Something must be in the water because more and more students are misbehaving these days. It could be that I'm having more face time with my students since the majority of classes are now in-person as opposed to online. It wasn't until October that I first met my Grade 2 students at the boys school (the semester started in August). It also could have something to do with the fact that it is exam season now. The students were on edge before the exams and are now unencumbered after completing the exams. Either way, the craziness is at a new level.
Generally speaking, my youngest students (the Grade 1s at my boys school) were relatively well behaved but now that they've been in middle school for a full semester, they are quite comfortable. More than comfortable actually, they're taking over the classroom. That was the explanation from my co-teacher anyway. The timid little angels are taking the noise level up a notch, and the high-jinx follows along with it.
In the first eight months here I didn't have to discipline a single student. The most I had to do was stare at a student and they would fall in line, or other students would shout something at them to get them to pay attention. I like using the peer pressure approach as it takes some of the onus off of me. But in the past two weeks, I've had to reach into my bag of tricks to keep order in the class.
A boy on the baseball team was playing with his ball and glove in class, tossing and catching it while I was trying to teach. He put those away after a good staredown, but then he pulled out his hand grip exerciser thingy and kept playing with it in class. I asked him to put it in his backpack, which he did, but as soon as I turned my back he took it out again. I don't want to be the hard teacher, but something like that which completely undermines my authority cannot be allowed. I called him to the front of the classroom, took it and put it in my bag for the remainder of the class. Immediately at the end of class, he rushed up to collect it. I made him do five pushups right there in the classroom. First time I've ever done anything like that. I guess because he's an athlete I hoped he'd understand. I'll give him ten pushups the next time, and so on until he can't push no more.
At the start of the lesson I usually ask everyone if they have their notebook, textbook, and pencil. A rowdy 1st grader shouted back, "Do you have a d***?" It was more for the laughs than malicious, and I guess I should be happy he's speaking English. Still, I couldn't let that slide either. I called him up to the front of the room and asked him repeatedly to tell me his name. He kept saying, "Sorry, sorry teacher" and refused to tell me his name. But I verified his name on the roll sheet and he seemed genuinely afraid for the next 15 minutes that I was going to report him. That didn't last because he returned to his irreverent self before long. I never did report him.
This week I have been confiscating notes and candy, dodging paper airplanes, and taking markers so kids would stop writing on their desks. I called a kid to the front of the room because he smacked another boy in the back of the head. And I had to jump out of the way as a boy carelessly tipped over his desk and it came crashing down on the floor.
While my co-teachers at my main school generally take care of discipline issues, not that there are many issues in my classes, the teachers at the boys school are less helpful. Quite often, I am the only teacher in the room. Other times, the teacher is at the back of the class working on their laptop or on their phone. One teacher has taken to putting in his earphones and facing away from the class. I guess the students are too noisy for him to do whatever it is he's doing, instead of assisting with the class.
However, I'm not the only teacher dealing with behavioural issues. I observed a humorous incident in the faculty room at my main school. A mother walked her boy into the room and stood back while the boy approached the discipline officer. It was clear that the mother sent her son in to apologize to the teacher. The boy was obviously opposed to the idea and didn't apologize at all. The mother approached and gave a few stern words, then with a smack on the back, physically forced the boy to bend into a bow. The boy resisted and was still backtalking the teacher as the mother pulled him out of the room. I actually had to stifle my laugh. It was quite a sight.
I also saw a strange case of corporal punishment at my boys school. My desk is with a few other teachers in a side room off of the main faculty office. An older teacher brought in a group of boys and apologized for interrupting our work. She lectured the boys, then had them stand in a semi-circle. The boys were instructed to lift up their knees, and then the teacher whacked their thighs with a wooden backscratcher.
Another lecture ensued, and further whacks were administered. All in all, each boy got four hits each - three with the flat part and one with the edge of the backscratcher. It was a very odd scene. Clearly, the whacks smarted on their legs, but the boys were laughing and dancing around. The teacher seemed in good spirits rather than angry.
After the punishment was finished, I mentioned to another teacher that school is very different in Korea than Canada and something like this wouldn't be allowed these days. She wasn't very pleased with the scene but couldn't do anything because she was a junior teacher. But she said that this was not normal and shouldn't happen in school. I asked what the students did to earn their punishment? Apparently, the boys didn't clean up when they were on cleaning duty.
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