Job Discussion Forums

tvik · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 371 Location: here

is it possible to be friendly and reasonable with kids who hate school??

tekirdag · Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 505

Yes. If you are on prozac...

tvik · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 371 Location: here

i'm beginning to find out that dropping the hammer on these kids is sometimes the only way to get the class quite... i always hated teachers who did that and now i've become like that.... am i living in a mirror universe now??

tekirdag · Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 505

I'll add... I taught kids in Turkey at a private school a year ago and for a few months last winter at a language course. Very few of the kids came from really rich families at the private school and non of those at the language school were rich, I think.

The behaviour, however, of most of the kids I taught was TERRIBLE. I blamed myself of course and spied on the Turkish teachers while in their lessons to see if I could learn how to do it better . Many of the teachers let the kids do pretty much what they wanted. Kids wandered around, turned in their seats, went where they wanted, shouted, talked... you get the picture.

Can't speak for all teachers and schools in Turkey but where I worked they really didn't have any any discipline.

I wouldn't work at a Turkish private school again for ANY amount of money... well, maybe 10 000 lira a month then I'd hire a big tough body guard guy to go to all my lessons with me. Laughing

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

In my wife's former high school here, they had a guy who the teachers could send naughty students to ... he'd give them a good clout ... so good in fact that they sometimes used to return to class winded .. it kept them pretty quiet for the next few days ...

Would make for an interesting research paper ..

yaramaz · Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:10 pm Post subject:

In my old lise, for one particular class (17 fifteen year old mafia boys and three scared girls who I saw only 4 hours a week, thank god), the deputy headmaster (also head gym coach and all around big, scary guy) offered to stand at the door outside my class and if I gave the signal, he'd come in and kick ass immediately. And he did. Often. And bone jarringly. And it was great, actually, because after a while the kids assumed he was always going to be there and so reduced their deviant ways (I should note that this class was famed for breaking the tops off desks and hitting each other with the sharp bits, spitting on me, lighting things on fire, smacking the girls around. A real bunch of charmers)

tekirdag · Joined: 13 Jul 2005 Posts: 505

mongrelcat · Joined: 12 Mar 2004 Posts: 232

i'm in a private school and i actually like it.

Yes many of the kids are beastly, but put 20 7 year olds together in one room for 8 hours and that's what you get.

(i teach primary)

i know that Lise is different though. I haven't taught the older ones and I don't think i would. I think the main problem with these private kids is that they learn from a VERY young age that they don't understand the native speaker, and the native speaker doesn't understand them. So they learn to ignore you. By the time they get to the next grade, and the next, etc. they've got this subconscıous voice telling them "you don't have to pay attention to the English teacher, and you can do what you want, because there are NO CONSEQUENCES!"

discipline and consequences are 4 letter words in private schools. Anywhere in the world.

But i really do like teaching the young children.

almuze · Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 125

yeah! impressionable young children who really enjoy using scissors with rounded edges! ah, a day in the life... Smile

but for those of you stuck in private school lise hell, I would agree, I have only seen out of control classes either controlled by brute force (yaramaz's example) or, the other age old profession, sex.

It seems that the teachers who wear really really tight sweaters and carry big yard sticks and teach english using MTV/TRL lyrics usually have some (a little itty bit) of control in thier classes. I think it must be the whole "hot for teacher" thing that Van Halen tapped in to...but who knows.
Lise, best avioded, IMHO.

saloma · Joined: 07 Jul 2005 Posts: 211

The DOS of my school in Taiwan was great. She had one degree in Psychology and one in Education. Problem kids were sent to her and I watched as she psychologically tortured them.

Sometimes she just looked at them until they cried. At other times she would batter them down with logic. Sometimes she would bring in the shame their parents would feel if they learned of the behavior. (Did you parents teach you it's ok to smack other student's with a desk?)

The best was this one time with 3 gangster type boys in their teens. She had the each write a letter to their parent's detailing all the crap they did in class. They signed it and dated it. She put the letters in the top drawer of a filing cabinet and said if they ever got sent down to the office, the letters would be given to their parents. Just knowing the letters were there made them behave better. They never caused problems again.

Then again, Asians have that whole "face" thing going on. It's easy to work the guilt.

tvik · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 371 Location: here

the thing is.... i was a shit in school when i was in high school. i was good to the teachers i liked and i tortured the rest. i always figured that there was some kind of trick one could use to gain the respect of the students. i always considered intelligence to be more admirable than brute strength and the integrity of the mind captured my interest where teachers who simply threatened you i always tried to challenge and make fools out of them. the problem is that these kids don't speak enough english for me to communicate with them on a higher level....
so that leaves only the first option.
its either me or them....
and it's not going to be me who loses this battle

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 5:35 am Post subject:

The kids I taught in the lise mostly couldn't give a rat's ass about saving face or what their parents thought. THe parents didnt seem to care either. They either reacted negatively towards the teacher for not successfully controlling the kids or else they justified the behavior by saying that they paid the tuition fees and anything that happens between signing the cheque and graduation is none of their business.

One note however: this seemed to apply to the naughty kids rather than to the kids who worked hard and were pleasant. Maybe it's a family thing to be rude and negligent.

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

To give you another taster of students and families here ... it was reported in the Gulf News that an Egyptian student hit her teacher during an exam after the teacher had caught her cheating .. the concerned parents came rushing down to school ... to bash the teacher !!!

That's parenting for you ... geri zekalilar ... the UK has its fair share of such cretins too mind you ...