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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:46 am Post subject: Monthly moments at the girls' high school |
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Women, tell me if I'm being evil here....
Being that I work at an all-girls' high school, it naturally happens that a few girls each much need to make some quick dash to the restroom for some sudden, extremely desperate reason. Generally, this desperation begins with a "Oh, MOMOOMOOMO" expression, follwed by the girl informing those around her that something bad is happening, followed by several giggles, follwed by her desperately calling me to let her go to the bathroom.
I got sick of them trying to ask me in Korean, so I won't let them run out until they say it right. This, of course, causes more giggling as the girl either gets it right, or freaks out and is rescued with help from her friends.
I have always assumed that the girls are having their "magic moment."
Am I mean to insist they ask me in English, at such a time? |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject: Re: Monthly moments at the girls' high school |
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| Derrek wrote: |
| Am I mean to insist they ask me in English, at such a time? |
Yes.
Seriously, you are at teacher. I understand that you want to maybe give them some "real world" experience or something about having to explain to some white guy that they need the john but seriously man, imo this is just sadistic.
That being said i can see where students may abuse any absolute freedom given on the subject and i think that you should set some type of rule in place, maybe just not something that they have to come up with at the heat of the moment.
edit: then again, i'm not a girl so heh, what do i know. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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Making a student ask to go to the washroom in English- fine, but apply it across the board.
Making them give more detail than that- not cool. |
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paperbag princess
Joined: 07 Mar 2004
Location: veggie hell
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| they should know how to say "may i go to the bathroom, please?" by the time they hit high school. periods are something women should just deal with, by making it a bigger deal than it is, you actually just make it harder for them. it's good that you've thought about it as being an issue, but no special treatment is needed there. |
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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:07 pm Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
Making a student ask to go to the washroom in English- fine, but apply it across the board.
Making them give more detail than that- not cool. |
All they have to say is, "May I go to the restroom, please?"
I'm not tough about whether they say bathroom, restroom, etc.... I just want a proper sentence structure.
I even let their friends help them if they are stuck.
It is applied across the board, and they are taught how to say it. Some in most ever class, however, refuse to learn anything. They are the ones who get the English practice tests and just mark every other answer so they can take a nap. |
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pet lover
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Location: not in Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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Personally, if I can feel the blood coming out and I know that at any moment, I'm in danger of having a visible blood stain at the back of my pants, skirt, dress, or whatever, I'm NOT going to be focused on getting my sentence structure in a foreign language correct. Especially if I'm a teenage girl, I'm going to be much more worried about that possible blood stain, about the male teacher possibly seeing it as I exit the classroom, and I'd probably be very shy about having to talk to the male teacher (foreign or not) to get permission to go to the bathroom and take care of it.
If I were a good student, I'd make sure I had that question memorized in its proper form upside down and sideways and practice it all the time so that I wouldn't freeze up and forget. But, we are not all good students and even when we are, we sometimes freeze up.
Why not just let these girls go immediately and insist on the proper sentence after they've returned?
EDIT: I understand why you want the proper grammatical structure. I also would love for my kindy kids to say, "May I go to the bathroom, please?" when they have to go. However, they are little, the bathroom is far away, and I don't want puddles. I'm happy with whatever they get out and can always have the class practice together what to say when the kid gets back.
Last edited by pet lover on Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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| My point was to make them use it everytime they have to use the washroom. With my grade 5 and 6s I insist that they at least make an attempt at it. If it's drilled into their heads constantly from early on- they'll have no trouble remembering. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| May be at the beginning of each lesson you should just recap the phrase. Just write it at the top or on a corner of a board the words *may I go to the washroom, please* and have them repeat it a few times. Then when they have an emergency, they can just look at the board and say it. Eventually they will just come out with it very naturally. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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| pet lover wrote: |
Personally, if I can feel the blood coming out and I know that at any moment, I'm in danger of having a visible blood stain at the back of my pants, skirt, dress, or whatever, I'm NOT going to be focused on getting my sentence structure in a foreign language correct. Especially if I'm a teenage girl, I'm going to be much more worried about that possible blood stain, about the male teacher possibly seeing it as I exit the classroom, and I'd probably be very shy about having to talk to the male teacher (foreign or not) to get permission to go to the bathroom and take care of it.
If I were a good student, I'd make sure I had that question memorized in its proper form upside down and sideways and practice it all the time so that I wouldn't freeze up and forget. But, we are not all good students and even when we are, we sometimes freeze up.
Why not just let these girls go immediately and insist on the proper sentence after they've returned?
