Travel and Teach Around the World

At school we learn from text books, teachers, presentations, lecturers, headmasters or head mistresses. There are thousands of important lessons at school that we remember for own use as we reach maturity and begin to make important decisions for ourselves in society. Education is driven into our children from an early age and now more and more students choose higher education in search of a career. Eventually students graduate from universities, colleges and private schools. Many students choose to use a gap year in between studies to travel which for me is where life really begins.

Travelling and Teaching around the world provides vast opportunities to meet new people, enjoy diverse cultures and learn languages from places afar. I have travelled extensively over the years with some wonderful memories. I have learnt more from cultures than any given subject at school although Geography was my strength. The lessons I learnt at school are important but until I left school to contribute to society, utilise the information and put my new knowledge into good practice I felt useless. What’s the point in studying for many years and not been able to choose the career you desire?

Travelling and teaching in foreign countries welcomes new friends from different countries. As a school teacher working with foreign teachers I notice how teachers from abroad manage their lessons, making each valuable lesson work for the children. For me, this is what life is all about, learning from others and teaching without embarrassing others or hurting a person’s feelings? The same valuable lesson learnt whilst teaching in Thailand where loosing face in society brings extensive humiliation to a person. As teachers, we must learn more about our neighbours, our countries and our world to educate our children for a more peaceful world of mixed cultures.

I have travelled to 55 cities and 18 countries in eight years which has enlightened me with a new found knowledge that has opened doors to life’s hidden wonders. When you have been too countless countries you realise our world is actually a lot smaller than we think. My Travel has included occasional negative memories and scary realisations but overall the past eight years in education and travel have been a working adventure. I honestly recommend students to learn more about other cultures in preparation for their own careers. It's a great tool for business.

People grow old and never forget their teachers from school. A good teacher will always be embedded in the memory of a child. As a teacher’s favourite child remains in the archives of their memory. I have lots of favourite students and never forget their beautiful smiles, cheerful expressions, delightful personalities and characters.

children have a great natural talent at teaching adults. My students have completed project work in Asia that has simply amazed me. An indcredible amount of enjoyment in there studies
reflected on their projects. I have shared a couple of projects from the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/EnglishTeacher.TEFL.2010

Stephen Peter Jones

Poverty in Society - Bangladesh

Walking over the bridge I have noticed several beggars and thought nothing more than walking past. People tell me, giving to them only attracts others to yourself and the area. Today was different; I stopped and gave some money then carried on with my day. Something had changed today because after I met up with two young ladies in a Bangladesh coffee shop, one from Bangladesh, a Muslim and the other from china, a Christian. We talked about helping people and asked me to go to church with them the following Friday. We talked about the circumstances of been poor in a poor country and how seeing poverty effects us as human beings wanting to help, looking for answers to help these poverty torn countries and their people. I spoke of other countries, what I had seen and the effects it had on me as a person. I explained that eventually on my return to the United Kingdom I had many terrible memories of terrible poverty. I have become accustomed to seeing such sites but now wish to explain how as people who care can help these poor people around the world.

Here in Bangladesh I have met some wonderful people that do understand the problem and find that special part in their heart to help. This is my first time mentioning such poverty and would like offer you information on how you can help here in Bangladesh and the rest of the world. You simply can’t imagine how difficult it is to survive under such difficult conditions which for most has become a competitive environment, even for the poor fighting for a status in society in what little work and money they have. Many don’t even have a family. The terrible stories of self mutilation to become beggars fighting to provide for families are simply shocking. Other stories exist but I wish not to mention about them for my own safety.

I have been in an Asian country without money under difficult circumstances and knew at one point I would need help in finding a meal. The first day when I ran out of money through unemployment I was offered a meal by an English teacher who had travelled from South Korea on holiday. I was also offered a job in South Korea. I was lucky having understandable parents that could supply me with the air fare to my next destination another eye opener on other accounts. For some simply having a passport protects us against such problems but for those who will never leave their country you can imagine how simple and difficult their lives have become, there is no escape.

