After a few weeks of increasingly unruly and uncontrollable behaviour during my classes at the boys' school, especially with a particular grade 2 class (age 15-16), things finally came to a head.
More and more, the students were disrupting the classes, moving in and out of the classroom, having side conversations with their friends, and not doing any work. I would get students to stand up and move to the corner for a while as punishment, but there weren't enough corners in the classroom to deal with all of the naughty students. Because of the language barrier, it is difficult to accurately communicate, so I have limited options of what I can try to maintain discipline.
While there were a few engaged students, the unruly behaviour became too much, and for the first time ever, I gave up on a class. I ended the lesson 15 minutes early because I was getting too frustrated and it was pointless to continue teaching. I kept my cool by not letting my emotions show, but that was my only victory of the day.
I am the main teacher for all of my classes at both of my schools. I plan, teach, and control the classes on my own. At a bare minimum, the Korean-English teachers are supposed to be in the room with me. That's typically what I can expect, the bare minimum. Some of the better teachers may take control of student discipline and translate some of my instructions during the lessons. They sometimes even help the students with their work by moving up and down the aisles. The worst teachers do not show up for class and I am completely on my own. This is especially the case with a few of my so-called "co-teachers" at the boys' school.
Don't get me wrong, I like being in control of the class and not having to rely on other teachers, but I know the class would run better if the co-teachers would actually do their duty and attend the class.
Well last week, as I said, I had a particularly rough class and ended the lesson early. At the same time, I received a message from my co-teacher at my other school saying that there was a dinner meeting after school. I was annoyed that I didn't have any prior notice about this dinner meeting, and I was stressed out from the previous classes, so I declined the dinner invite. I said that I had a bad day at school and I wouldn't attend dinner. She asked if I was okay, and I responded that "I was alright and I would talk to her tomorrow." I was scheduled to go back to my main school the next day.
This led to lots of questions and phone calls. To make a long story short, when it was discovered that I was teaching alone, there was hell to pay. The Korean-English teachers were scolded by their vice-principal, and the students were read the riot act for their behaviour. I received a long, emotional text message apology from one teacher, and other teachers apologized to me in person. The principal of the boys' school even apologized to me and we had a heart to heart conversation, interpreted by one of the Korean-English teachers, that ended in a handshake and a hug.
Another teacher gave me a piece of raisin bread as a form of apology. Some students from my rowdy grade 2 class apologized to me as well. I'm sure they were forced to. Even some of the well-behaved students apologized, so it's clear that the entire class was severally berated.
I didn't want any of that. I didn't need an apology. I didn't need the raisin bread. All I wanted was to decline a dinner meeting because I had a bad day at school. But in the end, despite all of the awkwardness and apologies, my classes have gotten better and the co-teachers are attending classes now, which is a great relief to me.
It was very strange to be apart of all of this workplace drama. I don't like that my co-teachers were scolded because of me, and I told them so. They responded that they "deserved" the scolding. And from what I can see, there are no grudges or ill will between coworkers. I suspect that the leadership at the boys' school was embarrassed by this issue, especially because it was brought to their attention by teachers from a different school, and perhaps some rivalries that I don't fully understand came into play. If nothing else, it was enlightening to observe Korean conflict resolution and how it is applied within the school hierarchy. I don't want to be apart of anything similar in the future.
Let's hope for better days ahead.
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