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MeiYu · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Hangzhou

ok, i really feel like i'm up against a wall.

i just started at a large (private) primary school after having worked at an english training school (the standard mill type). so, transition from small classes (6-10 Ss) to large (30+)...very difficult.

furthermore, we (my husband and i) do not have chinese assistants or books, and only meet once a week with each class....just being eye candy i suppose.

so i am expected to teach/entertain and CONTROL 1st and 2nd graders with my overwhelming lack of chinese, no books, no assistance.... Shocked

i'm just wondering if this is normal? it is so very different for us, going from being respected and needed at our private training center, to this eye-candy role...
Rolling Eyes

and i suppose i'm looking for ideas and clues on how to control 35 1st graders who have no respect for the new laowai teacher.

has anyone had similar experiences? we like this location better, its just hard to come to terms with not being as, well, 'important' as we were. (as horrid and cocky as that sounds). Embarassed

suppose i just feel lost...and incompetent, and very much out-of-control...
the kids are mental! i have little boys pulling their wangs out in class and showing them to the girls....yesterday a boy started humping my legs! Shocked

is this normal behavior for kids this age? the youngest kids i had before were 8....

i apologize for the length of this post....but would very much appreciate comments and suggestions on control and similar predicaments. Smile

thanks

saint57 · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:09 am Post subject:

This is dumb advice but it might just work. I taught a class of forty grade six student who couldn't say hello. I could hold their attention for about two minutes. In the beginning I was so upset that I screamed at them and was ready to quit. However, they taught me something valuable. The Chinese teachers don't care about what goes on in your class. The students knew this and at the beginning of class they would pull the curtains shut. At first, I wouldn't allow this. As time went by, I realized that pulling the curtains shut was the answer I was looking for.

After a few months it was I who pulled the curtains shut. I came in with the same lesson I prepared for my other 17 classes. No one was judging me so I didn't give a sheet. After dropping the illusion that education was supposed to take place under these conditions, the class was pretty fun.

A typical class consisted of nothing more than games, paper throwing, and the occasional need for me to break up a minor fight. I felt like Billy Madison. It help me to stop taking myself so seriously.

Your school is not paying you enough to lose one second's sleep over this.

saint57 · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:14 am Post subject:

Sorry, I missed the parts about the wang pulling and leg humping. You should probably put a stop to that.

sock · Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 3:00 pm Post subject:

The students haven't (probably) been trained yet... If you start now, you still have a chance of retaining your sanity.... I teach the same age, and this is what I can suggest:

1. Always (ALWAYS) have the kids stand up at the beginning of class and say "good morning, teacher." (And have them say "good bye teacher at the end of the class). Some people don't like the formality of it, but they do it for their Chinese teachers, and I think it helps to signal that class has started and that it has ended.

2. Divide the class into three or four groups based on where they sit, and give them happy (smiley) faces (or so-so faces/sad faces) when they are good, bad, or so-so.... At the end of class, add up the happy faces, and if you want, give the best group a sticker or sweet. Usually, if I just pick up the chalk, the kids will sit up straight and shut up. They really like the competition, and even if you don't give any prizes, they still eat it up.

3. I don't try and really teach anything new as far as grammar (they have a Chinese-English teacher for that), but try to teach them 3-5 new nouns/simple verbs a lesson... I use the flash cards that have a picture and the English word and Chinese character... It works, because the words are simple enough that even the 6/7 year olds can read the Chinese on it if they don't understand the picture.... One game that they like with these cards is a memory-type game... I take all the cards (except one or two) and stick them to the wall and they guess which one is missing... (the winning team gets a star on the board). It's not a complex game, I just want them to remember the word without seeing the picture of it.

4. I usually pick students to come up play the role of the teacher... They ask the students questions. At the end of the turn, they can give each team a smile/so-so/sad face.

5. Really naughty students are sent to the back of the room (and if they are still naughty they are out of the classroom). Usually, it only takes about 3 minutes of standing in the back of the classroom to scare the crap out of them.

