gerryBScot

Isn't that just a teaching diploma like a PGCEi or the numerous Filipino teaching diploma's?

I am not sure that the PGCEi awarded by an institution like Nottingham University in the UK, or Sunderland's equivalent, and the various teaching diplomas offered by Philippine academic institutions should be lumped together. I think the former is wholly different in character and quality and has some international value and credibility whereas the latter will suffice in Thailand, the RPI and parts of Asia but outside of the region would be disregarded and considered useless.

As I remember a BA is not sufficient to teach in the UK.

A graduate needs also to complete a 1 year teaching training course to obtain a Teachers Certificate .

At least this used to be the requirement wether it still is I am not sure.

I think you are allowed to teach in a public school in the UK if they want to employ you regardless of teaching qualification. Remember 'public' in this respect means 'private' and 'elitist' - we are talking about Eton, Harrow and the like as well as sundry lesser schools

If you want to teach in a UK state school then you need academic credentials, either a B Ed or and BA and PGCE and if I am right then after 1 year's teaching experience and some sort of assessment you are granted Qualified Teacher Status.

My new MBP bought direct from Apple is less than a week old. Bought direct from Apple and delivered from China, a very smooth transaction. As a teacher I got the educational discount so paid 40,500. It's the basic model as advertised on the web page, the 13 inch retina. It's a very smart and sleek bit of gear and a very significant enhancement on my previous MBP which lasted five years and in addition to being rarely switched off, took a couple of crashing falls. This new one doesn't have a dvd drive but I can live with that. Clearly with small cards capable of storing 128 GB the dvds' days were numbered plus the ubiquity of clouds and external storage theoretically diminish the need for large HDs; hence the comparatively small internal hard drive of 128 GB. But it is beautiful and the keyboard is very responsive. The graphics are great and I like the retina thing - it really enhances the screen quality.

I don't like some of the software things like the keychain. It generates automatic passwords but I have experienced problems using gmail on Mac Mail. Doesn't seem to remember the password and similarly some problems with changing automatically generated and stored passwords on mobile applications. I've been playing with Apple's word processing, presentation and spreadsheet software as I cannot load my Microsoft Office for Mac DVDs - quite similar in real terms to the MS stuff but remarkably easy to use and given that I can export everything in MS formats I am to sure I am going to bother loading Word or Excel.

I am very happy with it. As I say a nice bit of kit

Welcome to the disgrace that masquerades as the Thai education system in which your appearance is far more important than any other factor. If I were you I would seek PYP experience in China, more international schools opening there, or elsewhere and then use that experience to apply to the so called first tier international schools in Thailand. A lot of the 'lesser' 'international' schools in Thailand are not actually 'international' - they are just cash cows trading on elitism and exclusivity. As the Italians would say 'coraggio". DOn't let it get you down.

Who is the white guy in the photo? Translator, consular official, spy, who and what? And where is the money…..you'd expect to see a swag bag in respect of such activity.

Some of the comments here about race are really absurd and truly beggar belief. LOL

It should be possible but you probably could only do it through an agency and I'm not sure what the position would be re work permit and visa status.

The whole system is shit! Making teachers take an English proficiency test will not change a damn thing. They'll get a grade. Then back to business as usual.

Let's use football as an analogy. The best managers were rarely the best players - Fergie, Wenger etc were not known for their football prowess. Same with English teachers - being able to speak English well does not qualify you to teach it. Being a teacher is a massively complex task and funnily enough the countries with the best education systems - Finland, Sweden, etc - give teachers real status. They are well paid and highly qualified and they are well looked after. This means far more people apply than are needed. The Finnish national curriculum is written on two sides of paper - it basically tells teachers to get on with it. Teachers are managed by teachers and the politicians keep out of it.

I support the government's attempts to improve standards by requiring teachers to be qualified with proper teaching credentials. But what needs to happen is to support teachers in improving their practice in classrooms. I've seen more teachers than I care to remember, both foreign and Thai, walk into classrooms and order students to copy their textbooks into their exercise books. I've seen some terrible stuff happen in classrooms and I've also seen seemingly harmless things happen too which IMHO have no place in a civilised school - two year old kids in nursery, wearing uniforms, being forced to hold pencils and made to write, and getting abuse for not being able to. All directed by management with advance degrees in education and presumably exposure to educational theorists which would challenge the validity and morality of classroom practice.

