Every morning I wake up, quickly get ready for the day, and walk 20 yards out our front door to the school. At 7am we head to the front gate of the school property where we greet each student as they walk in. At 8am the kids begin to head to their classes and I go along into my classroom where I begin lesson planning. I am the teacher of 21 loud and rambunctious Thai kindergarteners who never run out of energy. I was thrown into this classroom because they didn’t have a teacher and as of now, won’t have one when I leave. So for two months, I am their only teacher. I teach them English, math, and even Thai sometimes and I have to come up with each lesson and activity myself. So at 8am I take time to lesson plan while the kids do morning activities with other teachers. But by 9am, I am bombarded by 21 kids entering my classroom, unable to be contained.
I’ve always thought teaching would be difficult, but when you throw in the language barrier where I speak no Thai and the only English the kids know is “Teacher,” I’ve begun to think teaching is near impossible. My first couple weeks I would walk out of the classroom at the end of the day overcome with frustration because the kids would do addition instead of subtraction, or that they know the alphabet in order as a song but are completely clueless when you point to a letter out of order. I was telling myself I was failing them as a teacher and began telling myself I could not do this. How am I supposed to teach kids to converse in English when I can’t even converse in Thai? How can I get them to understand math when I can’t explain how to correct the problems they get wrong?
I didn’t tell anyone about this frustration I felt because I didn’t want to seem like a failure. Yet one day our leader Emma sat us down and gave us a talk that related too much to be coincidence. Emma told us that yes, we are here and have been asked to teach, but realistically, how much teaching can we accomplish? We are not teachers, we do not have degrees, and we are only here for 2 months. We were clearly not trained for this. But this is not what God is asking us to do. God called us here to love the kids and to exemplify Him in all we do so we can bring more people to the Kingdom. We are here simply to love. Wow.
At 9am when the kids pour into the classroom screaming, riding each other, and running in circles, I take a deep breath and smile. The kids line up for hugs and high-fives and we begin our day and our lessons. Whether it be learning the months of the year, coloring by number, 10 math problems to copy on the board, I keep an open mind. The kids are going to mess up and will probably need many more lessons to actually perfect each thing I teach. And that’s okay. I just make sure to love and laugh with them, do their hair or dance with them, make a fool of myself to show the kids I care. Each day ends with lots of hugs and blowing kisses until I get to see their little smiles the next day. This is what I’m here for and I love it.
FUNDRAISING UPDATE: I am currently a little over $3,000 away from being fully-funded. I want to thank each and every one of you for supporting me thus far and would like to challenge you, your friends and family, to donate $1, $5, $10 – any amount – to help me reach my final deadline in 2 weeks. If I don’t reach this deadline, I could be sent home from the Race within the next couple of weeks. Every dollar helps and will keep me from being sent home next month. Thank you all again, I love what I’m doing and you are making it possible!
