Tag: teaching online

Oh Stupid War – 19th August 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

For greater glory, you did stand
Confident in your beliefs
Generals commanded sacrificial grunts
Saying God commanded your chiefs

The glory brought riches and power
For brief moments to enjoy
Until a greater God has risen
With further power to destroy

Oh, stupid war, you’re here again
And more lives will be expended
A challenge, then, to turn it around
To see burned bridges mended

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for an extra 20 minutes of dosing (again) this morning – to have strange poetic dreams and semi-conscious thoughts to inspire the day.

I notice that I talk so little sometimes that when I do have something to say, I can’t stop myself – my mouth gets dry from saying so much. Right now, I’m finding I don’t have much to write here!

I’m in my online class with 2/11, and they (some of them at least) are busy doing writing and reading a short story. I’ve got these classes well organised and quite productive, I think. It’s difficult to ‘teach’ them anything much, so I’m just having them practice and revise as much as possible.

The upside for me is that there is not much for me to do in class, but I end up doing a lot of extra things for them outside of class. I also think some students don’t get it – they are expecting an hour or so of a teacher rambling on and then trying to figure out what they have to do. I’ll leave the talking to the Thai teachers – I want my students to learn the value of work and effort. It’s really divided my class up and I am learning a lot from it too.

Face – 14th July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Let’s be straight and say what we mean
Because saving your face doesn’t keep it clean
Words that please can be heard as lies
To misunderstanding they give rise

Are you really so delicate you can’t hear
The truth when spoken loud and clear
We’re going backwards, why not advance
Here’s the real world, given a chance

19th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Misunderstanding

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be kept busy by my students. It is a difficult task to motivate them when teaching online so I spend a lot of extra time chasing them up.

Kim Chi is here in my room, and as she has stolen my chair, I have time to sit here on the floor and write this. I don’t want to push her off as she is very happy and relaxed with her paws over her eyes to block out the light.

I am home today, after arriving at school, out for a quick delicious coffee, back to start my lesson, only for Dylan to come and see me and when I saw he was wearing his backpack I asked him where he was going and he said ‘have you heard that there’s no classes today?’ Responding in the negative, he said that the Thai teachers were all going off for their second dose of vaccines and cancelled all classes – without telling us! So typical and annoying.

When I called our coordinator, he just said, ‘Oh, I thought you knew!’ How the fuck were we supposed to know!?

In the past, I would’ve gotten really wound up by this bad communication – especially as I’m always well-organised and have lessons planned around a regular schedule. Today, though, it’s just, oh well, at least I can go home and relax.

First, I went with Dylan to his girlfriend’s cafe, Tongsiam and had a coffee and chat there. His girlfriend, Wa, is a nice, level-headed girl, just out of Uni and looking for a more rewarding job.

Two coffees later (another delicious one at Utopia), and I got home for lunch – much to Amy’s surprise. And now, I’m relaxing in my room – after a quick go at the grass with the cutter, until it ran out of petrol. I feel compelled to get it back into proper working order again and make a little more effort in the garden, which is totally out of control at the moment due to constant rain this year.

I’m finding it a little difficult to love it here at the moment, but I must remember that I will be here for another 5-10 years at least, as I will stay here for our cats. I guess it’s all the frustration of not being able to go anywhere at the moment, too, and the Covid situation getting worse in Thailand. It’s hard to see an end to it or even the much-touted ‘new normal. ‘

Still, it’s my mind that needs to get in order – the world is going to carry on.

We dreamed of better things – 4th August 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Active brain this morning. Shattered – try to do Drops* but distracted with things at school. Nothing important – just remembering things but coming and going all the time.

Brain jukebox is When Chimps Attack – not sure why – but enjoying it! We’ve been here three years now and I have memory flashbacks to Sydney that make me miss it a little sometimes.

First IELTS lesson for Kelly last night. I did well. I put too much pressure on myself really. She needs a lot of work – maybe not ready, so thinking about how to adapt the curriculum.

Okay, exercise time.

*Drops is a language-learning app and was part of my morning routine for quite a while.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to have friends around the world who can help me grow.