Day 14-Materials and other learning resources

The school premises consists of conducive classrooms that help students to gain learning, but it does not limit only inside the classroom. The school provides other learning resources such as ICT(Information and Communication Technology Center).

The ICT Room

 It is where the students are being exposed to and introduce to the technology such as the use of computers, virtual learning through videos that are educational and appropriate for their learning. The school also has the library where educational books can be found here and read by the students for further learning.

The playground area can be seen also in the school, to give way to the physical development of the Kindergarten students.

At least once or twice a week, the teacher allows the students to go and play at the playground, to help students to express more of themselves, without pressure from their academics responsibilities and exercise the ability to socialize with other students. And the sports room area, Taekwondo is being taught in the school as part of their activity in the school, to build the students physical body.

Day 13-Teaching System

The Phetphadungweingchai School caters students from Nursery to Grade 6 level. The teaching system aims to provide the best education they can give to the Thai students. In order to achieve this vision, the school are practicing teaching strategies. The After-hour strategy, where the teachers have to teach and cater the needs of the students- intellectually, emotionally, physically, spiritually, even the higher-order thinking skills and other domains of development. If the students has low performance in learning academics, the school offers remedial or special classes for the students to master the previous lessons. It is done by one-on-one, by group or by class according to the level of the need. The teachers are committed to spend time for the students during weekends for this tutorial sessions. The next one is the vacation break strategies, where the school provides summer program to help the to cope up for the next grade level of the student. It is done by doing review from the past lessons that has been tackled already for the past semester and introduce new set of lessons for their next grade level that they will be in.

The school offers also the normal class were Thai language is the medium of instruction. Also, they include in their system the English and Chinese classes for the students to be able to learn other languages aside from their mother language. Starting from Kindergarten, they are being exposed to the multi-lingual education, where they learn English and Chinese. 

The Chinese class

The English Class

Day 12- Supporting Academics

In order to be an effective kindergarten school, various academic system are being needed to apply and implement in a school. The Phetphadungweingchai School are using variety of instructional methods.

Classroom- Based Strategy

The first one is the Classroom- Based Strategy where the teacher consistently monitor the performance of the students through assessments and evaluations such as traditional assessment  the paper-pencil assessment, performance assessment. Over the period of time, the teacher is able to adjust the teaching strategies and assessments to meet the students needs, not just only in academic area but holistically and looking for ways on improving teaching strategies.

School-based Strategies

The school has their annual activities and program for the students to give opportunity to the students to showcase their talents, skills, abilities and knowledge in various fields. They make schedules during the week, to emphasize the importance of physical activities. They allow students to create interaction with other students, small groups activities to develop the leadership and cooperation, play-time to exercise their fine and gross-motor skills. Having rest time after lunch is being implemented also in the school for the students to have a short break and rest for the days' activities.

Play-ground time

Breaktime!

 Preschoolers having their snack time before they proceed to their next class. 

The Preschool having their rehearsal for their school program. All the students are involved and participants to the said program. 

To ensure the development of the cognitive skills of the students, the school provides resource teaching materials such as textbooks, instructional materials and even ICT rooms for their technology awareness.

The ICT room

Physical health is being a concern of the school. They are providing physical activities such as swimming class, taekwondo and soccer. The school has a canteen where every day the students is having their lunch at school to ensure the proper  food that the students are eating.

Children in action for their Taekwondo Class

Outside- School Based

Learning does not limit inside the school environment. The school provides outside school activities such as camping, field trips and many academic and student affair activities such as contests, school fair and programs, and many more. The program usually work with the cooperation with the community groups and volunteers that will help to provide variety of programs for the students.

Day 10- First weekend Getaway

7:00 in the morning, we were picked up by our coordinator's students and dropped us to the train station heading to Wiang Sa. Today, we have no idea where we are going to. But our hearts are filled with excitement for today's activity and to see different beautiful places here in Surat Thani, Thailand.

                               Our first stop is in Nakhon Si Thammarat, a very lovely place.

