 |
| Adjusting the Monk Robes |
One thing I have noticed is that the novice monks are constantly adjusting their robes. I'm not sure if it's because the robes are tricky to wear or if it's a teenage fashion consciousness. I've never seen adult monks do this except in the most subtle of ways.
Following the King's Birthday, I expected to have three days of teaching. Monday and Tuesday of the week I extended the "Snacks" lesson I had started. Basically these were flash cards with the English word written on one side and the Thai translation written on the other. The week before I had used flash cards about family relationships which someone else had developed and Adjan Nathanon had loaned me.
 |
| Adjan Nathanon Teaching a Class |
My lesson plan was simple:
Snacks Apples Bananas
- Sound out the English word
- Show the Thai word (so they would know the meaning of the English word)
ของขบเคี้ยว แอปเปิ้ล กล้วย
- They say the Thai word
- I repeat the Thai word (this was the best part) they would laugh and I would try again and again until they either gave up or thought I'd done it well enough
- One surprise for me at this point was that some of the snack words such as "cake", "cookie" and "chocolate" were pronounced exactly the same in Thai as they were in English!
- Show the English word and sound it out again
- Have one third of the class repeat the word in English, the other third, etc.
- Students with wandering eyes, hands, or silence were given the special opportunity to sound the word individually.
 |
| Novice Monks in English Class |
 |
| Working In Class |
 |
| Special Chips - Crab Curry Flavor and Shrimp Flavor - Umm, Umm |
After we went through the cards, we played hangman using the words from the lesson. I was surprised for the first couple of words that they did them so well. Then I realized they had written down the English words and were counting the spaces for the letters to find the right word. After that, I mixed it up with other words not in the lesson. That threw them for a loop, but we had fun and I think they learned a few words.
 |
| One of My Best Classes |
As class ended, I wanted to get a picture of me with the class. The young novice monk wanted to have his own picture with me because he wasn't in the group picture.
 |
| The Novice Monk/Photographer |
The wind up of the lesson plan was to have each student vote on their favorite fruit snack. I then introduced them to graphing the results. It you look closely, you can see that oranges won by a landslide!
Each day as I walked to school, I passed a sidewalk tile shaped like a heart. I often thought of taking a picture of it, but didn't. This last day, there was a Clementine Orange in the middle of the heart. It was a good omen and a good day!
 |
| Sidewalk Tile with Clementine |
Abbot's Parade
My last day was cut short because the abbot for the school was in town. He is the third highest ranking monk in all of Thailand and was coming to bring the King's birthday message to the community. This called for a parade. The students were let out at noon to participate. I was invited by the school's former headmaster to wait with him at the temple. At first it was going to be a 15 minute wait.
 |
Prasingh Temple Decorated for Abbot's Visit
The Former Headmaster Said the Lanterns were the Blending of Hindu Influences into Buddhiam |
When I was told it would be an hour, I headed for the parade. That was a good decision. The parade didn't get started until hours after the scheduled time.
 |
| Chinese Lanterns and Monks |
 |
| Chinese Lanterns and Monks |
No comments:
Post a Comment