I have learnt a lot today that giving a little can bring huge rewards in a natural achievement in helping someone and takes less than one minute. Knowing you have helped someone eat, drink or supply medication for sickness has a great sense of satisfaction. Some are natural givers, some give occasionally, I gave today because something had changed and helped me realise I can help too. Please check out this website for more information on how you can help, what others are doing to help and the reason why there is a huge demand for people who care. You can help and learn more about the cause by understanding about poverty around the world.

http://www.carebd.org/

Pahela Baishakh or Bangla New Year

Bangladeshi new Year is an exciting occasion at the school when students sing songs, wear beautifully coloured cultural clothing and eat lots of tasty Bangla food. I haven't eaten so much for years and it's such a vibrant celebration.

WE celebrate Pahela Baishakh or the Bangla New Year's Day today. Everything under the sun looks gay and cheerful and colourful, one is suddenly struck by the beauty of the grass, the sky, the trees - each and everything around looks pretty and radiates joy and happiness. It seems that the tired and weary sun of 1405 that set last evening carried along with it all the gloom, all the sorrows, all the melancholy and misery. Nothing that is painful or dull or dreary is left for 1406, and the sun rising with a new spirit and vigour this morning, rises in its full glory, radiating nothing gloomy, nothing sad, nothing pensive but only hope and happiness for the days to come.
Pahela Baishakh is indeed a momentous occasion in the life of each and every Bengalee. It is the first day of Bangla calendar year.

To every Bengalee, young and old, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, it is a time of gaiety to be celebrated with great merry-making, to be enjoyed in every possible manner, an occasion which enables us, in the words of Tennyson, to drink life to the lees.' It is a cruel irony of fate that a few orthodox Muslims in our country, shrouded by sheer ignorance, look down upon this Nababarsha festival, simply because they inadvertently consider it to be a festival of non-Muslim origin. But there is no shadow of doubt that the Bangla calendar that we follow today was introduced by the Muslims in this sub-continent.

The Pahela Baishakh so warmly celebrated all over the country today originated not from Bangladesh, but from an entirely different part of this sub-continent more than thousand miles away. What is more, the Bangla Saal was introduced not by any Bangladeshi but by a non-Bengalee in whose grandfather's vein flowed the blood of both Gengis Khan and Tamerlane.

Starz Angels

Here's another personal favourite of mine whilst travelling Singapore. Starz Angels, two DJ's from Paris highlighted the New Years Eve Sentosa Beach Party, with over 50 thousand people covering the beach, massive screens,a stage with live performances and plenty of beer tents. This place was full to the brim with people from all over the world. there were several foam parties letting out over a million gallons of foam, just like the famous foam parties on Ibiza. The stage was massive with more room than they needed but the Starz Angels covered the whole stage in between mixing electro from all the music spectrum. I hadn't heard of these two guys until I went to Sentosa but became hooked after they lifted the whole crowd with their style.

I think most would agree they were the highlight of the evening at Sentosa. Anyway i didn't realise they had worked with quite a few famous music artists and when reaching their website I noticed the albums or mixes they had covered, pretty impressive. I also noticed they didn't have that many fans in their facebook profile but that's gonns change if they keep up that kind of style. I spent most of the last hour in front of the sound engineers who cranked the sound up to a mind bending volume at the end of the evening. I haven't heard volume like that since the old rave venues in the United Kingdom back in the 1991. Even teachers have fun you know.

School Projects with Wonderful Memories

A curriculum can be more rewarding when projects are created for the students to go out and find answers, become more creative and venture into social studies. I worked on a major project in Thailand where students were asked to create an environmentally model, friendly city with new rules. Almost like Singapore was created over the years the students had to create a clean, safe city for the citizens to live in. The cities had to be named and built using materials from home and around the school. Classes in the school were separated in two sections in each year, an A class for the stronger students and a B class for other students. This worked really well with my students as they were always aware they needed to achieve higher grades to be promoted into the higher class. The project was a true reflection of how the students in each class could achieve.

