The
Teacher’s Diary

The Teacher’s Diary produced in
2014 by the great director, Nithiwat Tharathorn is one of the impressive,
inspiring and heartwarming teaching film. The story is about the two lonely
teachers which is a male and the other one is the female teacher. The two
strangers were assigned at the same rural school where there was just few
numbers of students who study at the school. Although both of the teachers are
a year apart, they share the similarity by walked the same path teaching the
rural area students in a remote floating houseboat school. Their journey of taking
the responsibility to carry out their duties becomes more challenging with no
basic needs such as the electricity, phone service, or the internet for the communication
purposes.

            The
female teacher who being assigned first to teach seven students at the floating
houseboat school attempted to write her thoughts and all the things that she
experienced thick and thin throughout her journey as a teacher on a diary.
Later, she left the diary at the floating houseboat school when she got
transferred to another school that has far better school background and large
number of students than the rural school she taught before.

The diary then discovered by the
new male teacher whose being assigned to teach at the floating houseboat school
after the female teacher left. The ambitious inside the new young man to enter
the education field has lead him to apply the teaching position without ever
imagine and knowing the place that he will be put by the principal. Things
become difficult for him once he started his life to be a teacher at the
school. Day by day everything went wrong although he just need to handle four
students but with different grade for each of them. He realized himself the
pain that he needs to face in carrying his duties as a teacher.

The diary left behind by the female
teacher changed everything in him. He becomes excited to continue what he
chooses to be by the guidance from the female teacher written in the diary. Surprise
by surprise comes to challenge him and his patience makes him stronger to bear
with by putting the fears aside. Every single thing that he needs to deal
together with the children improves day by day until they are able to adapt
with each other and also with the situation. The diary that he hold-on kept him
stronger with the passion of being a teacher. Although both of the teachers are
different, but they share the same ideals towards teaching the young.

 

In the story, the main character
for the film was the two teachers which is the male teacher and the female
teacher. The character of a male teacher name Song performed by the actor
Sukrit Wisetkaew. Song plays the character of a young man which is the former
wrestler who wants to become a teacher. Thus, he is applying the position in
teaching field. Song is not really good in teaching but he still willing to be
sent in the house boat branch of the school as a teaching substitute although
he never imagine the real environment of the school. He also has a good heart
and diligent in the job.

The actor Chermarn Boonyasak lead
the female teacher character name Ann who become as favourite teacher and loved
by the students because of her sincerity and passionate to teach and to be with
them days and night over the week before they returned to their home at
weekend. She is the owner of the diary. Ann is smarter, braver and skilled
compared to Song. She is a passionate, spirited and dedicated educator who
favours an interactive approach to teaching instead of rote memorisation.

There are also the other additional
characters whose contribute towards the complete and succeed of the storyline
in this film. For example, Nui which is Ann’s boyfriend which is also a teacher
that has different view of teaching approach compared to Ann thus lead the
conflict between their relationships. The other characters are the kids whose
become the students in the floating houseboat school such as Muek, Tong, Tuna,
Gao, Chon, including the headmaster who assigned both the teachers at the
houseboat school and also the community of the rural and main school area.

Teacher’s Diary movie is filmed at
four main setting places which are the floating boat school, main school,
Song’s apartment and also the principal’s office. Based on this story, the
floating school is real. It is called “Bann Ko Jatson School (Floating
Classroom Branch)” where it founds at Li District, Lamphun Province in Northern
of Thailand but not at the same place as the setting scene. The setting scene
of the floating boat school is at Kang Ka Jan Natural Park in Phetchaburi
Province.

The real fact about this film is
the story created by the inspiration of the two unrelated true stories. For
example, the ideas of the diary come from the true story of a lady who found
the diary on her office desk and she tried to find the owner. Finally they met
and got married. While for the other story is about the teacher in a houseboat
school in Chiang Mai.

The main message that I got from
this movie is about the inspirational teachers who work with their full heart
although there is lack of facilities provided due to the limited infrastructure
and social constraint that exist. From the story, scene clearly showed where
Ann and her friend, Gigi transferred to the floating houseboat school they
started to lost connection with world outside since there is no telephone or
internet service. For over the week, they need to stay with the students in
having the formal and informal education. They teach the students in the
classes during the day, then cooking, swimming, do the other things after the
class hour then slept with the students during the night. Until the weekend
come, then they will go to their home. The cycle goes for every week until they
finish the study for the year.   

State with no
electricity, telephone or internet service, one of the teachers turned out to
keep a diary picture, mind and frustration poured into it. Ann writes every
single thing happen at the houseboat school in her diary. It is important for
her to note the things in order for her to find the solution for the problems.
Luckily Ann is very smart, brave and skilled woman. She is able to bear and
facing the fear of her students and herself. For example, when they found the
dead body floating under the toilet that they use every day, Ann wear the
safety life jacket and swim into the water to pull the dead body before the
help from the other people come.

For every
circumstance that we need to face, there must be the goods and the bad. But
things does not going very well for the young teacher. Gigi give up with the
uncomfortable environment of the school thus lead her to leave the school. Ann
feel frustrated with the decision made by Gigi who is easily give up, however
she still refuses to leave the school and the kids at the houseboat school.

This story also
teaches us to be creative in desperate situation. The sincerity and ability of
Ann to adapt with the environment and the students has encourage Song, the
substitute teacher to be on the track and use his own creativity besides follow
the things done by Ann in order to attract the attention from the students. It
is not only just refers to his struggle to adapt with the life at the place but
also in term of his method and approaches to teach the students.   