6. Learn their names and have them sit in the same seat each time. I like to learn their names, because if they are acting up, I draw a big smiley face on the board, and all of the good students get their name on the board under it, and then I give the list to their head teacher... And usually, the head teachers will say something to them in their homeroom class, so it really works to get the rest of them on track... I also give the teacher the names of the terrible students (but I don't write their names on the board)...

I don't know what to do about the humping your leg and whacking off... My first graders have a thing for poking my butt when I walk by, so if you find out how to cure it, I'm all ears!

MeiYu · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Hangzhou

MeiYu · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Hangzhou

Shan-Shan · Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 1074 Location: electric pastures

MeiYu · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Hangzhou

Outsida · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject:

Well, actually, Chinese kids are walking how-not-to manuals on raising children.

Chinese parents:

1. Spoil their kids rotten. Anything they want, they get. They get fed like hogs at the trough, too. And the parents are positively austere when compared to how the grandparents treat Xiao Wang.

2. Discipline ranges from non-existent (the usual state) to vicious, sustained and childish outbursts of violence and abuse. There is no middle ground.

3. Criticism is healthy for the child. It is perfectly acceptable to tell young girls that they are fat or ugly. Complex? Ha, ha. Don't talk nonsense, silly foreigner!

4. Deny them freedom. Fill up every moment of their life developing them into little Renaissance Men or Women. Language, tutoring, music, sport... drive them on and on, even to suicide. The risk is acceptable. Xiao Wang is your retirement fund, after all.

5. Loudly decry any criticism of your child from outside parties regarding his/her behaviour. Xiao Wang is an angel. A fat and ugly one, perhaps, but don't you dare try to tell me he acted up in class today. Are you trying to make me lose face in front of the other parents? I'll have your job, foreign devil!

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

when at lunch ..divide the class into two equal groups and make one half watch as the other half eat...builds humility

no_exit · Joined: 12 Oct 2004 Posts: 565 Location: Kunming

Beg and plead for a Chinese assistant. Without good Chinese, how do they expect you to control a class of thirty first graders? Maybe, if you had been a master disciplinarian, and had laid down the law from the beginning, you might have worked a miracle and had the kids behaving, but once the classroom is that out of control there's hardly anything you can do in order to regain authority.

Do you know where the class' normal English teacher is (assuming there is one ...)? Is she just using your class as a break period? Bring your troubles to the attention of the school (don't worry about what they'll think of you, simply kindly point out to them that the children don't understand your threats and discipline and stroke some egos by going on about how the children don't respect anyone but their own Chinese teachers), because there is a possibility that they don't know you're being left alone to teach the class (I've had this happen before). If they honestly don't care that you have an out of control class, then you can't lose sleep over it either. Play games with them and have your hour of mayhem and put it behind you. Look for a new job for next semester where the administration will actually support the foreign teachers and try to make it possible for the kids to learn something.

jeffinflorida · Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:27 pm Post subject:

Next time the youngins take out their little red roosters put a large ( ok medium or small) binder clip on it and see how fast this action stops. Make sure they keep it on for 60 seconds - no matter how much pain - and make THEM count out loud in English to sixty in front of the whole class - purple (by now) rooster hanging out and all.

MeiYu · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Hangzhou

Mydnight · Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:01 am Post subject:

I've wound up with a bunch of primary school jobs this term too b/c they are so easy to find. Got two really good places to work and one horrible. The classes in the not so good school basically end up in total chaos no matter what kind of game or lesson I prepare.

This is going to be one of those places, new school that is poorly organized and consists of mostly remedial kids (got a 14 year old in grade 5?), that will probably end up in my standing there and waiting for the bell to ring later in the term...and I will more than likely only work there one term.

Sometimes you end up in schools like this. Start looking at public schools...they are a little better than private, usually.

MeiYu · Joined: 22 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Hangzhou

yeah! remedial kids....they are so difficult! i am really trying to be patient and use positive reinforcement...
but i have 8-9 year olds in the first grade, which makes them very ornery, having to hang out with 5 and 6 year olds...

but some of the other classes are ok....and the location is good....and the other teachers are nice enough...and the pay is ok, housing is really great...
i guess it cant all be roses, huh.