Living in a flat world Able to see from here to there To smell, touch and taste Ride on clouds to share
Deconstructed culture The world still goes around Instant communication A lightning strike profound
Automatic information The hive mind buzzes Armchair philosophers Full of fight and fusses
Inspired by a Philosophy Now article about the Crisis of Culture and the thought that the internet has created a flat world
Today I’m feeling:
Pretty good again, waking up a little before my alarm and energised enough to exercise and do some dead hangs.
Very relaxed at school as many teachers are not teaching and many students are just catching up on work that they were too lazy to do during the semester. I happily let my grade 12 students do that whilst dropping by to David’s class and helping with my old grade 9 students, whom I still enjoy talking with (especially since no longer teaching them!).
Helping them in class was a bit of a reminder of how poor their English skills are. I really hope most of them don’t go into the English Program next year!
It also inspired me to do the same little piece of work to my grade 8s and see if they were any better and in general, I would say that about half of them were!
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Couple Cups coffee for keeping me going this morning and also having a good seat and table for me to read and write at for an hour or so.
The best thing about today was:
As ever at this time of year, the relaxed atmosphere of the students (and teachers) and the general good feeling around school, in much contrast to last week.
This morning, Rista wanted to tell me all about her boyfriend and Pleng was shyly hiding her haircut, which she has cut into a boyish style but I think looks really nice. Rista tried to drag me off to her class by escorting me arm in arm but I ducked away for coffee first.
In my last class, Nomsen gave me a playful hug and said that I was the best teacher (possibly because I ran out of time to ask her any of the questions that other students had to answer!).
Ozone and Ploy played and joked with me as they waited for their class and I threatened to pick them up and throw them over the edge of the building. They also told me that they wished that I was still teaching them.
I encouraged Mee, Gam, Pat and Palmy with their speaking and they all did better than they expected and I guided Nam to find the correct answers in a test that they were doing.
As usual, I played with Apple and Baipad in the morning, trying to steal their phones off them and so it went around for most of the day.
Something I learned today?
We had a visitor whilst we were out and Amy found him when she got back from the city.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I’ve done this a couple of times recently. There is a mangy-looking dog that often sits at the traffic lights on the bypass and if the light is red and he’s around, I’ll throw him a dog snack that I usually keep in the car for Tokyo.
I took this picture because this is how I found the ‘bad girls’ in the middle of their class today. Some of my favourite students to play with, but happy not to be their teacher anymore!
Quite good after falling dead asleep again last night before 10.30. I woke up sometime earlier this morning, though with Fleetwood Mac stuck in my head for some reason. It could be worse, I guess.
Did a little exercise again, noticing that the little that I did yesterday already had me aching in the legs. It will be good to get back to that good ache, though.
By the afternoon, I could barely walk up stairs! I had run out of energy and motivation and left my last class mostly to their own devices, which they were happy enough with too.
I stopped taking any Tramadol a couple of weeks ago, not for any particular reason, I just figured I’d have kratom and give the T’s a miss and see how I felt and as I didn’t have any withdrawal dizziness as I usually experience (I guess I did still have dizziness though it seemed different somehow) I just ended up not taking it.
That could be part of the reason that I’m not quite so focused in my thoughts and a little more scattered than usual. It could also be part of the low energy and motivation situation, too.
Anyway, as I’m feeling reasonably mentally stable, I’ll keep going for a while longer and see if things balance out.
Health:
Physical: 7 Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
The sudden message to go and sign our financial documents means that we should get paid early next week. I’ve just about managed to make it through this month without having to ask for credit. This is the first time since November last year, after messing up my visa and having to pay a bunch of extra fees to fix it again.
The best thing about today was:
Getting some presentation lessons prepared during my first class, who were busy catching up with work for other classes (or sleeping) and I wasn’t particularly interested in teaching either.
The lessons are not especially exciting but they give the students more information to improve what they will present next semester. I plan for them to present often, so I don’t really have anything more to offer to teach them. Just get them practising.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
As I technically had classes for most of the day, I figured that I would spend a bit of time at the school when I had a chance but when I went there at around 11.30, they told me that they had no milk for my coffee!
Well, decision made – back to 22 Grams. I can’t make it my regular spot as it’s a little too far from school and I am really missing House. I hope Gui gets it together to clean up and open again for next semester!
Something I learned today?
Yesterday, when I was talking with Noah and Poppy, Stang also came up to listen in and he asked me if any of the teachers were my friends.
Er…yes, I said…though thinking to myself, well, not really. I mean, I’m fine with everyone but I wouldn’t call any of the teachers my friends.
Stang then asked why I don’t hang out with the teachers and as I was thinking about it, he added, ‘you like kids?’ to which the girls were shocked and laughed too.
I was thinking how to answer them and agreed that I actually prefer hanging out with the students because, for me, we are on the same level. I told them that I didn’t like the Thai style of the teacher being above and the student below and that they must defer all the time. They agreed and hate it too. They know it’s not right.
Also, as an aside to this, I know Stang had an ulterior motive in asking about this, as he pushes the boundaries to see how close he can get to me physically. I’ve felt this since I first met him in grade 7, and he is obviously trying to figure himself out and how to approach boys that he likes.
I’m happy that he feels comfortable trying that with me and it hasn’t gone too far. I’m not sure how he fits in with his classmates. He’s openly expressed his homosexuality but never heard any of his classmates discuss it in particular. He is a big kid too; not fat but tall and chunky.
As ever, it is fascinating to watch all these kids grow and mature.
In his class in the afternoon, I happened to wander in and Namkhing was sitting in a corner and I was struck by how suddenly her face had changed to be that of a young woman, whereas only seemingly last week she still looked like a cherubic schoolgirl.
Amy (on the left) took this picture because we were all waiting around to go into classrooms and she stole my camera from my pocket and started snapping away. Amy, me, Chompoo, Stang.
Pretty good, though I feel like I’m overheating. Not sure if something is going on in my body or it’s just leftover from pushing myself with exercise this morning.
Today should be a relatively easy day at school and hopefully I still feel motivated when I get home and play some guitar. I totally lazed away the weekend and though I don’t feel guilty about it, I still know that I should be doing stuff.
Today I’m grateful for:
Only five students turning up to my first class. They didn’t know where everyone else was and assumed that they were taking the whole week away from school, as from Wed-Fri, they are not at school and supposed to be studying online.
I played a Quizziz of each student’s choice for the first hour and then let them go for the second two hours of our class, so I’m back early for more coffee!
The best thing about today was:
The extra coffee time that turned out well, as I got a couple of nice poems written after doing a bit of reading and thinking.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Another one of my pens went missing today during my class with 2/7. I’m fairly certain that it is Program who is taking them as he is always trying to steal things out of my pocket, never has his own pen and always walks around the room and near the table when I am not there.
I may be wrong but I’ve got my eye on him.
Something I learned today?
As I had some spare time in the morning, I ducked into the grade 10 English class to chat with some of the students I knew and whilst there, Kru Ren came in to teach. He didn’t do anything to try and get the students attention and seemed to be just shouting to no one, as everyone else was either on their phone, playing games or making TikTok videos.
I just don’t get how that is going to work. But what was weird was that meeting some of the students a couple of hours later, I asked them about the class and they were able to talk about the subject fairly coherently. Maybe it got better after I left, or Kru Ren decided to teach in Thai rather than English, so that at least he would be understood.
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I stayed back after my last class to talk with Praew some more. I think she is a little bit of an attention seeker in some ways and I’m not totally sure what to believe. With her anxiety, depression and being bullied in class, it is sure to mess with her behaviour.
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