Meet the New Teacher: Anna Caswell
Anna Caswell is the new Year 5 class teacher.
Year 5 Class Teacher
Bangkok Patana School is her first international position. Having grown up in the country, she is looking forward to learning more about Thailand and working in an international school.
“I grew up in Somerset, I met my partner at the University of Warwick, we were in the same university halls. Then we lived in Coventry before ending up in Oxford teaching. This is my first international posting – what a big change!”
“What drew me to international teaching was the adventure and challenge of living overseas. I could quite comfortably teach in England but I wanted to see more of the world and see what other schools were like, have a bit of a personal challenge.”
“My first impression was when I arrived at Bangkok Patana was simply, “Wow!” I was so impressed with the amazing facilities and how friendly everyone was. It was such a challenge to get here in the first place, so when I arrived it was wonderful to see everyone was smiling and made us feel at home. I come from a country background, I’ve never lived in a city, so having all the greenery around me is really nice.”
Journey to Patana
“We started researching international schools once we decided to make the change. I hadn’t heard of Patana before looking to teach internationally but as soon as we researched excellent international schools in Asia it stood out for us as being a top school. Originally, we knew we wanted to teach in Asia, so we narrowed it down and realized Bangkok Patana was a school we want to teach at.”
“I am really looking forward to knowing the Year 5 students well, I know my kids well but collaborating with other classes for drama and games, so I am learning to know the other students in Year 5 also. I am really looking forward to our Residential Trip to Khao Yai. I also think I can bring my previous experience to the team; I am looking forward to feeling settled in school and like I can grow.”
The Year Ahead
“I am excited about learning how to use the amazing resources to the best of our abilities. Mr Glenn is training me alongside the children with the new iPad and iPencils. It is going to be really interesting planning the lessons around all the technology and resources, including the maths resources like the numicons. There is so much I can use here, and I am really excited to plan that in and make it interesting and exciting for the children. I taught a D+T lesson and taking them up to the D+T room was amazing; the rooms and resources here are wonderful. It is great that the students have their own committed D+T room so kids can be safe.”
“At the moment I really like swimming, getting used to the heat and humidity in Thailand is a challenge and swimming is great exercise to deal with that. I play the flute and I play the piano. I am hoping to use the flute that for an ECA or my own hobbies. I like singing as well, I am hoping to join a choir. I would love to join the choir here. I was hoping to get involved in the productions somewhat, but they are on hold.”