Materials were collect over a few weeks and the students began their assignment to build a new city. Groups were formed for the project and a time limit was announced on the first day of the project. I allowed the students around three weeks to complete the course. I learnt over the weeks that a project needs to have a carefully considered time scale otherwise the students begin to lose interest. The time scale was a little long but I wanted to get some good photography in for the principal to use on open days for parents to view the conclusion. I managed to take hundreds of photographs that reflected the student’s feelings during the project. The photographs will be available on this blog when I get the gallery up and running.

The students from the lower B class seemed confused at times and the groups argued about who was to be group captain. I chose group captains from the beginning but some students said the captains weren’t assigning them to do group activities needed to build the city. Some students in Group B became upset with occasional tears. It became obvious that the upset students were upset and the high achievements from the higher class A. If I had to implement the project again students would be mixed from both classes to give the project a more balanced theme.

The final outcome of the project however was not far from amazing and the school principal was delighted with the model cities on display in the schools corridors. Parents were allowed to view the projects and leave comments. Each model city had a neatly written set of rules implemented on the cities finalisation. The rules were to reflect on how the city was to be run, who was in charge and how the cities people were to live. The girls constructed an incredible city with rules that demonstrated how a real modern city is controlled and run today. The building scales were accurate and roads had painted lines for traffic separation. Hospitals were constructed with clean and tidy playgrounds. Some groups were mixed with both boys and girls working together but several groups were of the same sex. Girls were more accurate but boys had more variation within the city, more buildings, and better improved rules. The winner of the project went to an all girl group from class A, who had demonstrated the project’s outlines with perfection.

The environmental project was a treasured memory in my teaching days in Thailand and I miss the students dearly. I had taught some of the students for four years because parents wanted me to follow them up a grade each year. From grade three I moved up to grade four bilingual, then to grade five and eventually grade six. The two years I taught grade three were also treasured moments with a fantastic Thai teacher assistant who loved the children so much. The assistant was a good friend who warmed to the children in beautiful way.

Students in the lower class, grade 5 one day became upset with their position in the lower class and complained they felt inferior to the higher class A. They were unusually quiet when I walked into the room and I wondered why. I explained to the students that they were capable of achieving higher grades even when in a lower class. The students complained that they had never been told they were doing well at school. My speech to them was warm and affectionate. I asked the students to think back about other projects about the Greek empire, the Egyptian pyramids and the Aztecs and Inkers and how well they had answered comprehensive questions. Some of the students were almost in tears but from that day on they began to achieve higher grades in some cases higher than the A class. The higher A class were also aware of this and began to over achieve making the whole year a race to improve for promotion the following year.

It was a wonderful year that ended with a student thanking me at the school gates for helping him become the second highest grade winner in the class. I remember the student very well; he invited me to stay at his father’s beautiful hotel on the island Koh Phi Phi. The parents often expected too much from the students but never once bothered me during parent’s evenings about their grades or position in class. The parents trusted me to help the students gain confidence and motivation in the English language. The funny thing about the parents was that their children spoke much better English than they did by the time they had reached grade six.

Teach in Asia

Education in Asia as improved over the past five years with the Ministries of Education implementing new requirements to be able to teach in certain countries. Most improvements recommend teachers to search for higher qualifications in their chosen field to be able to offer a better experience for students. Some schools in Thailand require a degree and teaching certificates to become a teacher although some offer employment without. An ongoing project in Thailand, the Nonthaburi project offers positions without degrees. It’s interesting to find the project also offers work in bar jobs for foreigners without a degree.

