First day back

One role model for ideal class discipline.

One of the biggest problems I face in class is getting my kids to be quiet. And sit down. Getting them to speak english is I'm sure somewhere on my list of priorities but i'm trying to stick to realistic goals.

Its tough when the kids genuinely annoy you. For the most part they are just bored or restless, when you have students that do 60 hour study weeks its understandable. But when its a kid deliberately just trying to see how far they can push you its tough. Today I had two girls call me some korean insult that basically means that I'm old and unmarried. Now this does not hit very close to home for me as neither of these things are really touchy subjects. In Korean culture however to be older than your mid twenties and not be married is a taboo best to be avoided, you instantly become crazy cat lady if 26 years pass without a wedding ring. So its not really what they said thats important, whats important is that thier heart was in the right place (captain planet villian level of wrongdoing). Bear in mind these kids weren't bad kids and they don't really dislike me, they were just the only kids to show up to class (vacation time for most) and thought they'd just push the envelope to alleviate the mind numbing boredness I choose to inflict.

So you've got loud kids not paying attention to the lesson and using thier loudness to insult you. Now resisting the urge for the mother of all sucker punches I typically just steamroll them with my superior vocal cords by reading loudly from the textbook. I had enough of trading insults with 12 year olds when I was 12. No one ever wins an argument with a kid, the best you can do is scare them into holding thier tongue.

Now of course this is a problem every teacher and scout leader and crossing guard faces- not being paid enough to discipline children trying to avoid wanting to push them ito traffic too. Crossing guards walk that razors edge oh so many times. Now there are a million techniques out there to discipline kids, but most of them rely on said children understanding the words you speak. My current approach of just staring at them and trying to use some as-of-yet untapped physic manipulation on them has only yielded mixed results.

The real problem today was probably just that both the students and I got used to not coming to school for 5 days and it will just take a while to get back in the routine. They just have to remember that I am the supreme overlord of thier destiny for an average 40 minutes a day. except for the kindergarteners which I sometimes have twice in a day, but with them I consider myself more like a sheepdog. If sheep picked thier noses.