An evening of teaching

Wow, two posts in one day! I had to post about my day of teaching, though. So many interesting and crazy things happened.

My first class was with EC, which is a very basic class. We work out of a phonics book and there are only five students, which I like. With the younger students, large classes can be very tough to control.

I began having problems with one of the students. He would not stop talking and playing with the students around him. Then he began rocking his desk back and forth and repeating everything I said. I gave him warning after warning after warning. Finally, I made him stand up against the wall with his hands in the air. He still wouldn't listen, though, and kept lowering his hands and talking while he was standing there.

So enough was enough. I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the counter, where I delivered him into the hands of the lady that manages students, student records, registrations, etc. The students all fear having to be taken to "the counter." It was quite a peaceful class, afterwards, though, and we got a lot done. I ended up feeling very good about what we accomplished when that class was finished. Dishing out some harsh punishment on one student also tends to put some fear into the hearts of other students. :P

My next class was PR-B. They are also very young but a lot of fun cause they're crazy, which also makes them rather stressful sometimes. Today, they would not be quiet for anything and weren't listening at all. So I decided to tell them that anybody who I saw talking to another student or talking when I was talking would write "I will be quiet in class" ten times. Needless to say, a LOT of sentences were written tonight but the class became much quieter and we got some things done. One girl ended up writing 80 sentences. lol

Probably what ended up being the craziest class of the night was my next one, RB. This is the class where the boys are always getting punished and three of them failed. I promised them a snack, so about 7 minutes prior to class, I sent them outside with 5,000 Won(five dollars) to get some Deok-bok-ki(rice cakes in a spicy red pepper sauce). The three girls that went to get it didn't come back until about 5 minutes into class and brought it in a bag, with nothing to eat it in or with.

I told one of the girls to go to the counter and get some forks or sticks or something. Several minutes later, she returned. She had run all the way back outside to get some sticks from the lady she had bought it from. Now we needed cups to eat it in. She said that there were cups at the counter....but there wasn't. So several more minutes pass and finally she comes back. By this time, I'm anxiously looking at the clock as they put the food into their cups to share. Of course, now they're eating and I can't get them to pay attention to anything.

Finally, they finished eating and I could begin teaching...except now they're complaining that they're thirsty. I refused to allow anyone to leave again and tried to get something done in the 20 minutes I had left. Not until class was finished did it reach its climax, though.

There was some still left in the bag and when I dismissed them, they all mobbed it, crowding around my desk. Everyone had a hand in it and they were tearing the bag up. Soon, sauce started pouring onto my desk and they dripped some onto the surrounding desks. When they finished, it was a mess and I made two students stay and clean it up. It took about ten minutes to clean up after them. I promised myself that I would never again allow them to bring that snack to class. :P

Next, I had RD, which is one of my favorite classes. They were the class that did a welcome message and had balloons on the whiteboard. They're always a lot of fun and we did several games of hangman since we had a test today. Over all, pretty normal. The next class, RG, was also noneventful. My final class, RC, was normal for them. Nobody likes to pay attention in that class so I ended up doing some lecturing and confiscating and crumpling a couple of papers that were being doodled on.

It was a crazy, fun, exciting day of classes. Really just another day in the life, I guess. :D