Back in Bangkok

I have been meaning to put up photos I took at the Kings Park several months ago. In the light of Thailand's government / legal system revealing principles of free speech that Mao would be proud of, I have opted to self censor - a bit lame really but easy to rationalise. If the Thai's want their govt. run that way... and probably a majority do... it's their prerogative
I have a lot of sympathy with Harry Nicolaides ...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-trouble-with-harry-20081121-6e4z.html
(again the hyperlink function seems not to be working)

School is back to usual. I have been showing a BBC docu drama on Cortes. The topics I opt to teach tend to reflect whatever selection is available in the BBC docudrama section at the video shop at the Mall.

My mini-joy of the week has been in one of my year 11 classes. I teach 2 brothers - not twins - but somehow they ended up in the same class. I hardly saw them in first term - such was their level of absenteeism. They have only missed 2 days this term (out of 8) and they have been at school for the past 5 consecutive days. It is a first. They liked watching the DVD and have actually stayed after class to finish copying notes and vocab from the board... I can't say it's because of history they are coming to school - but I made a pact with them at the beginning of the term, if they came to class, handed in all their work and did the exam to the best of their ability (only worth 35% of the total), that I was very confident they would both be able to get Cs. (As opposed to Fs)

They have yet to have a task to hand in, but I am hopeful they will... which in itself will be an improvement on last term. At the very least I hope that they stop writing themselves off as too stupid for school.