Skillet or Oven

P-1 Health class with Ajarn Franco is arguably the slowest hour of my week. P-1, for those of you that don’t know stands for Prathom 1, or first grade, and Ajarn is about the same as teacher. I say arguably because measuring boredom at school is like trying to decide if being fried in a giant skillet would hurt more than say, being baked in a conventional oven.

Today we’re leaning some new vocabulary. Family, beautiful, litter, and something else which I can’t remember because I’m standing in the back staring at the number chart. I’m looking at three frogs, and next to the frogs is the number three. I am thinking about ways to cut corners and save money. I am thinking about what I can cut out of the monthly equation without also compromising my quality of life. I need more money because once I can unlatch the escape hatch from Thailand, I want to be as cashed up as possible for my return to the world. All I can think of is, spend less.

I walk around the classroom and look down at the students work. They are coloring in pictures of a family, and every once in a while, I’ll stop, take a students pencil off their desk and draw a line across their workbooks. Thai’s are very meticulous creatures and they like for things to look beautiful, so this almost always gets a bit of a rise and a smile.

Walking around is a great trick because it makes me appear interactive and attentive just in case a Thai teacher or my manager walks in. Teasing the students is fun and it breaks up the monotony of co-teaching. Co-teaching can be a lot of fun if you are working with a like minded teacher. Then it becomes more like comedy hour with an audience of kids that may only understand 40 percent of what you are saying. However, it is much more common for one person to do all the work while the other one sleeps in the back, or doesn’t even bother to show up at all. Skillet or oven?