What is your worst nightmare as a teacher?
Mine would be something dangerous and life threatening happening to one of my students. My SECOND worst nightmare is the class losing their minds and me having no control whatsoever and achieving nothing. It happened today with all but my last class... There was something dodgy in their milk this morning I swear.
Grade 4
First up this morning was grade 4. I go into the room at the normal time and set everything up and wait for Co. And wait. And wait. In the meantime the kids have arrived and are asking me where he is, and I am just saying I have no idea. So they start slowly working up to a volume similar to that of a Metallica concert. I have no way to calm them down, I have tried yelling and everything but nothing is working so I quickly scan YouTube and put a Pixar Short on (these save my bacon, i'm fucked when I run out of Pixar Shorts). They are quiet for long enough to get their attention to the text and to start the lesson. The peace lasts approx 5 minutes before they are wild again. I am over it and I sit down at the desk. They all just fool around for a bit then I snap. I do my best "YA" and they all freak out and stop - and I start pulling boys up the front of the class and making them sit and face the wall. It works, we finish the lesson in relative quiet.
The next grade 4 class comes in. Still no Co, but at least I am prepared this time. They all ask where he is, and the noise level starts to increase as they all catch on that I am teaching along. But I am ready. I stand in front of them all and say "GAME" at the top of my lungs. They all cheer! And then get quiet while I try and explain what to do. They all line up as asked, but are so feral that it takes nearly 5 minutes for the boys and girls to form separate lines. And I am asking them in Korean and they still aren't doing it. I crack it for the second time today.
"YA"
They all stop. I say:
"You ruined the game, everyone sit"
And as they sit, chaos ensures. They start swearing in both English and Korean. I start pulling kids up the front again, even a girl this time. They are reasonably quiet while we do some "Listen and Repeat" before one of the boys at the front is poking the kid next to him. I send him outside the classroom, and the rest of the class is cheering - I don't know if they cheer for me or for him. And this is what happens for the rest of the lesson. At the end of the class there are 4 boys outside fooling around and 6 kids sitting up the front. This strategy is no longer feasible... But that's the last grade 4 class for the day. Grade 3 will be better, right?
Grade 3
When they came in my throat was already aw from freaking grade 4, and I had resigned myself to the fact that Co wasn't coming. I was certainly wondering why he didn't tell me he wasn't coming in but had no time to worry. I played some retarded "Days of the Week" song and they all sang which was nice. Then got into the lesson just fine, and then it got to the game time... The text book games are always lame but this one could have been fun... could have been fun...
They just wouldn't line up properly. My little helper (a girl with decent English - her mother is Russian) tried to help but she also got frustrated. She cried. Another gild was upset becuase her pencil case broke and her pencils went everywhere. There was no control. Quick - put on the Pixar Short (for everyone who is interested, today's saving video was Partly Cloudy) and the lesson was over.
The next class was worse. I witnessed the worst bullying I have seen since arriving in Korea. This little girl is a bit strange, she clearly has autism or something, and it forever grinning to herself and making a ruccous. My Co says its ADHD, but I think its def a form of Autism.
Side note -
Many teachers in Korea throw ADHD around a lot - any kid with a behavior problem is said to have ADD. My Co is not one of these people... He thinks that most kids these days simply need a good smack on the head or the back of the leg - and I think in some cases he might be right (I DO NOT condone hitting kids... What I mean is that dicipline starts in the home and parents need to spend a bit more time with their kids). Anyway, for him to say that a kid has ADD then I would be inclined to agree with him. Not in this girls case.
Anyway, the other kids were awful to her. They wouldn't let her be in any of their teams, and pushed her around. They punched her, and one boy spat on her. By this stage I was beside myself... In the end I had her come and sit on the floor in front of me, mainly to keep the other kids off her. They were like a wild mob - of 3rd grade kids. It was so awful. I had another bout of screaming at them all in English, so they had no idea what I was saying but they knew I was mad. And they knew I was seriously unimpressed with how they were treating the little girl, but they didn't understand why.
"But she is crazy, Bonnie" one other girl told me.
"That is no reason to hit her" I replied, but they had no idea what I was saying.
And the boy who spat? I will admit it. I grabbed him by the arm and led him out the classroom. He stayed outside. That silenced everyone pretty damn quickly. I was furious but I had lost control of the class and they were all just being ultra rowdy So back came the video... I was angry at myself too, because its like I have rewarded them for their bad behavior Thank God the bell went and they went to lunch and I was left to lick my wounds.
After lunch I had the final grade 3 class. I was ready. Co was not there, so I was not going to teach the book. They needed something a bit different I had found a cute video called Getting Round, and had decided that we would do shapes and colours. I didn't give a shit if they already knew it - it could be a revision lesson.
They sang their normal annoying song and then we watched the video. We talked briefly about shapes and colours then watched it again. Then we all drew our own "shape worlds" and added a "problem" to it (for example, in the square world, the wheels on the car were also square - it was a "problem"). We compared each others pictures and laughed at the "problems". At the end I showed them the same movie all the others had seen, but this time it was a reward not a distraction. And at the end of the class they all got up nicely and thanked me and left. It was perfect.
So what is the moral of this story???
To be prepared for your classes. I was practically assaulted by kids today - they completely owned me all morning, and I already know now it is gonna be difficult for me to get the control back. They took advantage of the fact that I don't speak Korean and that Co was not there. I was simply not prepared for class. I knew what lessons they were up to, but knowing my own limitations I should have had back up activities ready just in case things went pear shaped. They had too much energy and not enough to do.
From this I have learnt that I need to prepare better. I can't always rely on Co to show up - this is the downside of him trusting me to teach. He simply doesn't turn up. I never know if he will be there or not. So, I need to prepare different random lessons for different grades on the off chance that he isnt there. I need to have spare worksheets to fill time at the end of classes. I need to find more funny/interesting/cure shorts for them to watch. And I need to be more assertive from the start. I am their teacher, so they should listen even if they have no idea what I am saying. I WILL DO BETTER NEXT TIME!
In other news...
I have uploaded another video to YouTube, please check it out if you have a minute. I know I really need to spend a bit more time on the channel, and I really enjoy working on it so stay tuned for more in the future.
I was at Rach and Changsu's wedding on Sunday and it was awesome. The bride looked amazing and the groom very handsome. The food was good and the best part - it was in Pyeongtaek. So hardly any travel! I actually really love Korean weddings, I think I might just have to marry a Korean guy myself so I can have a cool cheesy wedding (and lovely hybrid babies) .
I never found my stuff. I mean, I never actually went back to Hongdae to look for it but I am convinced its gone. Now I just need to get to immigration and get a new ARC... SO ANNOYING. I totally learnt that lesson too...
It has clearly been a big few weeks for personal growth.
Sissy arrives in less than a month so excited!!! And, in case you haven't noticed, I have not talked about North Korea. It's because there is nothing to talk about. We are all fine here (still) so again, please do not be concerned. Stop buying the newspapers and stop watching the news... Every time a new story comes out all it does is scare people living OVERSEAS (not us here) and fuels Mr. Kim's ego. So stahp plz ppl!
Till later or, whatever
xoxoxox
