Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

I'm teaching at a kindergarten, have my own class of 18 kids age 4. I'm having lots of discipline problems, they never listen to me or the chinese teacher, They are loud and things have to be said over and over and over.
NOthing seems to work, any suggestinos?

We've tried stars and strikes, 5 stars gets a prize, 5 strikes go the the principal, some went to the principal two times in one day.
tried not have play time.
Tried bribing with candy, and extra play time.
Tried calling parents/sending notes home if they were good or bad
Tried a marble jar.
Tried standing them in the corner.
Tried having them write I will blah blah blah, or I will not blah blah blah.

I'm at my wits end. They are the worst class in the school, other teachers have tried teaching them and have given up.
What can I do?

[grahamb]

Bribery was a big mistake! From the tone of your postings I get the impression that you're a friendly person who doesn't like playing the tough guy - sorry, girl - in class. I'm the same. It's easy to say, "Well, you should have gone in tough at the beginning," but that can make you feel uncomfortable if it's not in your nature. Anyway, I suggest you adopt the poker-faced, distant approach. Ration your smiles and restrict praise to a simple "Good." As children crave attention, separate the troublemakers, put them at the back of the class and ignore them. Don't allow them to participate for a day or two. Allow them back into the fold only when you're ready, and let them know that you'll exclude them again if necessary. Being excluded and deprived of attention will hit them where it hurst. If that fails, use naked violence.
Note for the literal-minded: the last sentence should be taken with a pinch of salt.

[garbotara]

I teach first, second and sixth grades.I am at my wits end with my first graders.I have no Chinese helper.My school is so cheap they will not provide them for the foreign teachers not even the first grade.I was supposed to give oral exams today.I spent two classes trying to calm them and thought it was so unfair to the students I was trying to test.Today, I told the primary supervisor that there has to be someone in the room to discipline while I am testing them.I said I would not test them otherwise.
I suspect the Chinese English teacher bailed.She seemed so annoyed with them as well.The other teachers cuddled them too much then forget it.
My second graders have really shaped up.I do not have a helper in those classes either, but they really behave now.They participate, read and behave.I have fun with them.

[darkchild]

i personally think you just have too much children in your class
when i was teaching that age group, i only had about 8-10 kids in a class, so that it was easier to control them.

you might also try getting another assistant teacher in the class room, and i agree with grahamb's idea of separating the trouble makers. Also, you could try doing part of the teaching in groups, allow your assistant teacher to take some of the kids and rotate the activities being done so that the kids are not all in one group.

it's hard to teach kids that age anyways, hope you hang in there~

[willy]

18! wow i wouldnt tuch that!
use a bambo stick split into many pices at the end. dont kill them but a littel tap or so will do the trick.
mostly it makes them think what could happen.....
i use it a lot mostly playing but it keeps them in line

[naturegirl321]

I think that I am strict. For the past couple of weeks, they haven't been able to go outside to play and had to play inside because they were bad. Also, I've sent notes home and talked to parents about their kids behaviour. The result? Parents saying that we are too tough and threating to pull their kids from the school and it make me look bad.
Today, parents have an open house and are able to see how their kids behave in class. I hope that they see how they really are.
I'm thinking spliting the class up might be the best soltuion though.

[ls650]

[Roger]

I think, many of us came here with a blinkered view of what is awaiting us in their classrooms! And the fact that we are here to do what their own teachers so eloquently refuse to do, namely to speak English with their pupils is an added glum factor in this equation.
At first, we all get this "warm and fuzzy" feeling. They make us welcome. Smiling, slapping us on our shoulders. Complimenting us. Treating us to lunch.
But gradually it dawns on us that there are some misconceptions on both sides of the divide. They want us to effect wonders. We want tn.

