My name is James (Mac) McLauchlan, Jr. This letter an inquiry into a job as an English teacher in Thailand or Japan. I would entertain offers to teach in other Southeast Asian countries. For most of the past five years I have dedicated my life to teaching primary school children in Thailand. In 2012 I taught at a small weekend school a friend of mine in Chiang Mai started for some neighborhood children. In 2013 I spent five months running this weekend school. It wasn’t really a school; ten or twelve children would come to my guest house on Saturday and Sunday mornings and we would have class in a common area. After our two hour lesson, we would feed the children lunch. This was volunteer work, but it helped prepare me for teaching in a real school.

I have been employed by the Language Institute at Chiang Mai University since January 2014. I was hired to be part of the Lamphun Project, which was designed to get native speaking English teachers into the rural areas of Lamphun Province. I spent the past three and a half years, living and working in the Thung Hua Chang District. The Lamphun Project is being terminated at the end of September 2017. I am sad that the project is ending because I love these children and they have made great progress since I began teaching here. My life is now dedicated to teaching English.

For two years I taught at all 18 primary schools in the district. I taught at two schools each day. Last year I taught at ten schools and this term I teach at five schools. Many of the schools were very small and some of them dropped out of the project because of scheduling or budget problems. Most of my time was spent teaching grades four, five and six, but I have spent a considerable amount of time teaching grades two and three. I designed my own curriculum based on how much English my students knew to begin with. This was a challenging task because the skill level of my students varied from school to school and class to class. I have created many worksheets for my students to help them read, write and understand English.

I am very organized and have a good reputation at the schools in the Thung Hua Chang District. My age seems to be a factor with some schools, but I think, with age comes wisdom. I was always the oldest teacher at the schools in the Thung Hua Chang District and it was not a problem. The students love Teacher Mac and look forward to the days I come to teach. The teachers in this district and my employer, will tell you how much I love teaching these children. I hate to leave my students, but the government of Lamphun Province has decided to end the project.

Regards,

James (Mac) McLauchlan, Jr.