a few minutes until the bathroom was free and showered. Was in the staff room by 7:20 or so for the weekly 7:30 staff meeting. Was in my class room by about 8:20 or so to get ready for the day. At 8:30 (GES time, which is 6 minutes ahead of the world) the day began. 8:30-9:00 is devotions with my Grade 8 homeroom. I have 15 students. This week our topic is "God Began to Fulfill His Promises Concerning John and Jesus." At 9:00 was flag ceremony. Our students line up outside the classrooms. The grades 6, 7, and 8 classrooms are on the 3rd floor. During flag two students from a different grade each day raise the flag while the national anthem is played. After that Ms. Colleen prays and then we say the school philosophy in English and Thai (Inspiring to Live, Learn, and Communicate With Excellence). After we have announcements. Today from 9:15 - (random insert: michael jackson has the rights to over a hundred Beatles songs (I'm listening to ctv news)) 10:15 I had a prep and then 10:15-10:45 I had grade 8 math. Today we dealt with percentages. After recess I had grade 9 computers from 11:00-12:00. I had them go through an Excel tutorial. From 12:00-12:30 is lunch. Today I had rice, some gross pork/mushroom dish, chicken, and watermelon. By the time I had eaten and ran to my place to wash my hands (soap and paper towels / blow dryers aren't very popular here) and brush my teeth lunch is over, so I try to eat as fast as possible. From 12:30 - 1:30 I had grade 7 math. We went over coordinate planes, but by the time I finished the material class was pretty much over, so I will give them next class to work on questions (already a class behind). I had a prep from 1:30-2:30 which I spent getting ready for grade 6 math and then I worked on one of the computers here since my administrative duty (as soon as amanda leaves in August, we will not have an administrator) is to be in charge of the computers (which includes do the webpage apparently). I had grade 6 math from 2:30 - 3:30. We talked about the divisibility rules. After school was over I went down the block to the soi and got a Orange/Carrot shake from Oot. You choose what ingredients you want and then she makes it for you in a blender. Then it gets poured into a plastic bag and you drink it with a straw. Very delicious. I then went to my classroom to work till about 6. I did my grade 8 lesson plans for next week and marked 2 grade 7 assignments. I then walked over to Big C and had supper at KFC (combo #4, 4 spicy drumsticks)) with an icecream cone for dessert and then I bought a few snacks from Big C and a mechanical pencil. Got back and worked in my classroom to about 9:30. Got 2 grade 6 assignments marked and looked over tomorrow's material. Then I came here.

Weekend...

Spent Friday night working on lesson plans. On Saturday morning /afternoon I met with Craig to come up with the grade 6 math year plan and first unit plan. Craig is teaching the other grade 6 class and will start next week Monday, so I have one more week of all 25 grade sixers packed into a tiny room. Late Saturday afternoon I realized that if I try to be a perfectionist this will be the worst year of my life. So I took the night off and went to The Mall with Lindsay, Karen, and Heidi and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Very good movie. It was humorous but at the same time intense. And it played the right music in the right places. This morning I ironed 5 shirts then went to NBC (Nonthaburi Baptist Church). After that I worked on lesson plans until about 6 at which point I walked over to Big C for supper at KFC. Bought some strawberry yoghurt for breakfast and came back here and spent the rest of the evening lesson planning.

Good news...

Today I was on morning, recess, and lunch supervision. So I had to supervise in the morning from 7:30 to 8:30. I like using morning and recess and lunch to get ready for my next class so today was a bit rushed. And to make things worse, I was supposed to have a half hour prep this morning, but then found out that my kids are supposed to go to art and there is no art teacher, so I had to take the kids back into my class. The fun part of the day was helping out with chapel practice for an hour and a half after school. We have chapel every Thursday. I made up the powerpoints that will have the words on. The worship team consists of a drummer and two guitarists, and then Miss Erin and Miss Colleen sing. The drummer is in my grade 8 class and the two guitarists are in my grade 9 class. It was a lot of fun and a nice break from doing other stuff. As far as I know, only one of the boys is Christian, so it's amazing how enthusiastic a non-Christian can be about playing worship songs! So here is the good news... Yesterday two new teachers appeared! I don't any of the foreign teachers knew they were coming. That's Thailand for you. Things do or don't happen unexpectedly. They are from North Carolina and are a married couple. One will take a grade 4 class and one will take a grade 6 class, so my grade 6 math class will only have 13 people instead of 26 once the new teachers start. What a relief! Right now it's so packed in that little room that some students can't even see the board. Thanks be to God for providing us with the teachers that we so badly needed!

