Today was my first day doing indoor work! I spent the morning with Chelsea making a lesson plan for the women at the Mirror Art Guesthouse in Chiang Rai. Today we were teaching directions, driving directions and traffic signs, and map directions. We spent about an hour coming up with a good lesson plan. We drew a map on a white board that just showed roads intersecting in various ways so that we could incorporate directions such as, left turn, right turn, u-turn, straight, road, highway, merge, and curve (in the road). We then drew routes on the road using arrows so that they could speak what the actions were in the route using the new direction words.
We also created a new resource for traffic signs. We drew 10 traffic signs on a sheet of paper with a line next to each. Then backed the paper with cardboard and covered it in clear tape to protect it and give it longevity. We then wrote out the names of the signs on smaller papers that would fit on the line and covered those in clear tape. Then with a piece of tape placed on the back of the labels, its possible to place on to and remove the labels to the signs. So it can be used to teach and then for the students to kind of play a matching game with them. It turned out really nicely and I’m so proud I could help with it!
Serchai came into the office and looked at my foot and then asked me if I was willing to try a natural healing method to reduce the swelling in my foot. I was totally open to it so he started to prepare things for it and I was to come join him in a little while. So he had gotten mud from the back of Mirror and then wrapped it into big leaves, which he placed in the bottom of a fire, he had started. After it had heated up, he took the hot mud out of leaves and placed it in 2 t-shirts, which he then put directly onto my foot. It was hot! It was supposed to draw out the water from my foot and put heat into the foot from the bottom so it could be expelled out the top and reduce the swelling. It’s supposed to be done several times a day, but since Serchai needs to be at his village with the homestay volunteers that are staying with him this week, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to try it again. I didn’t really notice any difference from it today.
My swollen foot.
- Serchai getting the natural healing materials ready.
The mud in the leaves.
Putting the mud into the t-shirts.
Putting the hot mud on my foot.
Putting the hot mud on my foot.
The lesson though, went really well. Only one of the two women were there today and she was quite good at her English, so she did really well with the directions. She had trouble pronouncing two of the words, curve and merge, but I think it’s only because the specific sounds used in those words are ones that aren’t used in the Thai language. We finished quickly with our plans, but we had extra things that we had ready to do if that happened. So we played a game where someone would be blindfolded and someone else, in English, had to direct them around some objects using words we had learned. (turn left, turn right, little, a lot, straight) She really enjoyed that game. We then play some scrabble, making simple English words, and we spent some time talking and playing pictionary.
When we got back to Mirror we were pretty much free for the day except for an Indoor meeting after dinner. We met and talked about what we were going to be doing for the next few days, because classes for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday had been cancelled for the celebration of the Queen’s birthday on Thursday.
So we were going to be doing a lot of resource development, which means that we will work on making new or updating and improving the resources we use when teaching English. Also, time seriously needs to be spent organizing the resources so that everyone can be more productive and the office can be clear of clutter.
I just spent the rest of the time in the office with people floating in and out; talking to people and savoring in my last days at Mirror.
