Tag: teaching

Beyond The Blind Spot – 12th November 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Seeing things as they are
Dreaming them as they could be
A dark forest, a wide sky
A landscape full of human history

A spirited manifestation
Flashes of insight, literary
The lyrical moment happens
There born, the epiphany

Inspired and mangled from Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time by Teju Cole
30th Oct 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – epiphany

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be able to watch our jacarandas grow a few feet higher and the trunks a little thicker, every year.

Friday again already. It’s been great to be able to sit at House and keep up with lots of reading and writing. Next week I won’t have so much free time like this but have the pleasure of being face-to-face with students. I’m happy with all the scenarios at this stage. I’m enjoying everything. Is life too easy?

As with a couple of years ago, I’m kinda excited for Amy to go away for a while, leaving me to fend for myself and indulge in all my endeavours. I do know, though, that I will also get lonely and I will miss her a lot. Especially her cooking.

It looks as if Jess and Mei will be coming to Thailand soon too. It will be great to see them again and I know Amy will have a great time with them here.

The Week That Was – 18th February 1979

Out Of The Fire – 8th November 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Brother and sisters
Our differences are an illusion
To overcome our tribalism
Is the one correct conclusion
The madness of our tribe
Forbids us to belong
Our cooperation and spirit
Forge us together as one

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that my body had the strength to make it through my 30-day lose belly fat workout, even though I only did half of the last day as it has been two weeks since I was sick since I did day 29.

Once again, after a week of opening the school, 11 cases of Covid have been discovered in students. This time though, it appears that the school won’t return to fully online. Just the classes with the infected kids will study online for two weeks. That seems OK but I can’t imagine that there are not going to be more cases, identified or not. None of the classes I teach have a problem but both George and Dylan taught students last week who are now infected.

I sent a message to George as soon as I heard but he didn’t even reply. So weird. As Dylan and Amy have said, he must really hate me not to even respond when I show my concern. Whatever. I will just carry on as normal. I can’t control his actions so I’m not going to get upset by them.

This morning I clocked in and pretty much came straight to House to sit and drink coffee. As I have planned for my students to do work this week instead of having classes, I don’t need to worry myself with arrangements. The only thing I have to consider is that my students motivate themselves to do their work so I will probably spend a fair bit of time chasing them up.

So this morning I caught up on a backlog of emails, Thai study app and wrote a couple of poems. I’ll do a bit of reading today too – The Tale Of Alladin, who I only just learned is actually Chinese.

Tomorrow I can start work on preparing more lessons for future 2/9 classes. I just hope that my classes keep coming to school on alternate weeks and not go back to fully online. I can adapt easily enough but I think everyone, students and teachers, prefer face-to-face teaching.

The Week That Was – 28th January 1979

Naked Cowboys – 4th November 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Two naked cowboys dangling their dicks
Deadset on destruction with their bag of tricks
The smartest of the bunch wandering the hills
Who can piss the highest, counting their kills

Sing it to the mountains
Sing it in the squares
The naked cowboy fucked it all
And pretends he really cares

Inspired by the picture and the American Military-Industrial Complex.
Shared to Word of the Day Challenge – naked

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that yesterday I was able to spend time preparing work in the cafe and get out of school for the afternoon.

A very nice day again. There was a big storm in the morning as I drove to work and traffic was bad around school and as usual, the car park and entrance was flooding, so everyone was stepping carefully.

I clocked in and dropped my things and ‘dashed’ down to House for a couple of coffees. Stuck in traffic, I calmed myself, knowing that I could spend this extra time listening to podcasts. I still had half an hour before class was due to start and the baristas were late to arrive but I was still calm and it gave me extra time to pet Tokyo anyway.

I made it back to school with enough time to spare to collect a speaker I needed for a listening exercise for my first class and got there to happy children, in both my class, and the one next door, where many of the kids know me from teaching them in primary.

Classes all morning were successful and my experiment with 2/9 seems to be OK so far, delegating a little of the responsibilities to group leaders. As they have chosen subjects and given me texts/websites to work with, I now am under pressure to put together lessons and classes in time for them. But I can feel, as I read through, that I have ideas about what they can do and what kind of work I can create for them.

