A glimpse into the Thai classroom ...

I think it’s hard for many of my friends to see me as a legit teacher. Which, I mean, is totally understandable.

These videos reveal that, indeed, I’m not really a legit teacher. At least not by American standards.

I came to Thailand with all of these visions of what teaching would be like, excited students, etc. Dream on, farang. Dream.On.

I took these during one of my little kid classes – ½, to be exact. So, think 7th grade in the States.

This one is from when I first walked in – notice how the kids are excited to learn?

The second shows the drastic change in the kid’s behavior once I try to settle them down. Notice the physical attacks going on in the back of the room.

I resorted to grabbing a broom and bending the kids over. The one girl I actually swung at laughed her ass off, since I would obviously never REALLY hit a child. But I tapped her, dramatically, and she was all too thrilled to play along. Way to have authority, huh?

They I started slapping chairs and desks of the bad kids really really hard if they were talking when I wanted them to be quiet. Which worked, sort of.

Finally, I sat down and refused to teach until they shut up. Then I got up to leave. And, miraculously, they managed to control each other enough to play a quick game.

And then the bell rang, after 10 minutes of real class time. Thank you very much, HangChat Wittaya School.