Job Discussion Forums

[Contradicto87]

Hey y'all. I'm teaching middle schoolers at a private school. Everything is pretty smooth for the most part. I only have one class that I'm requesting help on.

The problem is multiple: lack of interest in English (which is not a voluntary course), lack of interest in school, excesive talking. Your basic bored and nihilist 16 year olds, packed 40 a room.

For their homework, I asked either English names or pin yin to be written on the class roster. 95% chose pin yin (the only class of 19 to do so), probably as a jest to watch me struggle over Chinese names (and take up class time in the process).

However, I can't allow the whole class to go to s*** (as much as I'd like to. Learning should be voluntary, but this is my job, so I've got to play the part). What is your advice? Discipline? Increase in interest of lessons?

I have given one student lines "I will not waste class time" for refusing to say "present" in English when his name was called. I've also threatened to send home letters to their parents, which was met with continued 'whatever'.

The main problem is that their English level is so low, and their interest is also very low. I'd like to play interesting games, which they would probably enjoy, but their level is very beginners (e.g. not knowing which preposition is missing: "I go to school ___ noon on Monday."

[choudoufu]

[Contradicto87]

Let me explain. Of 19 classes, this is the only class that deliberately choose pinyin at a 95% rate. They all knew this, in an effort to watch me struggle over the Chinese and take up class time.

The choosing of pinyin is not a problem in itself. In an unruly class with no interest, it takes on a different character as a gesture of resistence against the boss, me, the teacher.

[Banner41]

Sometimes the school knows the bad students and wrangles them into one class. So, out of 19 classes and 1 is bad you got you are quite lucky.

[choudoufu]

ok. you let them choose, so now you're stuck. you can either
1) deliberately mangle the pronunciations until they beg for english
names, or 2) learn the pronunciations and move on.

take all them characters, copy & paste to google translate. hit
the translate button. at the bottom of the screen, you'll get all
the characters converted to pinyin WITH the tone marks. put
those into the roster. practice.

how is the breakdown boys/girls in that class compared to your
other 18 classes?

[Contradicto87]

Yeah the pinyin isn't a problem. Google translate is my friend. My overall question here is one of motivation vs discipline for 16 year old Chinese kids that dont give a f***.

The class is mostly boys, where as 'generally' my other classes are closer to a 50/50. Of the 43, I'd say 6-8 are girls.

[choudoufu]

okay, then. situation normal. girls like english. boys like to look cool.
there's generally nothing you can do other than write off the class if
you can't change the syllabus.

typical english classes (english majors) i've had here in the uni and votec
school will be 75-80% girls. the girls are interested (could be due to the
incredibly hunky sexy foreign teacher!), do their homework, participate.

the boys typically show up late (or not at all), with sleepy hair in their
2-week old stinky basketball suits. no textbooks, no notebooks, no pens,
no interest, no three no four.

talking with chinese teachers, fao, other staff........they say to simply
ignore them, give them zero's. let them do what they do in their
classes with chinese teachers: sleep, text, fruit ninja.

you'll find some of that is their embarrassment at inability to speak
english. do some in-class writing assignments, graded for their low
level, and you might be surprised.

you gotta run that class a little differently. make it a remedial english
class. do some 'crazy english.' can you move the 6 girls into one of
the other classes?

[Contradicto87]

Per moving the girls: the class structure of this school is Junior 1, Junior 2, Senior 1, Senior 2, Senior 3. Each set has a series of classes to it ranging from 1-6.

Each class then has its respsective schedule. Unfortunately, if the girls were to move to another class, they'd have to swap their schedules. I'm the only foreign teacher here. I don't think they can move without changing their class, which as I understand it is based on test scores.

I might just focus on teaching the girls and give up on the DGAFs, but I didn't want to do that.

Advice from the other teachers is to just make sure they don't sleep, to continue the lesson, and thats that.