EDIT: I understand why you want the proper grammatical structure. I also would love for my kindy kids to say, "May I go to the bathroom, please?" when they have to go. However, they are little, the bathroom is far away, and I don't want puddles. I'm happy with whatever they get out and can always have the class practice together what to say when the kid gets back. |
Call me an uncaring, insensitive male whatever but I think that a mature female who's not pregnant should be able attend to herself well enough during breaks to make it through a 35 minute lesson. That said if a middle school girl desperately wanted to go to the washroom and take her handbag with her I'd let her go. I've phsyically blocked some of them from leaving the room to get a drink of water and it's damned obvious that 95% of the time when they want to leave the classroom it's cause they're sick of learning and too lazy to read five sentences when it's their turn. |
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pet lover
Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Location: not in Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| You might not be aware of this, but women are not biologically equipped to start their periods ONLY during a break. They tend to come without a warning. So, it is perfectly possible to be sitting in class and suddenly start your period. Now, blood tends to leak through cloth. So, unless the woman wants to have a huge, wet, red, stain on the back of her clothes and on her chair, she is going to have to go and take care of it. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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| pet lover wrote: |
| You might not be aware of this, but women are not biologically equipped to start their periods ONLY during a break. They tend to come without a warning. So, it is perfectly possible to be sitting in class and suddenly start your period. Now, blood tends to leak through cloth. So, unless the woman wants to have a huge, wet, red, stain on the back of her clothes and on her chair, she is going to have to go and take care of it. |
I know this much, which is why I'd give them the benefit of the doubt (especially if she needs to take something with her), even though I also know that more than 95% of the time when a kid wants to leave class it's unnecessary. I'm talking more about the ones who feel they have to leave for some reason every single class, and if I don't let them get water or get something they supposedly forgot outside will use 'bathroom' as an excuse. Then, when break time comes, they run off screaming and giggling with their friends completely forgetting that they urgently needed the toilet or were dying of thirst and had to visit the water cooler. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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On another note, if you have a mixed class, it's a real problem to explain to the boys why you let a girl out of class to go to the washroom but won't let them. I had this happen with one girl who is well behaved and not the type to take advantage of me who just quietly asked to go to the bathroom and I let her slip out - I don't know if it was that time of the month or she just really needed to pee and I wasn't about to ask - and the boys couldn't understand why I was being so discriminatory.
I knew of one teacher in Canada who really surprised a girl when she went up to his desk asking to leave to attend to her period and he quietly wispered to her 'is anything the matter? You had the same thing happen two weeks ago. Do you need to see the doctor?'. I don't think she tried that again. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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Haha, I can just imagine that class. Thick-skulled boy with look of indignation:
"Teaher, why? Yujin is, get water! Me too! Teacher, water! Hmm?" |
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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:50 pm Post subject: |
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| pet lover wrote: |
Personally, if I can feel the blood coming out and I know that at any moment, I'm in danger of having a visible blood stain at the back of my pants, skirt, dress, or whatever, I'm NOT going to be focused on getting my sentence structure in a foreign language correct. Especially if I'm a teenage girl, I'm going to be much more worried about that possible blood stain, about the male teacher possibly seeing it as I exit the classroom, and I'd probably be very shy about having to talk to the male teacher (foreign or not) to get permission to go to the bathroom and take care of it.
If I were a good student, I'd make sure I had that question memorized in its proper form upside down and sideways and practice it all the time so that I wouldn't freeze up and forget. But, we are not all good students and even when we are, we sometimes freeze up.
Why not just let these girls go immediately and insist on the proper sentence after they've returned?
EDIT: I understand why you want the proper grammatical structure. I also would love for my kindy kids to say, "May I go to the bathroom, please?" when they have to go. However, they are little, the bathroom is far away, and I don't want puddles. I'm happy with whatever they get out and can always have the class practice together what to say when the kid gets back. |
I understand your rant, but if you were faced with the situation, wouldn't you find it necessary to learn it beforehand?
Several of my girls have paid more attention to learning it, simply out of fear that they might be faced with such a situaation. |
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PolyChronic Time Girl
Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Location: Korea Exited
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| Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2005 1:32 am Post subject: |
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I would just let the girl go to the restroom. And yes, she should ask "May I go to the restroom?"...it's not difficult. Now, I have worked with girls, and being a girl myself, I can gauge the embarrasment on her face, coupled with her awkward posture that she is "paying her monthly bill."(sorry..I'm crude...grew up with 4 brothers) However, she doesn't need her friends to help her out. I have had the problem with girls wanting to go to the bathroom together.
I let my students go to the bathroom, but only one at a time. That is why I made one wooden bathroom pass ( I know...a little old-fashioned) but it works. I don't mind students going to the bathroom, as long as they ask and take the wooden pass. Only having one student go at a time has never given me problems with ditching class or anything. They usually return within a few minutes.
Wow, Derrek, didn't know you are teaching at a a girl's school! You sure must have some stories! I understand your discomfort as I worked at an all-boys high school last year and I often would open the classroom door while the boys were in the middle of changing their stinky P.E clothes. They seemed more amused that I caught them pantless than I did  |
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