Scoffed some lunch and went off to pick up Bruno. Took him to 22 Grams as he hadn’t been there before and we sat and chatted together as well as with Donut. I savoured my coffees and my time this afternoon and, after dropping Bruno home, had an hour to kill back at school in the teacher’s room, so read a few things and ended up working on 2/9 lessons.

I’ve really enjoyed the day and feel powered by the energy of my students and friends and that can override any negative thoughts I still might have in my head. I can acknowledge them and let them float away. I’m excited enough about all the things I still want to do for myself.

Oh Stupid War – 19th August 2021

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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.

Curiouser – 10th August 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Are you curious about the world
Or is everything in its place?
Is every piece already set in stone
The winner chosen for every race?

Do you see what’s under your nose?
The dusty corners of darkened rooms
Comings and goings of all earthly creatures
The life and death that one presumes

When eyes open to let the light in
The world becomes majestic and grand
Life fills suddenly with meaning
And understanding begins to expand

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the folks who will service our car today. I hope they do a good job and are in good health and don’t catch Covid.

At Amy’s parents’ for lunch. It’s Mother’s Day this week, so it’s a family get-together. Amy said to teach up in the new room they built above the garage, and I thought, ‘why not?’, so I’m lying on their comfortable brand new sofa trying to stay awake before my class starts.

Today, George blanked me in the morning when I said hello and then again when I said goodbye at lunchtime. This annoyed me a little until I told myself to calm down and that I can’t control his actions, only my own. I let it go and feel much better.

I’m happy to have no more online classes after school and have that free time back again. It’s a great feeling, and I still wish I had all day, every day, free! Still, it’s not so bad. I’m really enjoying teaching at the moment, and it looks like it will be for the whole semester. The students and I are pretty locked in now.

School Of Life – 4th August 2021

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Even as a teacher, I am still a student of life
My own students teach me many things
Don’t take any learning for granted
Enjoy the satisfaction new knowledge brings

7th Mar 2024 – Submitted to Ovi Poetry Challenge 38

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the money I receive for my work. It helps us enjoy nice things when we would like.

Just looking back to this time last year I can see how happy I was with teaching at this school. Of course, it’s nothing to do with the school but to do with the students. They make it all worthwhile.

I saw that I was grateful to George for helping me get this job and it is only since then that I am aware of the differences between us. I rarely see him at school at the moment and haven’t talked to him for weeks, beyond hello and goodbye. I’m thinking I should at least make an effort to thank him again. It will be awkward but doable. It would make me feel good and perhaps do the same for him (not actually sure about that).

I had a really great experience with 2/9 this morning – the same kids I mentioned this time last year. We have been studying the story of the Eagle and the chickens, about the eagle who grows up with chickens and never gets to really achieve his potential, content just to be a chicken.

Many of the students answered the question about the moral of the story being that it is best to accept things and fit in. This took me a little by surprise and I had to explain about the different cultural thoughts around these things. As a teacher, I am still a student. I love that.

I would like to be able to explain to them more clearly about what I feel is the meaning of this story and encourage them to break free and fly higher. Awesome.

Hit The Reward – 23rd July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Hit the dog, hit him hard, make him pay
That’s the lesson every dogging day
Hit the boy, hit him hard, he never learns
The lesson for him is that anger burns

Hit the bottle, hit it hard, that’s your sword
But understanding is based around reward
Hit the road, hit it hard, there’s no return
You lost them all, none shall learn

1st Jun 2024 – Submitted to Word of the Day Challenge

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for 20 minutes of extra sleep this morning. Usually, I’m awake before my alarm but not today. After resetting it for an extra 20 minutes I went straight back into deep sleep.

I talked with Hayden briefly yesterday. He sounds pretty down with life – not articulating it into words but just in his tone and choice of words. He had nothing to say really as he hasn’t been doing anything except playing video games for the last two months.

