Here we are, the Friday of Week 19 – the last teaching day of Term 1/2009.  The students take Final Exams next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before starting their month-long holiday.  Teachers will be marking the exams and submitting assessment records the remainder of next week before beginning their own breaks (just nine days – including the weekends – for most of us; the “Special Course” begins on 7 October).

This has been a most hectic week. 

It has been my turn to MC the English portion of the Lower Primary Morning Assemblies (on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  I simply assisted on Monday as I was waiting to go to the hospital for the birth of little Anda.  I showed my famous photo slideshows on the remaining two mornings:  Each year that I’ve taught at this school, I’ve created a presentation of photos & video that I’ve shot around the school, set it to music, and burn DVD’s for anybody who wants one.  Usually, I do this at the end of Term 2 (as this has usually been the time when my Assembly duty has come up); my first year, I made a 90-minute DVD (as I’d shot a TON of photos) and showed a 5-minute edit to the entire study body at one Assembly.  This year, as I was assigned at the end of Term 1 (and haven’t been quite the photog around campus as I once was), I had a very limited amount of material to work with; I made up for that during last week’s Sports Day, however.  I even re-cut it on Tuesday so that I could include a few of the baby photos everybody here has been asking to see.  It went over a storm and there was much applause at the end.  The HR director later told me he thought it was the best Assembly ever.

The second video I show every year is a collection of photos giving a sense of where I come from – New Mexico.  I originally made this particular presentation a couple of years ago as most people I’ve told in Thailand that I come from New Mexico confuse it with the country of Mexico.  In the introduction are a series of globes showing the location of Phuket which turn to show where the U.S.A. is, finally focusing in on New Mexico and Albuquerque.  It’s all set to the music of Robert Mirabal, an excellent performer from Taos Pueblo.  The kids (and teachers alike) usually get a big kick out of seeing a place they really know nothing about.

The school days have been lengthy as I’ve been wrapping up the term’s Reading Program.  Usually, I don’t give the students new books during Week 19 so we can do inventory and update the records.  However, classes were cancelled last Friday for Sports Day so three out of the four P3 classes hadn’t received new books for almost two weeks.  I decided that students having new books to read at home for two or three days was better than them keeping the same books and not wanting to read them yet another time.  It created a lot more work for me but the students were very happy – that’s what counts the most (they REALLY love the Reading lessons).  I’ve also been busy preparing my spread-sheets for Term 2 so they’re ready to go (I might even start pulling the students’ reading books so I don’t have to hustle and do that when they return at the end of October).  Yesterday, I began jotting down ideas for my Special Course lesson plans (I will be teaching in the English Programme during this course for the first time in three years; previously, I’d either created textbooks/teacher’s guides or taught in the Thai Programme’s ESC).  Why wait until the last minute?

In the evenings, I’ve been exhausted and Joy has been resting so I haven’t been able to journey to he home to see little Anda.  Her brother just started a new job and her sister works so nobody has been available to drive me anyway.  Although we both really want me to be there helping out, we’ve decided that it will be better to wait until the weekend.  If all goes to plan, I’ll be able to stay there all weekend.  I’m really looking forward to my nine-day holiday as we’ll probably be together throughout that as well.  It should be just the three of us – at least during the days – as her mom and nephew should be leaving very soon (hooray!) and everybody else will be working.

Joy seems to be adjusting well.  I was worried during our calls on Wednesday morning as her temper seemed short; the lack of sleep due to Anda’s crying had her frazzled.  But now she’s figured out that whenever the baby is sleeping (or not crying), that’s when Joy also needs to rest or sleep.  I think Mama is stressing Joy out more than anything else (her mom tends to yell loudly A LOT) but our talks on the phone really calm her down.  Her first day home from the hospital (she was released Tuesday evening), I felt really guilty that I wasn’t there helping her.  I felt much better yesterday and last night…