Korean Job Discussion Forums

[inspector gadget]

I have had it with some of my 3rd grade middle school students, while the majority of them are well behaved there seems to be about 5 or 6 girls in each class that have been misbehaving this semester.

The first semester was alright, not so bad but since the break they have been pushing my buttons.

Today I hauled the offending students into the Vice principles office, said that these students don't want to learn and they are disrupting the class.

I told the VP they can't come back in to my class unless they learn to behave.

It should be interesting to see what happens this week and next.

Rant over.

[Aussiekimchi]

I'd take a class full of boys anytime.
Any of you who teach at all-girls schools should be paid double!

I have found there are 3 different kinds of teenage female students
1. She loves you and makes you feel uncomfortable
2. She hates you and sees it as her sole mission in life to bring misery upon you.
3. The only thing that matters to her is having neat book work.

It is the same for female teachers teaching males I guess.
Simply substitute # 3 with finishing the work first..even if it is crap.

[crazylemongirl]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

How interesting - I've found the same thing with my two classes of grade 3 MS girls, but I think that's more because of their new regular English teacher with whom I usually co-teach. She's utterly helpless trying to control them, and if she's instructing them I have to be her disciplinarian. I get them this afternoon and the OP has given me so much to look forward to.

In one class there's a really naughty pack of 5 or 6, just like you said, but they adore me and I don't have nearly the problems most of the Korean teachers have with them. We'll see today if they're holding their arms above their heads making heart-shapes to me or kneeling at the back of the class merely holding their hands above their heads.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

On another note to the OP, why did you take them to the VP instead of just to their homeroom teacher or the disciplinary-enforcer teacher?

[inspector gadget]

I took them to the VP because 2 weeks ago I took them to the homeroom teacher but that didn't accomplish anything.

I am not sure why there like this but I am sure it will get sorted out, its tough cause I don't speak enough Korean to properly communicate with them.

My first and second graders are awesome, my classes with them are full of fun, laughter and learning with good behaved kids. The third graders are so immature though and the small clique in these classes ruins it for all invloved.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[inspector gadget]

I don't think they like english, outside of the class we exchange pleasantries in english, korean or non verbally.

I am a fair teacher, if the class does the work and is relatively well behaved then they will get rewarded with a game next class (featuring what they learnt in the previous class).

It seems as though these small cliques just have no desire to learn english and they are constantly interupting my class with stupid behaviour.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. I don't have so many problems with students interrupting the lesson, though I do have some grade 3s who it seems have just plain given up on English. By now they already have a good idea whether they have a shot at university, and it must be kind of depressing being 15 and knowing that you'll probably get stuck with a crap job. Maybe they're not capable of thinking that far ahead but if they know they're headed to an industrial high school there can't be much academic ambition and their parents have probably stopped caring so much about their marks in English. The exception is the brat-pack I was mentioning in the one grade 3 class who try hard and always co-operate with me but don't for the Korean English teachers. I don't know what I've done to make them so happy about learning English with me but apparently I put a right foot down somewhere.

One of the pro-active things I do a lot is patrol the class rows, making sure everyone's following along and sitting up straight, while I'm doing things like phonics or dialogues. I've noticed that the new English teacher at my middle school has started doing this as well (along with copying everything else I do). I find that rewarding classes with games hasn't been a very successful disciplinary strategy because if they're not trying hard and you say 'no game' or 'no song' you're just creating a bigger battle that will have to be fought in terms of making them do something less fun. It's generally worked better to take note of persistant misbehaviour and deal with it in isolation during the ten minutes between classes, though thankfully I've rarely had to do this.

[poet13]

KPS (kick, punch, slap)

Ok, for real. Aside from the girl issue, I would worry about blowback from the homeroom teacher for going over his or her head. That could be your biggest challenge in the near future... professionally embarassing.
good luck.

ROCK HARD PLACE

[kermo]