[johntpartee]

[muffintop]

[doogsville]

Teaching people who don't want to learn or be there is like pushing water up a hill in any country of culture. Your job is to teach, their job is to learn. You can't do it for them. Teach to the best of your ability and let the rest of it go. Of course you want to do your job well, but the measure of that is not the performance of one student or one class, but the average of all of your classes. If most of your students are passing then you're doing it okay, if most of them are failing then you need to look at what you're doing. By the sounds of it the other 18 classes are doing fine, so you probably are too.[/i]

[NoBillyNO]

put those who wanna learn in front and ignore the rest....just let them know when you come to their future workplace you will want a side order of fries

[kev7161]

When I first came to China to teach, I worked at a "private" school way out in the sticks of Hangzhou. I was given Senior 1, 2, and 3 classes. Senior 3 was easy - - once a week for the first semester only, then they were studying for the big tests.

The first year, I got along well with most of my Senior 1 and 2 students. There were bad eggs in almost each group, but the good outweighed the bad by a long shot. My immediate supervisor and high school teachers all said I was a "good" teacher and the kids seemed to really like coming to my class. I requested and got my own classroom and I would decorate it for holidays and we'd have special occasion parties, learn songs, etc.

Somehow, the second year was a complete opposite. The Senior 3 (formerly Senior 2) classes were about the same - once a week, first semester only. The Senior 2 students had been moved around and suddenly one class was full of students (boys and girls) who didn't want to learn - - late for class, sleeping, etc. Only a few seemed truly interested. It got to a point where I told them I would just show videos from now on. Eventually they decided they'd rather spend my class periods doing some Chinese studies and the school agreed! Good for me - fewer classes and the same pay.

The Senior 1 classes were the worst. Class one and two were mostly okay, but classes three, four, and five (especially five!) were pretty horrid. Cut to the chase, it was a crappy year. The new "boss" told me I was a horrible teacher and I certainly didn't return to that school at end of contract.

I will never, ever teach "Spoken English" again.

[Bud Powell]

Re: Discipline.

If the talking gets out of hand, stop talking. Get out the roll book and take names or at least pretend to take names. Pretend to be entering something into your roll book until they shut up. The less you say the better. (This works at all levels).

If you have the option of sending a brat to an administrator's office, precede the expulsion with a long stare. When he fails to respond, eject him. Pretty soon, they'll catch on that a stare means imminent ejection.

Sometimes, if you stand in the rear of the room while they are supposed to be working, that will keep them quieter.

Re: roll

This may or may not work: don't bother to call each individual student's name. It's a time-waster. Take a head count then ask a responsible student "Who is missing?" If you can maintain a seating arrangement (sometimes it's impossible) use a seating chart.

In unruly and unmotivated classes classes, I begin the first class with the yada that everyone begins at the bottom. No work, no grade. Bad work, bad grade. Bad attitude, bad grade. Good effort, better grade. Good performance, good grade. I tell them that if they show me that they are trying, they'll pass. I have had students in vocational colleges who had never legitimately passed an English class. While other students made failing grades because they slept or talked through class, the few who accepted my offer were given a grade of PASS for the effort. Grading began when they actually passed their tests. This often worked for students who had given up hope of ever learning any English. This works for some, but not all students.

I'd have a good long talk with your boss to ask which is your most important duty in class: discipline or teaching English. If you have a boss with a spine, you'll see a change in class behavior pretty fast.

The sad thing is that many times administrators are afraid to stand up to parents when Xiao Wang and Tong Chen come home with crummy grades. Some administrators find it easier to stab the teacher than to stand up to the clueless parent or the parent who is in denial.

I had a vocational college class with about six or seven jerks who'd show up only occasionally to cause trouble. I had it up to my eyeballs with them and the one person who could have helped. One day, they came in late, talking up a storm. When they didn't shut up, I walked out to the guards at the gate to remove the jerks from my class. They didn't open their mouths after that.

[Lancy Bloom]

How about calling them by their teal names. Learn to teach beginners. TPR. Learn some Chinese. Interlanguage is how we all start. Show them you like them even though they don't like English. Show films and have them chorus you. Stop being like a western teacher where you think your job is just to identify the bright students.