We would never have guessed that we could get so much appreciation and learn so much in only 5 weeks! We were privilaged to volunteer at the Bankura School in Kuraburi, where we taught English to the children.
We noticed that the lessons are given by a government issued live broadcast instead of a teacher who explains everything. On one side that is good, because the children can always follow class (sometimes the teachers are gone). On the other side it is bad, because there is no interaction with the kids. In the beginning it was challenging because things would constantly change so it was difficult to make a concrete plan. We had a lot of surprises, but in the end it taught us to be creative and flexible.
In the Netherlands we study ‘child and education studies’, so we decided to focus on the teachers as well as the students. We worked together with the English teacher at the school and we introduced her to interactive teaching. We developed a plan to teach with the TV, this included integrating fun activities like hangman and memory into the TV programs to reinforce what was being broadcasted
The last few weeks we tried to guide the English teacher to do the same thing herself, so when we leave she can continue with the interactive lessons. We’ve seen that the children and the teachers have learned a lot from us and that they are very openminded. Their English is approving, but we also notice that we created a strong bond with them. They tried to teach us some Thai words and songs, what was hilarious ofcourse!
We learned so much the past 5 weeks and have built a lot of great memories that we will keep with us for the rest of our lives! We are so thankful that Andaman Discoveries gave us this opportunity of a life time!