Bronwyn is staying at his place in Newcastle at the moment, actually, her house, where I’m guessing he is living rent-free. He says he’s annoyed with her because she doesn’t give him enough space. When I asked him ‘space to do what?’ he just answered ‘space to be himself’. I translate this as ‘space to do nothing.’ Being 25 years old already it shocks me how little he can do for himself.

Bronwyn is a control freak and does everything for him because she can see that every time he tries to do something and fails, he just gives up. Now it seems like he doesn’t even want to try.

I’ve been telling her for several years to cut him off (financially) and let him fend for himself but she can’t bring herself to do it. And now it is super easy to get caught in online loan shark debt too. That boy is going to fall hard one day and I blame myself as much as anyone.

Shoes – 21st July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Count our blessings we still have choices
But stand beside those without voices
It’s not my body that suffers these pains
And I will support those with purer aims

Bootstrap pulling without boots
Kept downtrodden at the roots
I should walk a mile in your shoes
To understand there’s nothing to lose

Top dogs shout down ‘try your best’
Knowing you’ll never catch up the rest
When your choice is to eat shit or die
It’s everyone’s business to question why

Suffer a life for god and king
Does not a satisfied nation bring
I should plough the fields in your shoes
To understand the ways you choose

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to come home and see Amy had been busy all day baking cakes for the hospital workers dealing with Covid. She will deliver them today – she is very kind-hearted and concerned for everyone in this situation.

A nice day today. No aircon last night – just a fan and wake up to a cool post-rain and cloudy sky. Perfect temperature. Still don’t need a t-shirt but just a little more heat in the morning shower.

In my drive to school (and back) I listen to punk rock podcasts, rather than listening to punk rock and at school I can start the day with a delicious coffee. I feel blessed that for 4 days of the week, my first class is with my old students from primary – they are good students and we have a great relationship. They understand quickly what needs to be done.

I am in a great workflow with all my classes and they are all starting to get into the swing of things. I’m not actually teaching anything but with this all being online they are practising their skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. They are even better students when doing it this way as they don’t have the distraction of each other in the classroom.

So, even though today was my busiest day, it was super easy as everything is prepared a few weeks in advance. And when I got home I was ready to teach Ashley her daily class, again, not teaching, just having a conversation.

Anyway, I got a message that she cancelled today so now I can relax early.

I was just thinking before, that I am busy every weekday this month, having to teach after school and anticipating how good it will feel when those classes finish. Working hard to enjoy a rest.

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.

You cut off his head, legs come looking for you – 2nd July 2021

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Rainy season started early this year – very early in fact. So, it’s hot and wet and therefore, sticky and humid. Every year, usually after a big rain, some form or another of bug will suddenly emerge from the ground by the millions, to flutter around for five minutes, procreate and then die. Each morning we have to sweep away the piles of carcasses from around our front porch.

On this occasion we had some assistance from a colony of ants in search of nutrition. The picture is taken from a video, which I can’t post here, so it’s difficult to see the army of ants carrying these insects off to their nest. I followed the trail, along our front path, under my hammock, passed the garage, the outdoor toilets, the teaching room and somewhere in amongst the grass near our front gate. A good twenty to thirty metres away from where I took this picture I guess.

A few weeks later and the rains became more torrential and consistent, another colony of ants decided they needed a new home. It wasn’t unusual to see some ants around by the back door and inspecting under the washing machine as it was a pantry of dead bugs and lizards under there. But this time, over the course of one night we found this nest of mud the following morning!

A dose of ant killer soon stopped them and then the task of dragging out the washing machine and digging out their nest with a small shovel! Sorry, ants – this house isn’t big enough for all of us. We can’t have a million of anything living here!

Damned Ants

The invaders are coming
Building castles in dark recesses
An unstoppable force
With an ingenuity that impresses
Counting in their millions
Each one so sure of their role
Ceaselessly marching onward
In determined self-control
I must gather my own forces
With a bucket, shovel and mop
These damned ants – be gone!
Like them, I too, will never stop

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that Amy’s dad took the student’s dog. I hope he takes good care of it. I’m also happy and grateful to be able to start teaching a new student of Ellen’s, a 16-year-old who is moving to Melbourne with her family. She is very quiet but knows she has to study hard.