One reason why it doesn't work out the way we wantt to is that Chinese don't learn to appreciate a CONTEMPLATIVE lifestyle marked by quiet in which to think independently. It's so totally different from a Western classroom! Go in their CHinese ones, and take in with your ears what's going on: all of them practising this idiotic "reading aloud" of English texts, unthinkingly, not knowing how to pronounce every word but stumbling over them in a halting and repetitive voice. Can this lead to anyng good???

Their communitarian learning is a spanner in the works that prvents them from taking any initiative and from standing taller than their peers. They all want to do the exact same thing, together with their teacher.
What's more, their own parents are culturally insensitive too. Go to their homes and watch the family take lunch. Half of them are in touch with someone not present - either by watching a stupid TV programme, or by being in communication with a caller via the cellphone. These same parents will want their kid to be one of those star actors in the school drama performance at the end of the term, but they will NOT listen to what any of those child actors are saying on stage. Instead, parents will chatter with other parents. Or talk in their cellphone...

Lastly, too much depends on a foreign teacher, and too little is made conditional on students. Yesterday, 59 kids of one of my middle school classes were swarming all over the school premises, a notepad in their hands, to find the biographies of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Lei Feng and 6 other famous individuals. These biographies are painted on the walls of some buildings (outside classrooms), in CHinese, with their names transliterated into Roman script. 59 kids did their assignments in pairs, but one guy was sitting sullenly and lonely at his desk. I asked him why he wasn't out with the rest of them.
"I don't like it!" he said. A challenge to my authority?
"It's boring," he went on. This was a stab to my self-esteem. I had told the whole class before that there is no such a thing as "interesting topics"; you must learn to be interested in something that's a concern to a wider public, not just your own business.
"OK, boy, let's go together," I offered. He ignored me.
"If you don't leave the classroom, we will have to see the Dean together!" I said.
He remained quiet.
I touched him on the shoulder, saying "Let's go NOW!"
"Don't touch me!" he almost screamed, with that quaver in his voice that gives away the emotionally unstable.
I let it go at that. The Dean, by the way, would most likely not have been in her office anyway. She seldom is in when I need her.
Then, I remembered my British colleague who had told me some two months earlier that on that day, I must be VERY CAREFUL. One student was running amuck, telling every teacher what he thought of them. My English friend was treated to a "go phuck you!"

The essence is that the school dare not expel such a character. They daren't face up to reality. The reality is that students are becoming ever more undisciplined.
They are, after all, the single product of every family who wants to spoil their kids as much as their means allow.

[garbotara]

[struelle]

[Sevarem]

[Magoo]

Yesterday, I told a brat to shut up or leave. He obviously didn't take me seriously, then refused to leave, so I picked him up and carried him outside, with tears welling up in his eyes. I told the headmistress that the class were a bunch of uncouth s h i t s. She agreed, but zenme ban? If the head shrugs it off, what chance do we foreign monkeys have?

[garbotara]

Where I work we can not hit or pick up the kids.I have held kids when they was crying (someone once took the chalk away from a boy and he was drawing- first grader).We are not even allowed to kick kids out of the room- it's a private school.I wish I could.

[grahamb]

Yes, when push comes to shove, some schools are more concerned about money than anything else.
By the way, Darkchild, I think you meant "too many children." Ah, what the heck, it's Friday!

[naturegirl321]

I won't say that I'm an English teacher persay at the school, my title is kindergarten teacher. I'm with the one class all day and teach things like writing, reading, drama, ability, science, art. The kids are in an English environment and this school is differenct than most in the fact that the foreign teacher is there all day. And the chinese teacher speaks english except during chinese class.

They understand and speak English very well. Just don't listen. I talked to some of the parents and they are so spoiled at home.

About the open house. Three parents came and their kids are always good.

I think I know the problem. We used to have two classes. ONe paid less and I only taught them for 30 minutes a day. There were five kids in that poor class. Then the put the two classes toghether. All of those kids who were in the poorer class are the ones who cause the problems. They are loud and get everyone riled up.

Anyways, three of those kids were sick today and it was much much better. I'm going to buy a water gun and start squirting the kids.