Dec.23

Today was a day of details.

Last night I got a call to substitute two more classes for the next two weeks (7:50-8:50, and 1:50-2:50)..I accepted. Today, I was faced with all the fine print of teaching work: assigning homework, making a schedule for the semester, going to meetings, taking attendance, dealing with a few rowdies, etc. Also, I was(/am) sick with the flu. This sucked for most of the day, but we were learning about common words used in health-care in one of the classes, so I was able to use myself as a case study for many of the words, which made the explanations easier.

I met a few more teachers, and I've come to the consensus that 90% of teachers are genuine and friendly, and 10% want more money. That's probably an optimistic guess, but I'm an optimistic guy, so no stress. I'm actually really enjoying the teaching work so far - kids tend to listen to what I say, and I feel like they're understanding what we're doing in class. Of course, I haven't yet checked homework, nor given a quiz...so I guess I'll soon get some data to back-up/refute my views.

The teachers were called over for a meeting with the president of the institute, cool guy - he's definitely an empire-builder, and he's invested like a mad-man in the phnom penh real-estate market. I also found out that my school is ranked #1 in Cambodia, and the students are mostly royal/ministerial/big-business offspring. Either way, I felt bad because the president was obviously enjoying the meeting, but I promised the p-units that I'd meet them for lunch at "Comme a la Maison"...so I was itching to go (and I'm pretty sure he noticed; I felt like a student waiting for the teacher to finish talking so they can leave the class). Comme a la Maison was delectable, a great celebration of Shaku's birthday.

I'm trying to balance being harsh and on-task and being cool and just chatting, so far I think I'm doing pretty badly, with mostly chillness interrupted by moments of harshness to pull the big class back in line. 23 kids is more than enough for me to handle with my limited (read: nonexistent) knowledge of class management skills and techniques. My money is quickly being eaten up by ever-so-happy moto-dop drivers. I think I should buy a scooter/motorbike. Maybe a vespa...or maybe an electric bike. Thoughts?