Job Discussion Forums

[Artie]

Hi everybody,
I believe that in every class you can find at least one slacker who tries to challenge the teacher's authority in the class. And i think it might be interesting and helpful if we could share some experience on this matter.
In my case I have had some problems in my classes but in most cases I get chinese english teachers to deal with them, because i am sick of hearing their chinese "wo tsing bu dong".

How do you deal with such problems?

[Roger]

Today I walked out of an unruly class in a kindergarten because their own teacher was totally unco-operative.
Here i8s what had happened:
While I was busy drawing cases on the blackboard and asking individual pupils to fill them with letters to form words and later a phrase, the kids began speaking among themselves with their teacher passively looking on.
I said about five times "Quiet!" within five minutes, then I told her in no uncertain terms it was her job to maintain classroom discipline. To no avail. FInally she told me "I think they find this dull!"
I think SHE found it dull, but no matter whether this was right or wrong, I hold she has to keep her own kids glued to the work in progress. This she was unwilling to do, so after two thirds of the lesson, and only perhaps half of the job done, I walked out!
The main problem is that if my CHinese assistant/teacher/colleague does not take my input seriously her own learners will not take my teaching seriously! And if they do not take it seriously, I can't perform!
In the two other classes this morning I had reasonable and even very high success respectively!
Point is that some teachers are so set in their time-worn habits that they cannot relate to a new approach. You get condemned by them for not being like them - a talking machine!

[wOZfromOZ]

Sunaru

Mate
You're going to make a lot of good buddies from the students you teach in your teaching life. There's nothing more satisfying than having some 5star little *beep* come up to you in the street 10 years on, buy you a beer and proceed to vindicate all your tyrannies as a teacher. Sometimes their memories need a little refinement. Your story was an exact recollection of my first 8-10 years of teaching but be prepared for the fact that, long term, you're gunna burn out mate.

Keep up the good work. It a pleasure to see there are some real teachers
with good discipline standards coming from the US of A. My god, that's what this country needs - not some ramshackle bullsh.it research project about Krachens theories which is doomed to failure from the start!

wOZfromOZ

[Kurochan]

For college-age kids, assign the disruptive ones extra work. I had one kid write a 250-word essay on the origin and use of the term wiseacre. He straightened up. I heard through the grapevine that he has really good things to say about me as a teacher. I think it's related to my not taking his BS.

[MyTurnNow]

Roger hit upon an undersung topic- the Chinese teacher, whether it be the usual teacher in a public school or the "Teaching Assistant" (a term I really hate) in a private academy.

They can really make the difference between a great class and a disaster, especially when kids are involved. A good one is completely indispensible to the class and can work magic with keeping the students in line. They have the decency to address their concerns and comments outside of class. Will discreetly make constructive comments or suggestions, and are often as good or better at this teaching game than we are. If you get one of these, treasure them. Take 'em to lunch. Oh, hell, just go ahead and give 'em a big ol' snuggly-huggly.

A bad one, like the one Roger seems to have drawn, is a millstone around your neck. Even less interested in the class than your students...a contagious condition. Can't teach their way out of a paper bag and totally uninterested in changing that. Will defy, challenge, or ridicule you constantly in class. If you get one of these whine and moan until they are corrected or replaced, or demand to be sent to a class with a different teacher...and hope the teacher you hate isn't the school owner's barber's uncle's best friend's neighbor's cousin's niece.

MT

[Roger]

Thanks, MyTUrnNOw, for seeing things eye to eye with me. I must say, kids are different from adults, and I doubt that Chinese adults know what their kids like to do or need to do. In fact, in most of my kindergarten classes, the five-year olds have acquired a lot more English in 8 months from me than their classroom teachers have (who always are present when I teach). SOme are really helpful as you said. Others are a nuisance - making private phone calls during the lesson (we have an in-house telephone system), or chatter loudly with colleagues.
BUt I am a special case - few of you out there are working in a kindergarten. Let me say I enjoy this type of school a lot better than teaching at middle schools where kids can be a challenge too - talking among themselves during the lesson, not paying attention, looking shell-shocked when you point to one of them to say he or she should answer you, etc.
Basically, I find that we have a disadvantage - we only see the same students once or twice a week, and that's just not enough for them to grow used to you. If you see them every day, as I do in another kindergarten where I teach afternoons, your rapport with them is a lot better.