Meghan's Volunteer Story

On the first of August I arrived in Ao Luk, Thailand and expected to be sitting in the Krabi airport on my way home three weeks from that day. A near four months later I am writing this volunteer story from my bottom bunk bed in the big dorm of the GVI Base Camp in Ao Luk.

After my first week of teaching children in four different schools in the surrounding area I made the decision to stay on in this community filled with welcoming Thai people and amazing potential for effecting change on a local level. Currently, after a month of TEFL training and observation and teaching, I am just starting my second week of teaching as a NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher), or as others choose to put it (Not Quite a Teacher). And despite the latter of the two names we have here in Thailand for teachers entering their first independent teaching experience, I like to think I am getting along fairly well. With an elementary conversation class of seven students I have had the opportunity not just to drill vocab words, well Elicit first then Model and then Drill and THEN Write (you will learn that EMDW structure of teaching if you choose to attain your TEFL here in Thailand), but I have had the opportunity to engage in stimulating conversations with enthusiastic students.

As a Newly Qualified teacher my experiences every night at the local community center continue to be more rewarding than the last and I value very much the time I am privileged to spend with wonderful members of this community.

Meghan's Volunteer Story