Category Archives: teaching

B is for Boy

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My junior high boys have been so good lately, which has been pleasantly surprising. *knock on wood* Then again, it’s probably because I sent my bad kids away to the other classes. See, there’s a system of classes which are broken down into A, B1, B2, and C class. The A kids have the best English ability (we’re talking second grade level English here), the B kids are about the same (first grade/second grade) but B1 moves at a faster pace, and C kids have the lowest-to-no level. I teach B2, and after last semester, my worst kids (based on test scores) were sent to C class, and my best kids were sent to B1 or A class (which was really sad because my best kids were also most of my favorite kids). In return, I received the lowest-test-scores kids from B1 and A class.  After the first test of this semester, there was a bit more shuffling around, and a couple more of my lowest-test-score kids went to C class and one especially naughty one went to B1. (He’s a real jerk. He picks on me. I’m his teacher, and he picks on me like throw stupid paper balls at me or says things in Chinese. Ugh. If only I were bigger and stronger and a male.)

Why is it a child’s test score negatively correlates with his naughtiness level? Is it because they are naughty so they don’t pay attention in class and therefore gets bad grades? Or is it because they don’t understand what’s going on and will get bad grades anyway so they get bored and are naughty? There are rarely some students who are naughty and can still make good grades. I have discovered that the highest-scoring kids are the ones that participate in class and are engaged with my teaching. They can be funny and give goofy answers, but for the most part, they actually take the class seriously and can answer most my questions.

Fun Fact

The pros to being a young attractive female teacher: You can pretty much get away with anything with these junior high boys. Give them a ton of work, yell at them, be tough on them, but then they’ll always forgive you again and shower you with compliments the next day. For the most part, they’re also really nice to you and will offer to clean your board and carry your books.

The cons: Getting compliments or inappropriate comments. I get “sexy” a lot as in,”Teacher, you are so sexy today”. I’d like to think it’s because they don’t know what it really means and equate it with “beautiful” or “pretty”. Then again, maybe they do cause they’re 13-year-old boys, and I’m just being naive. Regardless, it still makes me uncomfortable. That and having “So-and-So love (or even f***) Tina” written on about half of the desks in my classroom. Flattering, but no thanks.

(This post is brought to you by quick loans.)

Heathens

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I remember when I first took a Spanish class in middle school, my classmates were horrible to the teacher. They were obnoxious and rude, and they just seemed to treat the class much more differently than math class or science class. Maybe it was because they realized that they probably wouldn’t use Spanish much in their future so why bother taking it seriously now. Or maybe it was because they really had no interest in it since the school forced us to pick a foreign language as part of our curriculum. Whatever the reason, they were disrespectful to the class and the teacher, who also happened to be a recent graduate and in her 20′s. I remember there were days when she would get so furious at us or get so frustrated and just be reduced to tears. But to us back then, it was all fun and games. Teachers didn’t really have feelings.

Every time I teach my second group of junior high students, I think of my middle school Spanish class. It’s surprising at how familiar it all feels, except this time, I’m on the other side. There seems to be some sort of unspoken immunity in a foreign language class. Since it’s foreign-language-only, the students assume anything said or done in their native language is safe. They can say whatever they want to the teacher, about the teacher, at the teacher, but because they can’t even understand the foreign language when reprimanded, it’s like they’re really not in trouble.

Being a teacher is hard work. Being a teacher of a foreign language to a group of kids who don’t even care is harder work.

To my eighth grade Spanish teacher, I apologize for our terrible behavior because now I finally can understand what horrendous heathens we must have been. And yes, teachers do have feelings too.

Go-Karts

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My horrendous middle schoolers have suddenly turned into angels overnight. Something must be in the air. Ok, maybe not angels, but the worst behaving kid has now turned into the one of the top students in the class. Everyone else has also fallen in line. Something is definitely in the air. Or maybe it’s just me. I’m just that good. Or not. Whatever, I’ll take it.

In other news, we went go-karting in Zhongli (website in Chinese, http://www.gf-racecar.com) this past weekend. I was in a horrible mood due to PMS and was not too thrilled about driving an hour to commandeer a machine that could possibly hurtle me to my death especially since I’ve never done it before. However, I have discovered the cure to PMS: the speed, the exhilaration, the slight loss of control, and the smell of burning tires in the air. They made us wear helmets (ew for not being cleaned in between people), and since I wore flip-flops, I had to wear their sneakers. (double ew. triple ew for not bringing socks. ended up wearing Michael’s instead.) Anyways, it was a good time, although I ended up with a huge bruise on my inner calf for taking those turns too sharply and very very sore arms and pectorals the next day.

Heart Attack-Worthy

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I got so furious today with my seventh graders. My second class is the worst of them all. They’re all rowdy and talkative and don’t seem to care to learn one bit.

They talk and talk and talk all through class, and I’ve long given up on yelling at them especially after the first few times because it strains my voice too much. Instead, I wait with a glare until they notice and shut up themselves. Today, after the fifth time of doing it in a ten-minute span, I was getting more and more frustrated.. then the kid in the front (remember the kid that no one likes, but he really  brings it up on himself) pipes up and goes, “Teacher, hurry, we pay $500(NT = $15.75USD) for this.”

Oh. my. god. That’s it. I blew up.

He was accusing me of wasting his time?!?!?! I CANNOT teach when 20+ students are talking to each other and not paying attention to me! After repeatedly asking them to be quiet and pay attention, after having to listen to them toss me snide comments in Chinese in response, and after having to ask them simple questions that I’ve gone over and over and over again with no comprehensible answers, he was accusing me of not doing MY JOB? I asked them if they went home and told their parents that they are paying $500 for them to come to my class and talk the whole way through. I am there to teach, but are they there to learn? Whose fault is this really??? It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Alas, but that lasted five minutes, and things were back to chaos again. SIGH.

(My first thought really was $500 per class, that’s it? No way, I know your parents are paying a lot more than that. But I didn’t tell them that.)

These kids are going to give me a heart attack at the young age of 24.

I’m No Look

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Also better known as “I can’t see.”

My seventh grade boys drive me up the wall. They are immature, perverted, misbehaving little hooligans who really don’t care how bad their English is. Well, that’s my second class (minus a few). My first class are naughty as well but they seem to genuinely want to learn, and they can be so sweet and funny and hardworking. Anyways, I had one of them (from the 2nd class) scream the f-bomb at me today. He’s one of those kids that gets easily picked on because he likes to tattle on his classmates. He doesn’t have many friends, and so every class, he always ends up crying about this or that. I try to be nice to him, and he does participate often, but he really just isn’t that likable.

Today, some of the other students took his dropped comb and were throwing it around, which I then confiscated and told him that he could get it back after class. He stood there, protesting, and then continued to look at me and would not sit down. After the sixth time of telling him to sit down, his eyes started turning red and welling up, and the male Chinese teacher stepped in to see what was going on. We stood there glaring at each other for a bit before the kid screams out, “F***!” The male chinese teacher immediately manhandles him and hauls him out the door.

We only have 50 minutes to teach our classes, and with our schedule, there really is no time to take to control the classroom. They need to show up and be ready to learn with bright, eager faces… at 7pm at night after 12 hours of being awake and learning already. Yeah. Right. So their male homeroom teachers patrol the halls and classrooms so we don’t have to waste any time for discipline. They just get kicked out to get screamed at or have to do push-ups.

Man, I swear I’m teaching in the ghetto of Taipei County or something.