Your first week in a Thai school.

Before you walk in

• Dress more formally than you think. Long trousers or a skirt below the knee, a shirt with a collar, closed shoes. Thai teachers dress smartly and a foreign teacher in shorts reads as not taking the school seriously. Many schools have a colour for each day — ask on day one rather than guessing.
• Learn to wai, and learn who wais first. The younger or more junior person offers the wai first. Students wai you; you do not wai them first, you acknowledge it with a nod or a small return wai. Wai the director, the head teacher and anyone clearly older than you.
• Take your shoes off where the Thai staff do. Watch the rack by the door. Some buildings yes, some no. Copy, do not ask every time.
• Bring your own board pens. The school may have none by week three. A pack costs almost nothing and saves the lesson.
• Find out who your homeroom teacher contact is for each class, and get their LINE. This is the single most useful relationship in the building.

The shape of a Thai school day

This varies between schools — treat it as what to expect, then check yours.

• Morning assembly. Most government schools raise the flag and sing the national anthem at 8am, in lines, outside. Stand still, face the flag, stop talking. Foreign teachers are usually expected to attend, at the side or with their class.
• Periods are typically 50 minutes, with a bell or a piece of music. You will often lose the last five minutes to the next lesson's movement.
• Class sizes are often 40 to 50. Plan for forty children and one of you, not for the twelve in the textbook's photographs.
• Timetables change without warning — sports day, a Buddhist holiday, a royal occasion, an inspection, a funeral in the village. Nobody is being rude; the school found out that morning too. Keep one lesson in your bag that needs nothing.
• ไหว้ครู (wai khru). Early in the school year there is a ceremony where students formally pay respect to their teachers. If you are included, it means something. Take it seriously.

What the year levels mean

Thai	Written	Roughly	Ages
อนุบาล	Anuban	Kindergarten	3–5
ประถม ๑–๖	P1 – P6 (ป.1 – ป.6)	Primary	6–11
มัธยมต้น ๑–๓	M1 – M3 (ม.1 – ม.3)	Lower secondary	12–14
มัธยมปลาย ๔–๖	M4 – M6 (ม.4 – ม.6)	Upper secondary	15–17

Compulsory education ends at M3, so an M4 class is there by choice and an M3 class contains children who are about to leave school for good. That changes what you teach them. CEFR bands against these years are on the resources page.

Eleven Thai phrases for day one

Say ครับ (khráp) at the end if you are male, ค่ะ (khâ) if you are female. It is the difference between an instruction and a polite instruction.

Thai	Say it	Meaning
สวัสดีครับ / ค่ะ	sa-wàt-dee khráp / khâ	Hello
ขอบคุณครับ / ค่ะ	khòp-khun khráp / khâ	Thank you
นั่งลง	nâng long	Sit down
ยืนขึ้น	yuun khûen	Stand up
เงียบ ๆ	ngîap ngîap	Quiet, please
ฟังครูนะ	fang khruu ná	Listen to the teacher
พูดตามครู	phûut taam khruu	Repeat after me
เข้าใจไหม	khâo-jai măi	Do you understand?
เก่งมาก	gèng mâak	Very good — well done
ไม่เป็นไร	mâi pen rai	It's all right, never mind
ห้องน้ำอยู่ไหน	hông-náam yùu năi	Where is the toilet?

Use the Thai for management and praise, and English for everything you are actually teaching. A class that knows you will switch to Thai to control them will wait for it.

Managing forty children without raising your voice

• Never make one child fail in front of the room. Losing face is the thing to design around. Ask the class, then the group, then the individual — by the time you reach one child, they have heard the answer three times and can say it safely.
• Chorus first, always. Twenty repetitions together before anyone goes alone. It is not babyish; it is what makes a mouth able to do a new sound, and it protects the weakest child in the room.
• Silence does not mean they do not know. It usually means they are not certain enough to risk being wrong out loud. Give them ten seconds in pairs first and the silence ends.
• Praise the attempt, not the accent. "เก่งมาก" for trying. Correct the sound separately, to the whole class, without naming who said it.
• A clap pattern beats shouting. You clap three times, they clap back. Works from Anuban to M6 and costs you nothing.
• Learn ten names in the first week and use them. Thai nicknames are short and you will be given them gladly. A child whose name you know behaves differently.

A first lesson that works in any room

No printing, no power, no preparation beyond a board.

1. 5 min. Write your name on the board. Say it. Have the whole class say it. Let them laugh at your pronunciation of theirs — it buys you a lot.
2. 10 min. Teach one exchange only: "What's your name?" — "My name is ___." Chorus it twenty times. Then rows. Then pairs.
3. 15 min. Everybody stands. They must ask five different people and remember one name each. Noise is the point.
4. 10 min. Sit. Five volunteers introduce someone else: "This is ___." Nobody introduces themselves — it is easier to be brave for a friend.
5. 5 min. Everyone writes one sentence in their book and you walk the room saying เก่งมาก a lot.

Then build the rest of the week with the worksheet builder or the topic library, both free and both levelled for a class that spans three abilities at once.

Ask the school these in writing, in week one

• Exactly which classes and how many periods a week — in a timetable, not verbally.
• Whether you are expected at morning assembly, and at what time.
• Who marks, who reports to parents, and when.
• What happens to your pay in months with long school holidays.
• Who is handling your work permit and visa, and what they need from you. The checklist is here — it is the part nobody hands you and the part that decides whether you are working legally.
• Whether there is a budget for printing, and how much.

Ask politely, in a message, so there is a record. A Thai school will answer a written question; it may not answer the same question asked in a corridor.

When the first week goes badly

It usually does. The lesson runs out after eleven minutes, or nobody speaks, or the timetable you were given turns out not to exist. None of that means you cannot do this.

Go and find the Thai teacher who has that class for homeroom. Ask her which children are struggling and why. She knows which child has not eaten today and which one is carrying something heavy at home, and she will tell you if you ask. That conversation is worth more than any lesson plan on this site.

And write to us. If something on this page is wrong for your province, your school type or your students, tell us and we will fix it — that is how it gets better. hello@eslteacher.com