"Thank You, Teacha'"

It was 5:17 pm (or 17:17 as they say here), and four sets of eyes beamed up at me from their little wooden desks. They were arranged in the white walled classroom in a mini horseshoe lining the perimeter.
"Hello, I am Molly."
A chorus of "hellos" echoed in the small classroom as I wrote my name in squeaky dry erase marker on the white board. As I went around the room asking the students their names, I made a mental note as to which ones were difficult, and which ones I would possibly have trouble pronouncing during my class. I tried to associate their names with things I knew. Ex: Oiy was like the ACDC or Aussie exclamation, OY!
*(Thais have formal names given at birth and as they grow up they get a series of nicknames. For instance, your name could be Thomas, but as a baby everyone called you Tiny because you were rather small. And in the same sense, "Trouble" as a child, "Hairy" as a teenager, "Chubby" as an adult and so on).
I began my class with what TEFL International calls an "Engage" technique:
a: apple
b: boat
c: cat
d:?
"Dirt!" a student called out smiling from ear to ear, obviously very pleased with herself.
"Dirt. Very good. A,b,c,d...?"
"E!"
"Egg!"
We continued all the way through to the letter Z. The students shouted out examples and rattled out the alphabet so fast that my pen could hardly keep up with them. A student popped in halfway through the exercise and apologized profusely.

I stood in front of the white board; feet covered in dress shoes, knees covered by my black, purple, and white checkered capris, and white collared shirt buttoned up to cover my chest, shoulders and stomach. In Thailand, teachers are four down in the hierarchy of respect, directly under Monks. So, it's important to look the part and to carry yourself well. A good place to be a teacher if I ever heard of one.
I glanced at the little blue plastic clock to the right of me hanging between the closed windows and began to teach my lesson: Pronouns.
TEFL teaches you to try to elicit all your responses from the students to maximize student talk time and limit lecture style. My class was a beginner class with two strong students and two very weak students. I never imagined how hard it is to try to get your students to participate and fill in the blanks you need when they have no idea what you are talking about. I kind of just wanted to tell them the answer, fill it in, tell them why--but you can't. You have to do whatever it takes to get them to say it.
Fortunately for me, they understood the concept and question.
"Oiy, what time do you eat breakfast?" I asked while writing the question on the board so that they could ingest it visually.
"I eat breakfast at 8 0'clock." she half-whispered, glancing around the room for affirmation and congratulatory nods from her peers.
"Very good. I eat breakfast at 8 o'clock." I mimed back to her as I wrote her reply on the board. We continued this until I generated a list of five different responses to use in changing the name to a Pronoun.
"What is another way of saying this?" Blank stares.
"How can I say this without saying the name?" Stares. Someone coughs. A desk groans as someone shifts their weight. I had to think of something fast, I was losing them. I was on the pier and they were struggling to tread water. I think I saw a head bob under slightly, exhausted faces pleading with me to throw them a life preserver, an inflatable chair, anything! The dry erase marker glared up at me with it's beady little eyes, "Use me, ya tool." I could hear it saying in my head. Ah, yes. The mighty pen. But how shall I use thee?
"Okay..." I began circling the name of the person with vicious ferociousness, "Oiy eats breakfast at 8 o'clock." Drawing a line to the other side of the board, I wrote the sentence again but missing the subject, an arrow pointing to it circled in black. I tapped the pen on the empty space surveying the classroom for a light to go on in any of their heads.
"I?" a student squeaked out.
"Yes, I. What else?" The students began speaking in Thai, trying to figure out what the heck I wanted.
"She?" a student directly in from of me asked.
"Yes! She!" I thought I was going to burst from relief. "She eats breakfast at 8 o'clock! Now, Gim goes to work at 9 o'clock. Gim?" I asked as I rewrote the sentence missing the name and tapping the empty spot at the beginning of the sentence.
"He!" the same student more confidently chirped out. They all looked at me, awaiting my answer in suspense.
"Yes! He! He goes to work at 9 o'clock." We were on a roll now. The pen was a-squeaking away, if the students were a different culture I imagine high-fives would have been thrown out around the room, bells were tolling in churches, handicapped of all ages were miraculously healed, I was amped up.
The lesson continued with more examples and Pronoun placement. It was time to move onto the worksheet I had worked so hard on cutting and pasting, rewriting, editing, and copying until my fingers bled. Maybe not that hard, but close. This was the true test, would they pass? Would they become Jedi Pronoun users?
I monitored their work as the pairs dove into it. The three more advanced students whipped it out as if I had only asked their addresses. The new students scratched their heads and squinted at the paper as if to force the writing into something more comprehensible. With a little help from their peers, the students got it and began filling it out. I called on them to read their answers aloud. When an error came up I put it on the board.
"She go to the store? She go?"
"No, no..." They called out, "goes!"
"Ah, goes. Very good. She goes to the store."
I wanted to explain it, to tell them about conjugating verbs but it would have only caused more confusion. I continued on, giving an example on the board and then passing out worksheet number two.
"This time Maya and J." I told them, pointing to the two girls and suggesting together with my hands. By golly it worked! They switched seats and began working diligently away. I glanced at the clock, 5:35 pm. I still had 25 minutes left. Shit, I was running out things to do. I still had one more worksheet and a game to play. I could always stretch it out I suppose.
The students did pretty well for the most part. A few errors here and there, but as soon as I turned to put the wrong sentence on the board they self corrected the error. The hardest part was being able to hear them. I felt like I was wearing protective earwear. The big earphones one wears while shooting guns or other loud activities.
"Say it again?" I asked
"Shmimg."
"What?"
"Shiming." She replied as she looked around the room for help. The other students talked to her in Thai.
"It's okay." I said with the friendliest don't be afraid it isn't necessarily wrong I just can't flippin hear what you're saying because I am a deaf 24 year old from American smile, "Again?"
"Shiming."
"Can you spell it?
"Swimming. " The person next to her calls out.
"Ah, swimming. Yes, I like swimming too. Great." I mimicked swimming a little and they all giggled.
The class went well and the Activate activity (game) was okay, but not as fun and useful as I thought it would be. I handed out the board game and showed them how to play,
"Take a Pronoun card. " I said while taking a purple card, "Take a Verb card." I took a green card, "Pick a sentence," I put the piece down on the board, "and make a sentence." They began scanning all the cards and trying to fit them into sentences. I looked at the clock, 5:50. Ten minutes. I can do this. We're almost there. Just a little longer. I thought to myself as the students continued to make sentences. After my one minute warning, I had each of them tell me a sentence that they made. I then wrote it on the board and had them correct any errors.
6:00. "Thank you. Buh-bye." I said waving to them.
"thank you, teacher!" they sang out. wai'ing at me as they got out of their desks. (wai: to bow with hands together in an act of greeting or departure). I shuffled my papers and they helped me to collect all the pieces of the game, almost fighting over who got to clean them up for me. They left and I wiped off the white board. Clean, ready for lesson number two.