Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

I love my first year classes, unfourtantly evil takes a human form in class 1-5. The class always takes a long time to settle in. It usually invovles pushing the trouble makers out of class. They know that if they act up once they get sent to the back, if they continue acting up they get sent out. Saying the f word gets you booted straight out of class.

Now getting booted out of my class means that you have to do the worksheet assigned again after school on the floor in the teachers room. You'd think that they'd learn not to act like idiots in class. Well the same kids keep coming back week after week. I hate 1-5.

[canuckistan]

Time to ask the Korean teachers to help you have a chat with the parents of the worst offenders?

[crazylemongirl]

[fidel]

Because I'm such an evil swine, I have crushed the spirit of my worst offenders, and classes are by and large going smoothly. Take for example one fool. After 6 months of being the class clown, causing major disruptions, and generally being a pain in the butt, I decided to permanently relocate the offender out in the hallway for a month and a half. Come exam time I gave him zero % for participation, he got 10% for his oral test, and I gave him a few % for having a notebook of sorts. Grand total 13%. I have recently let him back into the class but if I hear a squeak from him I give him a pack of Barbie doll crayons, have him draw and color in a rabbit then do a show and tell to the following class/and or teachers about his rabbit in English. Bear in mind that he is a 17 year old 2nd grade high school student.

If I were you, I would remove the ring leaders from the class before it starts,(FOR TWO WEEKS) and make them write out 40 lines of 'I'm sorry for being such an immature student and will try to act my age in the future." I'd also rearrange the seating so that the others are sitting apart from each other. If possible I would fail them and give them such low grades that they would serve as examples of how not to act, for any future classes.

[katydid]

Why not try the tactic of either punishing everyone to hopefully get the pissed off feelings the rest of the class has directed at the trouble makers?

Maye you could make the class captain the scapegoat and see how long that lasts as well...but then I have a feeling the captains are the nerdy types and may not be able to get pissed off at a group of troublemakers themselves.

[FUBAR]

[crazylemongirl]

[captain kirk]

I've got an 'the evil that is 1-5' class.
They are renowned. Before I go in the receptionist and the boss troll by the open door, like sharks, one reprimanding eye on them.
My voice is raised saying, 'don't surf your chair', or 'one more time surfing your chair, Cobra (that's his name. He's big, fat, skin like oily wax, a square head, short hair, and creme-coloured plastic square framed glasses. He's like a playful beluga) you stand in the corner holding a chair over your head'.
This is after ten minutes of 'where's your book?'. 'Home'. Why is your book at home? Bill translates for Cobra, who never has his book, looking with pleas in his eyes to be understanding, because it's like this. His book is at home. It's always at home. Bill is trying to be good. He was bad, but now he's trying to be good. Like on probation.
Eric and Julie are short, chubby, sit in the back, and don't do anything. Julie does little craft projects until I notice and bellow for her to put that stuff away. She does it but pulls it out again later, when I notice, and flip out again. She and Eric talk in Korean, and never speak English and when asked a question, look up, and look like ganstas, 'you talkin' to me?'.
There are three top students, girls, who are like a smiling, acapella group. They see the magnum calibre throat action and look concerned, like, are you getting paid enough for this? Maybe their parents should consider retroactive abortions, they seem to be saying with that look, concerning the ADD'ers.
I know I'm alive going through forty minutes with the 'evil that is class 1-5' half of class. It's invigorating in a totally senseless, 'thrill sport' way. Like mountain biking or bungee jumping.

[d503]

Because I too have an evil 1-5 class, that I can now get to do two pages out of our book each day.

Meet them all.
The two girls, it used to be one lonely girl who sat and stared out the window and cried whenever a boy made fun of her. She now has a friend who has decent English, which is encouraging her to work in class (not a victory for me but hell I'll take it)

Robin and john like to poke each other and giggle. I let them start the class together now, cause they can sometimes contain themselves, when they act up they sit in opposite corners with no table to do their work in their laps.

I have 2 boys that so long as they are sitting near the girls behave and act well, so I just sit them on opposite sides of the girls and everything is now hunky dory.

Then there are the four boys from hell, I think their parents should consider the merits of shipping them out of the country to learn English, they used to bring all sorts of toys to class, after an incident of one of them shooting a little girl with a BB(B) gun, they are now all searched before classes start and any kind of toy is confiscated. (On a side note, I encourage taking their stuff as opposed to telling them to put it away, especially if you are forgetful and don't remember to give it back for a couple of days, works wonders for keeping that stuff out of the classroom) So deprived of distraction they are forced to either listen and learn or fight with each other. I am lucky that all our classrooms have these lovely glass windows that run from floor to ceiling that the students can see into the hall with, when they fight i make them stand in front of another classes window with their hands up, or make them write their lines on the floor in front of that window. Because the whole school knows how god awful they are, if they act up in the hallway the director of the school takes care of it, I'm not sure what she does but they always return after class apologizing like mad. And having another group of students laughing at you for standing there with your hands up or because you are kneeling on the floor writing, seems to do wonders for behavior modification. As opposed to them standing in front of my window flicking off their friends and licking the glass.

So the last four boys I am pretty sure are getting nothing from my class, but I took the option I would rather teach the remaining ones who actually are willing to learn.

[Zyzyfer]

I had a class like that last year at my middle school, though it was 2-5. Same exact situation, though. They were unruly for every teacher, and I tried damn near every single behavioral conditioning trick I had in my book. Just about every class I've ever had while teaching in Korea has come around and learned "the way" at some point, and some classes that started out awfully eventually shaped up and became very productive, but there is always the potential for a class that just plain doesn't give a *beep* about anyone or anything education-related.

Tough teacher, nice teacher, class punishments, single punishments...I did it all, to no avail. I know thine pain to a tee.

[Len8]

I was in a middleschool a while ago, and we had two policeman teachers. They were regular teachers who were assigned to be the school policemen. They disciplined ill behaved students with their boot, with drop kicks, with kicks to the kid's legs below the knees, and a lot of other stuff. Never seemed to amaze me. There were female teachers who when they had trouble would call for their help, and boy did their students behaviour improve. Don't they have such teachers at your school.

We used to get all the teacher trainees every April I think, and there was this one female teacher who used to carry a short stick and either whack the kids on their hands or make the trouble makers stand in front of the class and then arch their back on the floor and touch the floor with their finger tips while keeping their feet on the ground. They had to stay that way for a good ten minutes.

Your kids might be expecting you to force them into line, because that's what they are used to. They probably come from dysfunctional neighbourhoods or dysfunctional familes, and are probably beaten at home. When you didn't punish them the way they expected they perhaps decided you were a pushover, and not worth listening to or studying for. Maybe.

[Derrek]

Oh, it's so much easier teaching high school girls. I'll never go back to teaching Middle School again, if I can help it.

I make fun comments to my students, like threaten to pull out their fingernails if they talk during a test.

They snicker at that, then are generally pretty good.

Last week I had two girls in a new class making too much noise. One of them threw a shoe at the other, and that was the last straw. It earned them a talk with our supervisor, which made both of them cry. Afterward, they took me outside and apologized in a bunch of drivel and tears, and begged me, "Please keep it between us next time -- it doesn't look good if we have to go to him."

Their crying made me feel pretty low, but had to be tough, so I told them, "Well, I suspect there won't be a 'next time', right?"