At this very place, they call it the "Best Ozone in Thailand".

The view over the bridge

Temple

Visiting the Wat Thatnoi or the Ash Temple

One of the view inside

The body of the Buddha is still being kept

Inside of one of the temple

Day 9 ( Observation Week)

This day is Mother's Day Celebration of the country. All schools are having their celebration in remembering all mothers.

And for today, the Phetphadungweingchai held the program to give way for the Mother's day celebration. Some of the primary students went to the Kindergarten school to perform some thanksgiving dance for all mothers and women who are treated as their second mothers.

Primary students presenting a dance number. 

The owner of the school, Board of Trustees, Teachers, and parents are present in this celebration.

Bowing down is one form of showing respect. Children are being respectful to all mothers.

Kindergarten students performing a dance 

As the school has the vision of developing and instilling to the young children the moral learning, it shows that students here in this school are applying what they have learned in ethics, culture, religion, discipline, and love.

Day 8 ( Observation Week)

Before the classes start, the school give way for a practice for their Mother's day program. All students and teachers are invited to watch the rehearsal for tomorrow's activity. It is a practice in this school to teach discipline inside and outside of the school whether in formal or informal situations.

The discipline in the classroom is being emphasized. At their young age, they know how to fix their belongings on their own. Instructing the students that being disciplined is one of the attributes of being a good citizen of this country, teach them how to respect, be honest, be responsible, be independent.

I do admire their principle when it comes to discipline, truly, if a child is being raised in such a manner where disciplined is the center, the students will carry it until they get old.
Training in Discipline is one of the practice in this school.

If the student is engaged in learning, then it would be easy for them to understand the lesson. The student in the picture is answering their activity, and she is doing it correctly.

I observed also that teachers are roaming around the class and check if the students are doing the activity properly.

Each teacher allows children at least once or twice a week to play outside of the classroom. The school provides the playground for the Kindergarten to play in. The purpose of this is not to make the time consumable but for the students to exercise their physical bodies for the development of their fine and gross motor skills.


It is one way also to build friendships, to improve their social skills and express themselves.

Exercising the Gross motor skills of a child helps them to build their bones more stronger. The school built a play-ground for the Kindergarten students to help them to grow not only academically but develop their physical attributes also.

Day 7 ( Observation Week)

Mep 2 class.

The Mep class is ready for their next class which is the English class. The topic for today class is the letter "Jj". The teacher teaches how to pronounce it and introduce some words that start with letter J.



I observed that the teacher makes the learning more creative and caters all kinds of students. It is one the things that I appreciate in this school that they treat every student that is able to learn, they might not apprehend the learning phase the same as with the others, but eventually, all students will be able to learn.

With the use of picture-cards, the children are able to recognize the pictures and its name. Since the students have a short attention span, the teacher is dynamic, has a well-modulated voice and used teaching materials such as activity sheets for evaluation of learning and picture-cards as visual aids.

The use of instructional materials is one way of teaching the kindergarten effectively. The kindergarten in this school learns fast if they see pictures and visual. They are visual and audio-visual learners. It is important that the teacher is prepared enough as he/she comes in the classroom, from time to time, there are circumstances that come into the way, such as the bad weather, the change in schedule, and other more. With that, a teacher must be flexible in their teaching and strategies.

The students formed 2 circles for their next activity. The boys on the left side and the girls on the right side.

Teachers also make motivation activities for the students to make the learning more interesting and exciting, that's why they make ways to make the evaluation more creative.

The students in the school feel comfortable in doing their activity on the floor. I observed that some of the classrooms here have no tables for writing. But even though, they love to learn and perform the day to day classes on the floor.

After one(1) hour of English class, the students are now having their snacks. So that, they have the energy and strength for their next class.

Sometimes, the teacher asks the students and go outside of the classroom to eat their snacks.

I observed that it is their custom to remove their shoes as they go inside the room or even in the house. And it is a good thing to practice cleanliness.