WWW Klong Toey

This is our first time teaching pre-school kids. We didn’t think it would be this hard and we didn’t expect it to be this fun either. We have planed our lessons quite well a few weeks before but, as it turned out, we couldn’t really do our lessons according to the plan. The kids were wild and all over the place, we all haven’t experienced that before. We had to adjust our activities according to the situation most of the time. After the first day, we stated to understand more about the kids and their ability to read and write. So on our second and third day teaching, we taught them alphabets and numbers and it worked pretty well. The kids were more calm and quiet when they sit together and work on a piece of paper whether it’s coloring or writing numbers down. There’s a huge range of skill in this class, some kids could write ABCs in about 2-3 minutes but some kids took almost 20 minutes to write them all down. Also some of them were very good with coloring and drawing more than others. We get to see them develop some talent already. We all were there to help them write, most of them still have hard times writing on their own. However they all had fun when we were around them. It’s amazing how they became so attached to us after only 3 days. They would do anything we tell them to do because they trust us. They are all very naïve; the innocence of them can always make us smile. When we spend time with these kids, it’s like we escape our stressful world and into their sincere innocent world. Just like the kids, we all had fun this week and we are looking forward to spending more time with them on the next two days.

For the Blog —— 6 C, Lom Klow School.
Tae Lyang, Sang Heun, Megumi, Isabelle

The past 3 days spent at Lom Klow School for our group was a mix of despair, hope, boredom, and fun. You may come to wonder how such irony could exist in such a short amount of time, but we tell you, it is possible here.

Despite the fact that we knew our destination was a kindergarten in an impoverished area, our first impression of the area was somewhat, far below our expectancy. It wasn’t air-conditioned, and its bathrooms seemed somewhat unclean to us. It despaired us to think about 5 days at the facility, but all those thoughts were forgotten as we interacted with the kids.

The kids are only 6 years old. Even though 3 of our members are not fluent in Thai, we all managed through by using sign languages. The list of Thai words weren’t too helpful; the kids probably didnt understand our horrible pronounciation. So, we bascially lived off the sign languages. Nevertheless, the kids were enthusiastic with us even on the first day, and they became more and more comfortable with us as days passed by. And for today, they were now actually physically interacting with us, trying to wrestle, play little games, and so on. We got so busy with our 6 year-old kids that 3 days passed by in no time.

No one, us, the kids, or even the teachers were too good at first. Of course, we were all awkward. But through the activities, such as name cards, mask-making, folding colored papers into shapes, we grew closer very quickly. We made the transition from boring to fun in just couple of days.

Past 3 days, no matter what we’ve been through was definitely a valuable time. Each of our members learned moral lessons, and the value of life we enjoy now. Not only is this a good way to remind ourselves of our luck, it is also an opportunity to interact with kids, which is probably the most enjoyable part of the trip. We’ve learnt a lot in three days, and over next two days we know that we’ll learn more through the kids.

All 3 days, coloriong was a success. Also the kids enjoied playing duck-duck-goose and other activities. Some things we would to improve in is keeping the kids on task and for them to pay attention a little more.
–Group 4B

Group Reflection
 
      Together as a group we found out that these little kids are very hyper and love our attention.
They also tend to enjoy the exercises/activities that we do with them and seem very thankful considering
they don’t do things like this often.
 
                                                                                          From 5C.

Day One-

On the way to our first day at Klong Toey Kindergarten, I was worried about how to communicate to the children since I do not speak the same language as them. Once we arrived and started interacting with the children, it became very simple to communicate with them through gestures, demonstrations and smiles. It also helped that Nicha is a fluent Thai speaker, always there to translate when needed.

Various activities were tested, from name tags to mask making. I found that the five-year-old boys loved art and they found the masks both funny and exciting to make. They would learn better by example and it would help if we demonstrated the activity before having them try it. Making the name tags was unnecessary though, since they were in Thai and the ISB students could not read them and the boys already knew each other’s names.

Day Two-

On day two, we tried some more artistic activities such as painting, which was a huge success. The boys did not want to stop painting for almost the entire time, even after covering a large piece of paper, they just asked for more. We tried some games with them also, such as a Thai game similar to “Duck, duck, goose,” which was successful because they already knew the rules and the game. When we tried teaching them a new English game, the boys did not understand or cooperate so that plan failed. A good wrap-up activity was reading them a Thai story book, because it gave them a chance to calm down after the games and they enjoyed the story.

- Rhian Morgan

Day One:

One the first day we started off with coloring in letters of the alphabet, we found out that the children really enjoyed this activity. So now we are going to use the same idea for the next few days because we know the kids really like it.

Day Two:

Today we started off with coloring and found it once again very effective. We played a game of duck, duck, goose, which kept them busy and they found it fun and exciting. To cool things down after the fun and exciting game, we decided to make bracelets out of straws and strings. The kids really liked their new accessories.

- Cat Mckay

For almost a decade, during Week Without Walls, students from The International School Bangkok (ISB) have been going to a Klong Toey kindergarten founded and sponsored by The Human Development Foundation-Mercy School. ISB students teach children in Klong Toey for five days. The Klong Toey children are between the ages of three and six. This year, 2009, ISB will be working with two kindergartens.

The following is an excerpt from The Human Development Foundation (http://www.themercycentre.org/)

Origins/History
In 1973, the HDF opened its first one-baht-a-day school in the slaughterhouse district of Klong Toey, and continued building new schools as other slum communities requested them and funds allowed. Within ten years, we were operating twelve schools. Today, with 30 schools, the Mercy School system is the largest of its kind in Thailand. Over 35,000 children have graduated from our schools. For generations of poor children in Bangkok, the Mercy Schools have become a major rite of passage in their young lives as they begin many of life’s bigger lessons.

This year’s sponsors for ISB’s Klong Toey Kindergarten Week Without Walls activity are Mrs. Kalis, Mr. Sakanaka, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Serrano and Mr. Fitzgerald.