Trust in the Lord...

That is my homeroom grade 8's theme. From Proberbs 3:5; "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." I picked three themes and 11 out of 15 of my grade 8 students voted for this one. I thought it seemed appropriate in a learning environment. One shouldn't put their trust in math, science, or english but in the Lord. I thank God for the opportunity he has given me. I have the chance to daily interact with 70 students grades 6-9. What I do and say has the potential to affect them for the rest of their lives. Wow, what a responsibility. I can't do this myself. I must trust in the Lord. These kids are amazing individuals. In particular, I get to spend half an hour every morning with my grade 8's just on devotions. Pray that God will use me to bring these students to Christ. Pray for wisdom.

First Full Day of School...

Sign in was at 7:30. Normally I would have ESL 1 at 8-8:30 but that doesn't start for a couple of weeks. ESL 1 is extra help for students doing below 60% in certain courses, usually due to not being very good at English. At 8:30-9:00 I had devotions with my homeroom. I am using a series of books called Firm Foundations and starting at the beginning of the gospels. I am going to break up each lesson into five days. The topic for this week is "God Foretold the Birth of John and Jesus." Today we picked a class theme. I came up with three choices and had the class vote on them. The choices were "Let Your Light Shine", "The Lord is Our Shepherd", or "Trust in the Lord" (from proverbs 3:5). Trust in the Lord got 11 out of 15 votes so that is our theme this year. We then did a fill in the blank review sheet based on the previous lesson which basically talked about Israel sinning and ignoring the prophets and the reason why a deliver was neeeded. We then read through a skit, where I was Uncle Don and one of the students was Travis and another was Jessica. I also assigned Luke 1:37 (For with God nothing will be impossible) as a memory verse due Friday. After flag I had grade 8 math from 9:15 to 10:45. We first worked on math riddles in groups and went over the answers, went through the course outline, and then we did the first lesson which is on ratios. From 11-12 I had grade 9 math. We did the same riddle sheet and then went through the course outline. I had about 5 minutes left in class so we played truth or lie. An interesting thing here is that the bells all ring about 6 minutes early then they are supposed to. Oh well,mai pen rai. Had lunch in the cafeteria (rice, some sort of cabbagy thing, some sort of pork curry dish i think, some lettuce and cold potatoes, tried a bit of guava). Went back to my class before lunch was over to prepare for grade 7 class but then a thai teacher came in thinking she was going to teach a Thai class there but I had math 7 there so she ended up using the room next door. But it left me somewhat disorganized for math 7. We went over the 4 problem solving steps and choosing a method of computation. They take forever to write stuff down and it seems like they won't write anything down unless you tell them to. Math 7 was 1:30-2:30 then I had an hour prep but the first 15 minutes was spent trying to figure out what to do with the grade 7s cause they were all sitting in the hallway being loud. I guess they had Thai language class but didn't know where to go and I didn't know where they had to go either. So I ended up making them come back in my class to work on math but then I found out that they were supposed to go to the Thai library. My last class (2:30-3:30) was with grade 6. Since I don't have a textbook yet I did review from last year's grade 5 book. For each question I would throw a tennis ball to someone and they would help me answer the question. Grade 6 is supposed to be 6A and 6B but they don't have enough teachers so it is one class (25 students). But there is a teacher from the Philipines that helps with the class.

Shocks and stuff...