The research suggests that what you have to do is support your existing teachers, help them change while on the job, and expose them to new ways of working. I don't really think getting a low grade in an exam will do this. In Malaysia they have been running a mentoring scheme for a few years - pairing native teachers with foreign expert teachers and trying to improve standards this way. Much better to do something like this here. The exam is a waste of money.

They might also want to hire a few foreign heads - bring in some big beasts with proven form from the US or Europe and set them loose on Thai schools. Just an idea! Of course they just couldn't do that but if they were prepared to support said beasts they would see an unprecedented level of change for the better.

Teaching in Thailand is such a blast! Good, isn't it, how everything is focused on ensuring the best possible outcomes for the students!? Maybe the OP teaches in a Catholic school!

I've been exactly where the OP is at and amazingly I'm still in the same job. But no one will thank you for complaining here or challenging them. And they don't forget either. And you'll get more and more wound up.

Stop or get out.

How about trying to find out if anyone you know still works there? Might be worth making a phone call to the school explaining who you are and asking to speak to someone who was involved in the school's management or the management of the section you worked in. Get a contact name and an email address and draft the letter you want specifying all the information you require and send it to that person and ask them to get it put on notepaper, signed and sealed and returned to you.

Some of these degrees are adequate for the purposes of getting a Thai teacher's licence at the moment. However their usefulness outside of Thailand and the Philippines is the issue - they're unlikely to help you secure employment anywhere else. So their use is of limited applicability in terms of life planning. There are other qualifications available from other academic institutions which are worth exploring: from the UK, Sunderland and Nottingham university offer post-graduate teaching level degrees though not the much sought after Qualified Teacher Status ('QTS') ; there are US and Australian universities too that offer similar qualifications. The general advice would be that you'll get the best teaching jobs on the best wages and terms with credentials, experience and 'QTS' status from your 'home' country. If you are young enough and have the inclination, go home and do it - then the world will be your lobster!

Good advice

When I was young ie 27, I thought of doing my PGCE but procrastinated and now I am too old 52.

The world is still my lobster though.

Blooming heck I'm doing the Nottingham PGCEi right now at 56 and it is going ok, I hasten to add. I really don't want to stay here, though, the education system really depresses me. So young man, if I may say so, you're never too old!

Some of these degrees are adequate for the purposes of getting a Thai teacher's licence at the moment. However their usefulness outside of Thailand and the Philippines is the issue - they're unlikely to help you secure employment anywhere else. So their use is of limited applicability in terms of life planning. There are other qualifications available from other academic institutions which are worth exploring: from the UK, Sunderland and Nottingham university offer post-graduate teaching level degrees though not the much sought after Qualified Teacher Status ('QTS') ; there are US and Australian universities too that offer similar qualifications. The general advice would be that you'll get the best teaching jobs on the best wages and terms with credentials, experience and 'QTS' status from your 'home' country. If you are young enough and have the inclination, go home and do it - then the world will be your lobster!

Philo great stuff and keep doing what you do. Even in AA most attempts to get sober fail. How you do it is not the story it is that you do it regardless of where you are in the world. That's what's people need to hear - no matter how far gone and hopeless you may think you are, you can quit and possibly enjoy a better life. If they told me today that there had been a terrible mistake and that I wasn't an alcoholic and that it would be ok to drink, I would choose to stay sober because I much prefer my life as it is today. Don't miss it, don't want it, don't need it and don't need the grief. Enjoy the day and be grateful, my hearties.

Thanks that's great information. I like the idea of six months if that is possible. I guess I can get that information at my local Department of Land Transport. Once more thanks

Grateful thanks for the excellent information here about taking your motor across the border into Malaysia.

My query is if there is a limit on how many times you can drive over in a given period. It is possible I may start working in Malaysia later this year and I envisage a scenario where I may want to drive into Malaysia and back to Thailand three or four times in a six-month period and possibly stay in Malaysia up to three months at one time in the period.

Can anyone advise me on possibilities and likely difficulties? Many thanks

As a significant addict, and I'm now working on weight having addressed drugs, gambling and alcohol, I understand these things are all fixes for what some call the hole in the soul, that rather entrenched and burdensome feeling of self-loathing and destructiveness. I think acknowledging the unease in the first place is a huge step forward and with this you can practice recognising it and devising strategies to cope with the immediate situation. I find having something to do really helps, in particular getting out of the house and being with other people. I really need little encouragement to isolate and develop my negatives, it is in fact my default mode, the 'illness' wants us isolated living inside our heads feeling negative and neurotic so that we have to reach for fixes, be it chocolate or crack or whatever. Remember whatever you feel, that in time, this too shall pass; it ain't a permanent state. So learn to sit with the difficult times and be sure they will pass. As with most things it gets easier with practice. Good luck and keep strong!

