While teaching elementary age children at Wakakusa I also have one “juku” class on Monday nights. This is a conversation class for 8th grade girls.
Ha. It’s like talking to a brick wall.
It’s all I can do to wake them up and pay attention. It starts at 7pm, none of them have eaten dinner yet, they’re exhausted and cranky. And hormonal. And they have attitudes to match their age. I don’t care what country you’re from, adolecence takes its toll on everyone.
I was given this class right after summer break. I’m their 4th teacher in the past year, which is very rare. Just like any other class, it holds a range of students concerning English ability and personality traits. One student in particular, we’ll call her Bithia, could have walked right out of an American classroom. She’s ALWAYS talking, turned around 180 degrees in her seat, and wears a sour expression the entirety of the class. She does her work, sometimes, and very begrudgingly. I’ve threatened to kick her out of class several times and she insists she’d rather stay. We might have to end her little game very soon.
Just this Monday I saw her friend “Cindy” uncovertly writing on her desk as I was reading for dictation. Without stopping I calmly took an eraser out of my bag, walked over and put it on her desk. Cindy gave me that typical teenage look that says, “What?! Me?! Well…I hate you.” And erased her desk.
One minute later I passed out another eraser to “Mary” for the same reason.
A minute after that as I was reading “Harry the Dirty Dog,” out of the corner of my eye I saw Bithia (who was of course turned around) grab the eraser from Cindy’s desk and throw it at my head.
Not toss. Throw. Chuck. Launch. Propel. Fire.
I reflexed in time to almost grab it out of the air by my temple but it bounced off my palm onto the floor. I gave Bithia a look of, “Really? How old are you?” and continued reading.
I’m not sure what this girl is looking for, a fight and to be kicked out or a plea for attention. That’s the crazy thing about teaching. You know so much about your kids in the classroom but you still have no idea what happens at home.
If this happens again I don’t really have a plan as to how I will handle the discipline. I was told by a previous teacher that these kinds of things have happened before with Bithia and the past teacher reacted very offensively. I definitely don’t want to do that for several reasons: not to lose my cool and not to repay violence with violence. There’s no reason a teacher should throw an eraser back at an angry child, right?! I’d love to put Bithia in my 2nd grade class...she’d fit right in.
Ha. It’s like talking to a brick wall.
It’s all I can do to wake them up and pay attention. It starts at 7pm, none of them have eaten dinner yet, they’re exhausted and cranky. And hormonal. And they have attitudes to match their age. I don’t care what country you’re from, adolecence takes its toll on everyone.
I was given this class right after summer break. I’m their 4th teacher in the past year, which is very rare. Just like any other class, it holds a range of students concerning English ability and personality traits. One student in particular, we’ll call her Bithia, could have walked right out of an American classroom. She’s ALWAYS talking, turned around 180 degrees in her seat, and wears a sour expression the entirety of the class. She does her work, sometimes, and very begrudgingly. I’ve threatened to kick her out of class several times and she insists she’d rather stay. We might have to end her little game very soon.
Just this Monday I saw her friend “Cindy” uncovertly writing on her desk as I was reading for dictation. Without stopping I calmly took an eraser out of my bag, walked over and put it on her desk. Cindy gave me that typical teenage look that says, “What?! Me?! Well…I hate you.” And erased her desk.
One minute later I passed out another eraser to “Mary” for the same reason.
A minute after that as I was reading “Harry the Dirty Dog,” out of the corner of my eye I saw Bithia (who was of course turned around) grab the eraser from Cindy’s desk and throw it at my head.
Not toss. Throw. Chuck. Launch. Propel. Fire.
I reflexed in time to almost grab it out of the air by my temple but it bounced off my palm onto the floor. I gave Bithia a look of, “Really? How old are you?” and continued reading.
I’m not sure what this girl is looking for, a fight and to be kicked out or a plea for attention. That’s the crazy thing about teaching. You know so much about your kids in the classroom but you still have no idea what happens at home.
If this happens again I don’t really have a plan as to how I will handle the discipline. I was told by a previous teacher that these kinds of things have happened before with Bithia and the past teacher reacted very offensively. I definitely don’t want to do that for several reasons: not to lose my cool and not to repay violence with violence. There’s no reason a teacher should throw an eraser back at an angry child, right?! I’d love to put Bithia in my 2nd grade class...she’d fit right in.
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