The important
parts that make the movie interesting to be seen is the dedication showed by
the teacher in education, about caring, compassion and the patience of the
teacher to make the students succeed. As the example, Ann shows her caring
attitudes towards the students when she tried hard to persuade Chon who is
giving up in study because he thinks education is not important for him. Same
goes to Song who willing to do anything with the father to ensure Chon get back
to learn at the school. Later, his effort works well on the family. As for the
character of father to Chon, he shows the negative side where he discourage his
son to learn at the school because he think no matter how much knowledge Chon
will able to gain later he just will be a fisherman like him.

As for the
dedication part shows by the teacher is where Song tried his best by put lot of
efforts by himself to teach mathematics although he is really bad at the
subject. However, as for our education system, the decision of placing someone
who is not master in the subject will affect the students’ performance with the
wrong knowledge delivered to the students. Rohaty (n.d) state that people who
are chosen to be in teaching field must be the high quality teacher where they
must be graduates so that they can be seen as reliable and knowledgeable. It is
also important to upgrade the teacher professionalism so that they will understand
their responsibility well. The needs of have the graduated teacher because
teacher who are not mastery the subject well will need more times to master and
correct the delivery of the knowledge hence teacher might not be able to finish
the syllabus as set by our course syllabus.

The other things
that should be improved by teachers nowadays is shows by the scene of Ann using
her different approach to teach her students at the main school where she use
the authentic learning outside the classroom rather than only learn the theory
in the class to make her students understand the concept of buoyancy of water
in the swimming pool. The same effort shows by Song where he excites the
students with the floating train in learning about the distance. The different
approaches of teaching that is not dangerous towards the students should be
applied by teachers that suit the syllabus contents. Teachers can diversify
their method of teaching which can attract the attention from the students to
learn. However, the method use by Ann is banned by Ms. Phut, teacher at the
school who cannot accept the changes bring by Ann. The different approach in
teaching is necessary for the students to explore and experience the situation
of what they learned through the theory. It helps students for their social
development and also in their understanding towards the knowledge since the
experiences brings both short term and long term rewards (Rohaty, n.d).

Besides, the
message that brings to us from this story is lack of concern from the
responsible party towards the special school. Although they sent the teacher at
the houseboat school, however they did not provide the basic needs for the
teacher and students to make the environment comfortable to them. As the
example, when there is storm that causes the damage of the houseboat school,
there is no one coming to check on the houseboat school. Thus, the school only
repaired by Song and his students without any helps. This is such an
irresponsible matter as the children also have the right to have the
comfortable environment to study. In Malaysia, the school from the rural area
are listed among the top priority for their education such as the indigenous
school in Baram, Sarawak (Stephen, 2015). About RM2bil was asking to the
Federal Government by the representatives from Local Barisan Nasional for the
development and improvement of the infrastructure and also facilities needed
for the school. It is included the centralised schools, boarding facilities
also the basic infrastructure such as roads including water and electricity.
The facilities is important to reduce the dwindling of the school drop outs because
parents do not concern much about the education of their children.

As a person, I
learned a lot from the film either from the positive or negative side of the
messages from the story. First, the story is not just about the story of role
as a teacher. It also portrays the self-motivation also the courage that the
person has. The messages come as the story line is not focusing only on how to
teach the students, but it teach us on how to be a part of student thus do
anything to help a student even we must deal with bad conditions. The most
creative ways will be come out as we are in the desperate situation. Patience
is the most important things that should have by the teacher when they are
dealing with the students.

When I watched
this movie, I ponder myself on how I will act, communicate and handle the
behaviour of my students in the future. But it gives me some ideas if I had to
face the situation such the story. As for me, the school environment should not
be a problem to the teacher. Teachers should try their best ways to adapt with
the environment if they are placing in the situation that they never expect to
be. The spirit and passionate towards teaching is a matter that should be owned
by teachers. In our country, there exist the schools where there is still lack
of facilities to reach the standards of expectation of our education system. For
example, there is no road links from the home to the school at one of the
indigenous school in Sarawak. Therefore, parents need to use the boat across
the river to send their children to the school. It is dangerous way to use
especially when it is the monsoon season. However, the situation is not as poor
as the story.

In term of
teaching matter, I think that I will use different approaches that suit the
ability of my future students to study and gain the knowledge. First impression
is very important for every teacher so that students will not judge and have
negative thought about the teacher. Besides, teacher also needs to explore and
approach the students in order to understand them so teacher will able to
identify the best ways to handle the students. A teacher needs to sacrifice and
do many things in order to ensure that the students able to follow the lead for
their success in the future not only in education but also in their life.

School rules and
regulations are important to ensure the management of the school are in
control. As a teacher, good attitudes should be keep in each person as teacher
will be the role models in front of the students and will be the images of the
school. Students believe that teacher is one of the persons they can trust and
follow in every single action, decision and also the behaviour. As for them,
teacher knows everything and can be the good role model for them.

Last but not
least, the story also gives me the lesson where we should not carry the
personal problem as the reason of put away our responsibility as a teacher.
Thus, there is necessity to handle the problem wisely. As the conclusion, this
is an amazing story that should be watched by the teachers outside. This is
very inspirational story to motivate us as an educator to educate the
challenging young generation in our country.