A New Walk

A few weeks ago, I thought about staying in Thailand for a second semester. Now that we have officially wrapped up with finals this semester, the 2 months that I have remaining in Thailand are ticking away faster than I would have ever anticipated. The thought of leaving my students after only six months seems incredibly depressing. Especially the students that have really touched my heart in one way or another. (Particularly a 14 year old named New in my Reading/Writing class and a few of her M3 classmates. I will tell the story of New someday soon, I promise, but for now let me just say that she is my sister in Thailand that I never knew until now.) I have my kiddos, my laundry lady’s pleas for me to stay, and the few friendships I’ve made around town pulling me one direction, and in the other direction the pull of mountains covered in snow, my skis in the closet, who the expat missionaries at the house-church I attend in Saraburi refer to as my “Colorado Magnet” (aka Jason), special family holidays and my dear friends in the states.

Going through the decision making process about whether to stay or not, I am reminded of a good friend who recently decided to leave the life she had come to know in Denver, and return to her home state in the Mid-West. Remembering the thoughts that she shared through that process encouraged me greatly in the decision of my own because like myself, she was leaving dear children that she had been mentoring for a long time, and the feelings of guilt and anxiety about leaving them at times was overwhelming. She left though, and I think so will I. There comes a point where you can no longer take responsibility for each individual (or in my case each individual’s English education) and trust that God has used you to equip them for good things in their future, independent of your consistent involvement. God’s love for His children here at SBW is so apparent and I trust fully on His continuous pursuit of their precious hearts for many years to come, with or without me.

Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

Some Thoughts on Edumacation

A couple of weeks ago I read an article, maybe in the Times or Newsweek, that instead of delivering information, educators of this generation will be more responsible for directing their student’s efforts to acquire information effectively and efficiently. Rather than passing down knowledge, good teachers, the ones who leave lasting and useful impressions on the lives that they touch and teach, will be better equipping their students by directing them to find the information for themselves in a educated and purposeful manner.

There is certainly some truth to this, thank you world wide web. It does not take long for the new teachers at SBW to find out that nearly any assignment given as homework, will be turned in a few days later as a regurgitated forgery of internet sources, lacking independent thought and originality. The real challenge for me, has been to create assignments that inspire creativity and require student’s to come up with their own thoughts in their own time and still allow for the google searches that are so familiar and comfortable. Of course some of my assignments have worked better than others, and often I actually have appreciated the efforts of my students to research on-line.

The “post-modern” me understands how inseparable creativity and originality is from the internet at the present. So, needless to say, I have truly been stretched the past few months to figure out exactly what I’m teaching and what is the best method of making English enjoyable and applicable, while still maintaining the educational integrity necessary to overcome a temptation to “cut“ and “paste.”