Teacher Mark’s Reading Room

Today we will have the first meetings of the Friday Clubs following last week’s sign-ups. The minimum number of students for the clubs is usually 10; I only had five kids sign up for Community Service but they’re letting it go on anyway. I’ll have three students from P4 (two of which seemed to enroll just because it was Teacher Mark’s club) and two from P5. Unfortunately, they haven’t given us any of our money for supplies (I submitted a budget request of 300 baht). When I asked about this yesterday, I was told to buy my own supplies and then bring in the receipt. Since we don’t get paid until after 4:00 this afternoon and I’m broke…  Anyway, I have managed to scrounge three garbage bags. I’ll buy some more plus a package or two of plastic gloves this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting outside this afternoon and picking up some trash!

(BTW, the drawing above is of Jackie Chan performing community service.)

On Friday, the students will sign up for the Friday Club of their choosing. These are special extracurricular activities each Friday afternoon conducted by individual teachers. These are to give a well-deserved break from the routine of classroom work in preparation for the weekend ahead. Activities include playing boardgames, learning to play guitar or speak Spanish, ballroom dancing, football (soccer), etc.

My club this year (depending if the minimum required number of students sign up) is Community Service. Community service is something a person does to help his or her community, in our case that would be both our school and the villa behind it. Our first (and ongoing) project will be to keep the school grounds and the villa’s streets clean. We will do this by picking up any trash we see. Don’t worry! I’ll provide the garbage bags and rubber gloves.

Other things that we could do would be to visit elderly people in the village and talk with them. I’m sure we can learn a lot about the community through doing this and it would give them a break from their own days. We can also assist children (and adults) when crossing the roads between the Thai Programme and English Programme buildings. On rainy days, I suggest we either help out in the school library or “adopt” a classroom/office to clean.

Registration for this club will only be open to students of P4 and above.

Please remember to come and visit my booth this Friday to learn more about the Community Service Club. If you would like to give a bit of yourself to help others, please sign up and join us. As Ghandi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”