Sports Week

lining up for the parade, these were the mini drum majors

This last week was sports week. Monday morning they had the parade, then in the afternoon and through Thursday they played sports all day every day. Everyone had a great time, in the opening ceremony, they say that some of the goals are to understand winning, losing, and tying. It was a lot of fun to watch as they played and competed with each other. Because of the age differences in each grade, they played by age group instead of grade level. It gave the older ones a chance to play against children their own age, and the younger ones a chance to do well against ones their age. However, younger ones were allowed to help fill older teams if they were good enough.

the boys marching in the parade

My goal for this week was to make friends, and get to know the teachers and students better. I was assigned the pink team, so I went to as many evens for the pink team as possible, and also tried to go to games for the oldest age group when I could to build relationships that will hopefully extend into the classroom as well. Plus, they were the most skilled and interesting to watch. I cheered GO PINK who knows how many thousands of times, and it got to the point that even students from the other teams would yell GO PINK with me.

By Wednesday they decided it would be good if I announced the volleyball games in English as another teacher did in Thai. So, I began my announcing career which wasn’t long lived. I found it’s very difficult to announce when you don’t know their names, the 9 and 10 year olds can’t make it over the net, and you have to speak very simple English so they can understand/learn the words. They asked me to announce soccer, but luckily I was able to avoid that. I would have had no idea what to say as I’ve never really watched soccer and am not really much of a fan of the sport.

the ASEAN flags

Thursday when everything was done, they had an awards ceremony. They pulled out all of the old trophies the school has ever won, and then announced first, second and third place for each age group in each sport, and someone from the team came up and received the trophy and took it back to their team. Afterwards, they were allowed to take pictures with the trophies, and then they were all put back in the office. Notice the picture of them all on the table. It just shows, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on prizes, the students were more than happy to receive them for 5 minutes and return them.

Friday we had our regular classes, then after school was over, they handed out certificates for those who tried even though they weren’t really good at the sport. (Or at least I think that’s what it was for). They awarded one certificate for each age and sport, and the students got a bag of chips or cookies as well.

raising the flags for each color

Overall, I would say it was a successful sports week. I got to know many teachers and students better, and we had a lot of fun playing and spending time together. It was nice to not have to teach for a week and just spend quality time with people to get to know them. Since the day I got here I’ve been going non-stop teaching, planning, and just trying to survive. This week gave me a chance to relax and just live. What a welcome break it was. However, now it’s time to get back to teaching and learning because I’m sure the next interruption is going to come sooner than expected as is life in the second semester of the Thai school year.

lighting the torch

 

the older kids helping the kindergarteners play soccer

the pink team playing Tagraw

two of the pink boys who wanted their picture taken while
we were handing out snacks

cheering for the pink team in handball. If you've never
watched handball, you should. It's intense.

my debut as volleyball announcer

running events

more running. They made the track 100 meters diagonally across
the soccer fields.

lining up for the awards ceremony

pink receiving an award

some boys from the pink team and a purple team boy
wanted their picture taken with me after the awards ceremony.
These are some of the students I was able to connect with
this week.

all the trophies that were handed out, read to be put back on the
shelves til next year.

the certificates being handed out on Friday