Thread: Teaching Prathom is becoming absurd - here's why:

Academic jargon and an intellectual approach to dealing with young kids.
From 4 page lesson plans and "SWOT analysis" to 4 more such e-mails with many more similar attachments. Guys, is this what you are dealing with at your school?

Students' temperament & personality (some small girls are very feisty etc.) needs a hands off approach IMHO. What's your take on this below?


Student Name: _______________________________________ Level: _________ No: _____

No.	Competencies	Score			Total	Remarks
1	2	3
1	The ability to communicate 1.1 Receiving and sending messages 1.2 Expressing ideas/opinions 1.3 Culture in using language/s correctly 1.4 Exchanging information 1.5 Negotiating 1.6 Decision making in receiving information 1.7 Choosing the right communication strategy
2	The ability to think 2.1 Analyze 2.2 Synthesize 2.3 Create 2.4 Consider 2.5 Organize
3	The ability to solve problems 3.1 Solve problems 3.2 Understand the relationships and changes 3.3 Search for knowledge 3.4 Know the cause and effect
4	The ability to use life skills 4.1 Self-directed learning 4.2 Team Spirit/Cooperation 4.3 Deal with conflicts 4.4 Adapting 4.5 Avoidance of bad behavior
5	The ability to use technology 5.1 Selecting and using technology 5.2 Skill in Organizing/Processing
	TOTAL

Evaluated by: __________________________________

Looks like the checklist "professionalization" begun in America in the 80's is infiltrating Thailand. On the one hand, this is incredibly restrictive to good teachers. On the other hand, it's a lot better than leaving bad teachers to their own devices. It'd be best to just get rid of the bad teachers, of course, but that won't happen until Thai schools radically increase the salaries they offer. Checklists are easier, I suppose.

What kind of school do you work for - government, private or international?

Spot on, thaitanium! My advice: fight bullsh!t with bull sh!t. Fill in whatever you feel like, and if someone asks a question, go on about the kid's ability to synthesize.

What it boils down to is:

1) Does the kid talk and participate or just play or sleep?
2) Is the student dense?
3) Does the student know how to cheat, copy, get his toys bck from other kids?
4) Same as 3)
5) Can the student work with a computer and phone?

Throw in some grades, job done! To answer your question - no, I don't have to deal with this in my school.
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Who evaluates the evaluators?

An absolutely useless assement tool which will be used by no one. At least it should take less than 10 seconds to fill in. Like all assessment here it never focuses on what kids can actually do. At pratom level all the early focus should be teachng them to read because without reading they go up to Matayom without even the basics. 90% of Matayom kids i test up in Nongkhai can barely decode simple words.

Originally Posted by Chris88

Guys, is this what you are dealing with at your school?

Not in this form.

Study on the Basic Education Core Curriculum BE 2551 (AD 2008) and you'll learn more about assessment.

I don't have to do this but I am supposed to be implementing STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) in a P1 class which is difficult since most of the kids just want to color and pick their noses. Then there's the 2-3 who still fall asleep after lunch, and the one kid who can't sit still for more than 1 min...Throw on some videos, tick the boxes, and talk about "integration" and as someone else suggested, "synthesis". I just gave a presentation about teaching Phonics to a bunch of Thai teacher who could barely say the word Phonics so I doubt anyone at your school can actually read that form.

I haven't done a 4 page lesson plan since my CELTA & as for the form, the Excel random number generator function is there for a reason...