Volunteering Experience

I am a very shy and introverted person so volunteering as an English teacher is quite challenging for me. I remember going to the class for the first time, I was very nervous if the students might not like me or understand what I’m saying but the students greeted me brightly

which made the teaching process easier. My teaching partner, Lily was a big help to find interesting activities that we could do in class and I personally think we both made a great team and make the students enjoy our teaching. Besides, my co-teacher, Teacher Nui helped

me a lot to prepare for the class and gave me instructions to do in the class as well as giving me the freedom to lead the class with games.

As I used to go to boarding school as well, this school reminds of my boarding school days, however my boarding school mostly focuses on academics while this school has it all. I find it interesting how the students are not only learning Thai language, Mathematics and Science subjects but also gardening, arts, music, scouts, cooking, eco printing, agriculture and more. The school provided the students with many opportunities to explore their interests in many areas so when they graduated from the school, they had some skills in them. I just found out how talentless I am when I arrived at the school because each student has at least one thing that they can do such as dancing, playing music instruments, making paper arts, cooking, and even selling food! I love how the students are not afraid to try anything. Most of the students can’t speak English well but they tried their best to communicate and learn English even as

simple as asking “teacher, how are you today?”. Not only did the students learn something from me, I also learned to be more confident to try something new because some of the students asked me to sing and taught me to dance when I obviously couldn’t sing or dance.

I could not make through project well without my friends here; Iman, Ayesha, Hannah, Libby,

Ruby, Hac, Lily, Henry, Meg, Brooke, and Oliver. I love how everyone knows when to have fun and when to get serious for work. I enjoyed working with each one of them and if we ever get the chance to work together again, I want to. Our team leader, Joy played an important role to us too by guiding us and telling us what to do and what not to do. She always make sure that all messages are delivered well to everyone and that improved the team’s communication process.

Volunteering in Rajaprajanugroh 24 School may be the best decision I’ve ever made. Thanks Iman for convincing me to come with her to Thailand. I definitely will miss everything I experienced in this school. I will miss hanging out with the students, teaching the students in class, having the students following me around to the market and shop in the evening, catching sunset and stargazing with my friends, watching horror series at nights and more except for the mosquitoes’ bites and the hot weather. Bye!