...where everything works out just fine.
Typically, Thursdays are my short but stress-induced days. I teach my four sixth-grade classes all in a row right up until lunch... and then I am done for the day. So I spend my afternoons lesson planning, deskwarming, blogging, planning my summer vacation, learning Korean, AND needing a glass or four of wine by the end of it.
These sixth graders are extremely tough. I have one class that is always cooperative, volunteering, eager, and overall, a good time. One class that was great the first few months but they are slowly starting to check out. The other two classes take on daily hits from my co-teacher and countless stares and talks of disappointment from me. All I've ever wanted as a teacher is to engage my students, peek their interest in the subject, and have them leave that class having learned something, all with a smile on their face. Unfortunately with these two classes, that often doesn't happen. The disrespect towards my co-teacher is disgusting. I was told one day by her that "the students are only afraid of their homeroom teacher, that is why they do not listen in English." Well, excuse me but being afraid of your teacher is the last thing a student should feel. Classrooms and schools are supposed to be safe environments- the safest environments in a child's world. Most of their disrespect comes from the lack of consistency. My co-teacher picks and chooses when to discipline. There is absolutely no structure. And so most of the discipline comes from me. But how does that become a major success when I don't speak their language, and the other half of my team (my co-teacher) just insists on hitting them with a wooden stick, having them hold a pushup position in the back of the room, or make them stand outside with their friends who are also misbehaving. When she hits them, they stick their tongue out at her; when they're in pushup positions, they laugh and make noises; and when they are out in the hallway, they're fooling round. How is any of this successful? She has actually told me more than a few times that I should completely run these 2 classes while she handles disciplines, because they listen to me more than her. Well I have very mixed feelings about this, because I agree they listen to me more when I speak, but that just means if someone misbehaves they're going to get a wooden stick to their temple and not just a look of disgust or a yell from me.
It's very different when I kick someone out of the room (which I've done a few times). I can see it affect them. I don't think the students ever think that their foreign teachers will overpower the Korean teacher. But from day one, I let my students know I meant business. Ever since my first day of observing classes in my junior year of college, the students knew that I wasn't kidding around. But the language barrier compared with this extreme heat, compared with their crazy puberty years, all add up to some really intense, hair pulling days.
Enough venting. TODAY.. was grand.
We're on a "May I try it on?" unit. So I made a little activity where I had them use the key phrases,
A: "May I help you?"
B:"I'm looking for a _____."
A: "How about this ______?
B: "I'll take it./No thanks."
But instead of substituting boring words like dress, shoes, hat, etc. I put pictures up of random things like a pickle, a finger, a K-Pop star, a boyfriend (pic of Justin Bieber), a girlfriend (pic of a girl from a girl's K-pop group), a president (pic of Obama) etc. So each pair had to speak this dialogue out loud, using the pictures. It was a great time for all, and they left the class smiling, happy, with memorized dialogue in their heads. And I left the class without craving a huge glass of wine. Life is good.
Later on I bonded with my co-teacher, as I walked in on her shopping for Coach handbags and proceeded to ask my advice on some of them.
The best part.. it was pouring rain out all day, but despite that, I was in a good mood as I walked out the door, and went home to clean my entire apartment.
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