Sounds quite serious. I wouldn't hesitate to pay a visit to your nearest hospital and get it checked out, especially if you are in BKK or a big city. The fever would concern me as it may indicate a more serious bacterial infection. I'd go now if symptoms are persisting.

This is a great place to live in, a great place to bring up kids if you are a foreigner but the frustration arises from the entrenched corruption. This works well for the locals who have a fine appreciation of how it works but it is challenging for people like me. To me it is really wrong for instance for a teacher to be recruited to a teaching position without the requisite skills and then to keep their position by virtue of making a monthly payment to the boss. Everyone it appears is working an angle and it appears that any form of status is used for one's personal advantage - this seems to be the expectation. The locals, it seems, would only be surprised if plod, for instance, wasn't on the take. Add in the lack of a free press - this really means there are serious restrictions about what can be reported and if nothing else it means much more cautious media.

But look on the bright side: I don't think anyone will die of hunger today in Thailand. Health care of some sort is available to most people. There is universal schooling, which is hugely problematic and is crying out for fundamental reform. At present this system works well in teaching children to learn how it works in the current state of crookery but it is a mirror of the wider society and can't actually change until there is a shift in the wider society's values.

Roads are inherently dangerous here but that is because of human factors: driving standards and design. But as a general rule the main roads with a few notable exceptions are good and fast. Public transportation is in general excellent and cheap, albeit dangerous because of these human factors. In many parts of the developed world local transport save for private cars is a thing of the past.

If you really want to see how developed Thailand is take a trip to Aranyaprathet and cross the border into Cambodia - it goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, you leave Thailand and walk past the manicured country club neatness of the big casinos in no man's land and then you hit Cambodia and once you are through that gate it is filth and squalor; it seems as if you have crossed a continent not a border.

So Thailand has its fair share of problems but in comparative terms it is not such a bad place to live in.

Agreed the real problems for this person will be in the Philippines. I don't think they can refuse her a passport if she can produce the documentation; however getting the documentation like birth certificates can be a problem. The real problem will be clearing immigration at the airport. They have the power to stop someone leaving if they believe they are in anyway vulnerable to 'trafficking' or 'slavery' or 'exploitation' and they use very wide definitions of these terms. Getting a passport doesn't actually mean she can travel. And I know some people who got stopped from leaving because their ostensible reason was to attend a wedding in Thailand but the immigration authorities discovered they were carrying their academic credentials with them and took the view the real reason for their visit was economic; they were stopped because the authorities would only let them go in this situation with a job offer.

First child, a boy, came when I was aged 50, number two a wee girl came at 53. Both born here. I think not having the experience of being their father would have been the greatest regret in my life had I died childless. Mum is a great woman, a great wife and a great mother - helps enormously. I am a much more sorted guy these days so it was a good age for me. I cleaned up my act before I had kids and by virtue of this I am able to enjoy the experience of wing a dad much more. It's a much harder deal however for my wife - the kids make huge demands of her in a way they just don't with me. But it's a joy to watch their interaction and I think dads become more important as children grow and become more independent. WHatever I still feel very close and important to my kids.

If you have will power you can do it. I stopped overnight (literally) 32 years ago and although the first couple of months were hard I didnt touch a drink. Have not drank since then and I feel great for it

Unless you are alcoholic, where willpower is of absolutely no use at all.

Hmmm...can you elaborate on that. Thanks.

Admitting powerlessness over alcohol is AA's approach. "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives were unmanageable." Step 1. Total surrender. The problem of alcoholism is essentially seen as one of power or a lack of it. The solution is to find a new, better power. As one guy explains, that power can be anything you want, including a bottle of sauce, (Brits will understand this as it is a reference to HP Sauce!), so long as you accept that it is more powerful than you. Which leads us into the God and spirituality debate: in AA terms God can be anything you want as per Step 2: Came to believe that only a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity', that is it, just needs to be acknowledged as being greater than you. On an annual basis failure to understand this this causes thousands of drunks to die needlessly because they think it is a requirement to embrace a Christian God. In these circumstances will-power is considered as something that will kill a lot of alcoholics - AA believes it cannot be done on your own. That is why step one begins with "we" - we need the fellowship of other drunks to recover. But I am no spokesman for AA, I'm just another happy sober drunk grateful to AA…..

An alternative might be to find an after school activity - football, swimming, art, martial arts, music may be available down your way……