I’m not exactly sure if I have spelled her name correctly, but I hope so. This was another one of the many teachers that passed through our school during my tenure there. One big difference though separates her from most of the rest. This was a very good teacher.
Being the gentleman that I am, I would not venture to guess her age, only to say that she was somewhat younger that me. She was very easy on the eyes, had a most charming personality, and was a heck of a good teacher especially with the very young children. During her time with this school she did it all though, teaching several grade levels, and filled in anywhere she was needed. She needed to work and was not going to jeopardize her job by not doing all she could.
She was from Burma and as I have found with most Burmese’s very hard working, dedicated to their professions and never one to complaint much in the public arena.
Though from Burma she has lived in Thailand for many years now along with her husband and two children. She was well educated and her father was a pastor of the Seven Day Adventist Faith if I recall correctly. She had very little if any accent in her spoken English and could carry on a conversation about almost anything. She was a smart girl.
During her last year with us, she was put in charge of the Intensive English Program for Kindergarten Students and did an outstanding job. In this program, the students were exposed to English only during their entire day at school. Though not a full immersion program because they went home in the evenings to their Thai families it was the next best thing. These kids completed kindergarten with a first hand knowledge of the English Language.
The program however was not well thought out by the powers to be. If was the goal of many parents for their children to be in an Intensive English Program or at least a Bilingual Program but the school made no plan to extend the program into grade one. This left parents with two choices. To either dump their child into a class with the beginning English students and receive only two hours of English per day or to seek a school that provided the curriculum that they desired. Many left that year.
She Paw realized how valuable her services had been to the school for she received adulation’s from the parents as well as The Director quite frequently. Therefore she did the prudent thing, she asked for a raise. She really didn’t ask for much, just a small pay raise and a housing allowance. It was approved, with the stipulation that she had to move closer to the school. Why? She was never tardy, she never asked for time off because of the distance, she never complained about the commute. So why this stipulation? She had a home, it was near where her husband worked, and it was near where she had childcare arranged. Why? Control. It’s all about control.
Needless to say, the terms were not acceptable and she found new employment, which ended up having better benefits and more pay. We lost out, and someone gained from our bad judgment.
Good luck my friend and the best of wishes to you.
2 comments:
Yea Yea! She was good, maybe the best? But if she was in the teachers room with Mr John, you could be sure they were running down the rest of us in their mother tongue. That's rude.
No where near as much as the other non native speaking English Teachers were prone to do.
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