The TEFL certificate isn’t necessary but gives new teachers an understanding of how to overcome learning problems with Asian students. Remember many Asian countries have a tonal sound to their speech and must be overcome with English phonics allowing the students to learn new sounds and phrases from the western English speaking countries. I was able to concentrate on teaching large classes at a government school after completing my TEFL course, thanks to the TEFL course I had taken a few weeks previous to the job placement. The TEFL course gave me motivation to teach in a business and school environment something I wasn’t motivated to do before taking the qualification. There are occasions when new teachers are natural at teaching and don’t require extra qualifications. Remember a teacher continues to learn from his/her experiences even if they have the BA in education. Most of my teaching skills come from teaching primary and business English. Teacher’s resource books offer great guidance on constructing a lesson plan and from these books I continue to collate new information for interesting, understandable lessons.

There are certain requirements to become a teacher in Thailand to enable the teacher to obtain a work permit. This is becoming more familiar in most Asian countries. The first step towards teaching is to apply for a Category B multiple re-entry permit which lasts for one year, this will allow the school or business enough time to process your work permit. The procedure normally takes around five weeks. A two month tourist visa in most cases covers enough time for a visa upgrade to a Category B multiple re-entry visa. The multiple re-entry visas allow the holder to leave the country and enter again for another two or three months depending on the visa requirements. It’s important to check from the country’s consulate website for changes to visas just encase you’re not aware of such changes effecting your travel or employment application.

If travelling by land in Thailand you’ll only obtain fifteen days instead of the original thirty days. If you fly into the country the thirty days still stands. These alterations to a visa can be damaging to your plans if you’re not updated with the information on time. The easiest way to avoid such changes to a visa is to apply for your sixty or ninety day tourist visa at a neighbouring country or your country of residence. The new visa requirement is sure to affect people without work permits. It’s either another way for the consulate to obtain extra revenue or to rid Thailand of the uneducated teachers. I’m surprised at this requirement which alternatively could have been handled better with authorities entering schools and asking for teachers work permits.

With your Category B multiple re-entry visa, your work permit and your certified documents in place you’ll now have to concentrate on taking a cultural awareness course. This course is applied for at the school you choose to work for by the school principal. The ministry of education implemented this law quite recently but it hasn’t stopped teachers from applying for employment, rather made them even more paranoid about the possibilities of becoming a teacher. When I was teaching in Thailand this course was available but wasn’t compulsory. It doesn’t bother me either as I know I’m already culturally aware of the need to respect others, speak their language and adapt to a culture. As mentioned on other posts, learning the language improves communication between other teachers and the countries citizens.

I’ve spent time reading other teaching websites and notice how none educated teachers in Thailand seem to get a better deal as they don’t have to concentrate on major improvements to their positions as teachers. Little is asked of them other than teaching basic grammar, phonics and conversation classes. The golden rule to remember in these cases is, if your students like you as a person and you have ‘jai yen’ a good heart or cool heart translated directly, your position is safe from the grasps of unemployment. I have maintained great communication with parents and students, something that has helped me concentrate on teaching throughout my teaching career.

Remember there are a million rules out there for working abroad, until you venture out and talk to people, read a countries visa requirements, learn from other expatriates employed overseas and make that all important move to your chosen destination you’ll never fully understand what it takes to become a successful candidate for employment. This is a small contradiction but there are some businesses that employ from overseas thus allowing the candidate to be interviewed over the phone as I was several months ago. This isn’t unusual for international schools as they require educated teachers in education to be considered for a position. I had several telephone interviews highlighting my previous experience as a teacher overseas.I’ve been teaching for almost six years and spent most of the last eight years abroad so it was easy for the director to make a decision. The contract looked great, the living conditions seemed perfect and the salary bettered most in education. Previous employment in Thailand meant been in the country and been available for interview the next day and apart from my last position in Thailand the salary offered wasn’t acceptable to live a decent life far from home.

The teaching circuit in Thailand tends to be dominated with the male teachers at hand, this is why a female foreign teacher can ask for a better salary and improved living conditions. It’s not unusual to see foreign female teachers there just outnumbered by the male. Kindergarten schools tend to hire female teachers, the reason why there are so many positions available in Thailand. Female teachers of science can also expect a better deal due to a shortage of science teachers in the country.