Went to church this morning again at the Thai church. Ajarn Sahat gave the message based on the book of Ruth. Stayed for lunch after church. Had some fried rice, some cabbagy stuff with some sort of meat, and some kind of soup that I thought was potato soup but was some sort of near-tasteless cucumber soup. After church I walked over to Big C and got a few things. Bought a door handle with a lock and and pair of yellow shorts (i bought identical red shorts previously). I tried to buy a white undershirt so I got an employee to show me which one would fit me (extra large), but it didn't have a barcode so they couldn't scan it at the checkout so I ended up not getting it. I figured it was worth spending 4 bucks on the door know and screwdriver to install the doorknob as our house was broken into 3 times last year apparently. Spent awhile installing the doorknob on my room - I was drenched in sweat after. Who thought that installing a door knob could be such a workout? After that I cleaned the bathroom and listened to a sweet trance cd my housemate Nathan got at the night market for like 3 bucks. Pretty much all the music and movies you find here is pirated. But they do a good job of making a nice colour copy of the cover and stuff. After that, spent pretty much the rest of the day working. Tomorrow's the first full day of school! I have this weird feeling that I'm gonna be working till midnight every night for the rest of the year, hopefully I'm wrong. Anyways, my classroom is pretty sweet (you should come check it out) and I am Mr. Sammy. I don't think it's sunk in yet that I am no longer a student. I am a teacher. But I am still learning. One is always learning. So I guess I'm a teacher and a perpetual student. After experiencing this recent role reversal I have much more respect for all the teachers I have encountered during my 22 and a bit years on this beautiful planet. Spent 20 minutes ironing a shirt. And it still didn't look all that great. Load of laundry is in the drier now. Guess I should get that. Then I have to photocopy the first chapter of the grade 9 textbook because i'm 1 short for my class. My grade 6 and 7 math textbooks are still not here. Oh well, mai pen rai. Mai pen rai means nevermind. Many people use that phrase when describing the people of Thailand. Whoops, the lights just went out. Happens every night at this time. Speaking of dryers, Thailand seems to be the land of shocks. I touch the play and stop buttons on the dvd player and fell tingling in my fingers. Same thing happens with the volume control on the speakers. And the back of one of the computers here. And I got a couple of shocks from the washing machine. I didn't really like those.

Corn...

In case you're wondering, the pizza was good. I wasn't expecting there to be corn on the Canadian bacon, but it was still pretty good. Yesterday (Friday) was the first day of school. It was pretty exciting to see all the new faces. Since I am now also teaching grade 6 math, I'll have almost 70 names to remember. At 11 grades 7-9 met together and did this activity where you have to interview 3 people and answer 5 questions about them. One of the questions was, "If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?" Almost all of the kids responded with either "dead" or "alive". At 1 we had a debriefing meeting, then I took a nap and spent the rest of the day lesson planning. Pretty much the same story as today. Next time you order Canadian bacon, think of me.

Waiting for pizza...

I came across a buy 1 get 1 free card from the pizza company, which is just around the corner. I've just ordered a medium double pepperoni and a medium canadian bacon. I guess Canada is famous for at least one thing! I had pepperoni last week, pretty good. They give you packs of ketchup with it, a bag with oregeno, and a bag with some sort of brown powder in it which I haven't tried. I threw away the ketchup. Ketchup is not allowed on pizza. Well, 10 minutes has passed so I gotta go pick it up.

First day of school...

Classes start today! Last few days have been busy busy busy. Ran to my class a few minutes ago to drop off my camera and met 3 of my grade 8 students: Tangmo, Carin, and Peter. They've been playing kindergarten music for probably an hour or so. At 8 we have to be outside to greet people as they come. From 8:30-9:00 I have devotions with my homeroom. Then there is flag ceremony for 15 minutes, followed by a half hour with grade 8, a half hour with grade 9, and a half hour with grade 7. 15 minutes recess, then all of junior high will meet for an activity. Lunch at noon in the cafeteria. Then its back to lesson planning.