Onet Camp?

[nellyp]

Our school is holding a camp, and we have been asked to do 1 hour slots twice a day. The director has stated that he wants the activities to center around O net. The number of students will be about 200-300 per slot with only 1 teacher i.e. myself in the hall.

i have no idea what to base the slot on. I was just going to play any games I wanted, as this was what we were originally told we could do. Now I have no ideas. i have looked up O net on the internet and it just comes up with multi-choice questions.

Has anybody had to do a camp like this before? and if so what did you do?. Also does anybody have any ideas for easy to control activities for so many students bearing in mind that it will only be me in the hall. I was planning on doing a dancing activity, maybe some kind of race, but this looks unsuitable no (and difficult with the large groups).

Cheers

[LecheHombre]

Sounds familiar. If it was me, I'd do exactly what I had originally planned but have some tenuous explanation as to why that particular activity is in support of the requested topic (O-Net for you).

I have done several English camps where I plan on demonstrating Google Earth on a projector (this doesn't directly apply to you since it wouldn't work well in a big hall with 300 students) and then the school comes up with some theme that we are to match 30 minutes before the event takes place. Say, for example, "ASEAN". So, I'd spend my 30 minutes jotting down the ASEAN countries on a piece of scratch paper, and then make sure to briefly mention each one in the Google Earth demo I had already planned.

As for large assembly hall type activities, I've usually done relay races of some kind. Ping-pong balls on a chinese soup spoon being passed down a line, international greetings where everybody has to shake hands with the person behind them (USA/England), then bear hug (Russia), bow (Japan), salute (military), etc. Monitoring that as the only teacher in a hall with 300 students may prove impossible though.

Whatever you decide on, prepare some 50/50 tenuous/BS "link" between the activity and the O-Net material, general standardized test taking practice, or whatever. Just something that you can smile, nod, and suggest as justification if you are asked -- 90% you won't be.

Just my 2 cents based on 5 years here in 2 different schools, I'm sure some folks with more experience than me have better ideas.

[aidenai]

O-NET stands for The Ordinary National Education Test. So, your station should involve at least the subjects Thai, mathematics, science, English and social science.

[LecheHombre]

^ Probably much better advice than mine. However, getting anything meaningful done in a hall of 300 students with no additional teachers is not a prospect that I envy...

[Somtamnication]

Having seen the Onet M3 practice test, trust me, do the easy easy stuff. So basic, you will die laughing. One has a graphic of 4 birds. Question: How many birds do you see? The obvious a b c d multiple choice.

[Ijustwannateach]

Anyone who sets up a big student camp in groups of 100's is expecting one and only one thing: $$$. Bums on seats. It really doesn't matter what you do as long as it is plausibly educational and they don't riot. Think of his instructions as a fantasy or wishful thinking and then do whatever you can think of that will work. Most of the time that's what they expect anyway. If they want to micromanage (and keep rejecting your ideas) the best response is to say something like, 'ok, I've given you an idea, you didn't like it, your turn to think of one'. Most of the smarter ones will back off at this point. Otherwise, you punish them by doing exactly what they suggest- which will almost never be suitable- and have your own activity as a working backup.

[sirchai]

You should have mentioned if it’s a primary or high school, but in the end it comes down to the same problems.

The reason why they were telling you to do so is that the O-net test results all over the country have dropped down immensely in the last three years. O-net tests for Prathom five and six will come up end of February.

Please feel free to page me and I’ll try to help you out. Cheers- M.

Edited February 1, 2012 by sirchai

[nellyp]

You should have mentioned if it’s a primary or high school, but in the end it comes down to the same problems.

The reason why they were telling you to do so is that the O-net test results all over the country have dropped down immensely in the last three years. O-net tests for Prathom five and six will come up end of February.

Please feel free to page me and I’ll try to help you out. Cheers- M.

The classes were M3 and M6. It was finally decided that we should just play games as a break from their course work. It was a lot of kids to organise and thank God that my wife came to help. There were lots of Thai teachers sitting around but apparently doing nothing. Even the Thai teacher brought in to do the ONET stuff was left to his own devices. To be honest I would do this every weekend as the money was good and it turned out to be just over an hour a day. The most difficult thing was organising the kids to play the games as they could not understand my English or my wife's Thai (and she is Thai)

Thanks all

[sirchai]

You should have mentioned if it’s a primary or high school, but in the end it comes down to the same problems.

The reason why they were telling you to do so is that the O-net test results all over the country have dropped down immensely in the last three years. O-net tests for Prathom five and six will come up end of February.

Please feel free to page me and I’ll try to help you out. Cheers- M.

The classes were M3 and M6. It was finally decided that we should just play games as a break from their course work. It was a lot of kids to organise and thank God that my wife came to help. There were lots of Thai teachers sitting around but apparently doing nothing. Even the Thai teacher brought in to do the ONET stuff was left to his own devices. To be honest I would do this every weekend as the money was good and it turned out to be just over an hour a day. The most difficult thing was organising the kids to play the games as they could not understand my English or my wife's Thai (and she is Thai)

Thanks all

Sounds pretty much familiar to me! We just had to organize an "ASEAN English Camp" at a primary school on just two days.2,000 kids made it to hard work, but we could make it happen. Topics like " Interesting places", "common phrases" and other nonsense for kids who can hardly say their name.

I had 39 Thais assigned to my station, but none was helping me out. It's more interesting to talk about the difference between "Somtham" Laos and Thai style.

Would be nice if the Thai English teachers could answer the O-net test questions...........

Edited February 2, 2012 by sirchai