Observe Day 1

Obeservation Day 1 at Demonstration School Udon Thani Rajabhat University

at Anuban 3, Age 6 years old.

Today was the first day I saw the school. I came to the school to Observe for the first week, and assists in second week and teach in third week. And this Tuesday morning, I went to the school with Ms. Kim as a PIC and Ms. Kittawan and Ms. Ring by van. Although the school and my dorm was very close, but I had to deliver my friends to their school which is located far from our dorm, so I was the last one who went to school. The school’s location was very close to my dorm, and that made me feel a lot more comfortable since I don’t have to use any transportation to go there, I can reach the school by walk.

When I arrived at school around 8 o’clock, I was welcomed very well all the school’s staff. The principal, teachers, and also I met the Vice President of Udon Thani Rajabhat University while he passed by the school. He was very humble, He greeted me and gave me some advices. I felt so pleased when I saw him and had a conversation with him. 

After greeting section, I introduced myself to all students officially after the Flag Ceremony. The students was surprised and scared at the same time, no one approached me maybe because I looked different than others since I’m the only one who wore scarf. But, after I introduced myself, there are two person came to me, one was teacher and one was student, they came to me and greet me with Assalamualaikum. Ha! I felt so surprised that I found Moslem in Thailand especially in Udon Thani. That made me felt so peaceful and warm to get to know them. The moslem teacher’s name was Nuriyah and the student was Raya. Then, we became friends.

What I observed today mostly about the student’s activity, the school facility and Learning Media. I figured it out that the activities in Demonstration school pretty much the same in Indonesia, the differences are probably about how the students learn and their process of thinking are different with Indonesian kindergarten students. They can express their own imagination when they asked to draw, not by teacher’s order. They drew whatever they want based on what they know, in Indonesia, teacher will guide the students to draw or to put the color. They also already understand about their identity, Thai people has a nickname, and so they were. Their name transformed into a picture or graphic so when they put their identity on their paper, they just simply marked their stamp (stamp with their graphic) to the paper.  Not only put the stamp, they also learn how to write their name. Learning activity that they did mostly about to improve their capability on linguistic, math (knowing about number), and they analytical thinking. The teacher gave the students a questions about something, probably about a theme, such as “ASEAN COUNTRIES” and then, the students asked to represent what their thought about it. They built their own information to answer the question. They were helped to do all the learning activities by learning Media that the teachers made. Such as, flash card, Pop Up book and so on.

They also have a nap time, which is different from Indonesian Kindergarten. In Indonesia, some of the kindergarten school only took time 8-10 p.m while in Thailand, they school from 8 p.m until 16.00 including student's nap time. There are nap time for nursery class in Indonesia, but not in Kindergarten level. 

The school facilities were good too. The school has 4 classroom for Nursery students age 2, and Anuban (kindergarten) 1, 2 and 3 and Nursery class for age 2. Each class has own bathroom, mattress and pillow for napping time, desks, chairs and all learning media like white board, books, pop up books, blocks and  and so on. And there were library and teachers office at school. Also a garden and a place for the student to play