I’ve been having quite a bit of trouble with one of the second grade classes lately. I mean these kids have been absolutely terrible and were spiraling downhill, quickly. It’s really sad when my first grade students behave better than second grade!
I finally told the teachers about this class and asked for help. Yesterday I went in and the kids actually apologized to me. The one boy who was the worst behaved kid in the class was actually much better. Still not “good” but definitely better. As long as the Chinese teachers were in there, the kids behaved very well. But then, after they left, it took about ten minutes for them to be bad again. One boy I sent out of the class and he was climbing the walls outside the classroom and opening the back door, messing with the kids, and then running away as soon as I started towards him. Of course, I didn’t even begin to chase him, but it was incredibly annoying, not to mention disruptive. Terrible. If I stood by the back door, he'd go in the front or bang on the door. And the kids don't pay attention as well when I walk around the class (which is funny cuz I always heard that teachers should walk around the class to keep attention).
Another issue with these kids (and it has happened in all my classes, including fourth grade) is that about once a day I end up with a student in tears. Sometimes they're crying that they miss their moms and dads, and sometimes the're crying because another student hurt them somehow. But sometimes, and this is most of the time, I seriously have absolutely no clue what they're crying about. One girl in my first grade class has done this twice now where she starts crying, and then that gets these two other girls crying. And I don't mean quiet crying, I mean loud sobbing wailing. And I have no clue what sparked it or what to do with it. But if I give them attention, I lose the rest of the class. And I can't leave to find a teacher because it'll take too long and I can't leave a class of forty 6 year olds unattended for that long. And I have no way of asking them what's wrong. So usually they just sit in a corner and cry. Which still disrupts the calss because everyone is staring and pointing, and sometimes running over to her for words of comfort (which is really sweet and I sometimes allow it, but sometimes that gets the whole class thinking they can run over and "help" and I lose everyone).
Learning Chinese hasn’t helped. I learned phrases like “be quiet” “listen” “stop” “repeat after me” etc. But the kids don’t respond to that. At first I thought my accent was just so bad they couldn’t understand. But every adult I’ve said things to says it’s fine. So I think the kids just aren’t expecting me to be speaking Chinese or something.
Today I finally had success with these kids though. Mostly. I never had to send a single kid out of the room which is kind of a big deal for this class. I did a lot more TPR exercises (total physical response, I’ve been reading about it online). Getting them to stand and sit and turn around. They still don’t get “Simon Says…” yet, but once they do I’m sure it’ll be a hit.
And I’ve learned that the kids LOVE it when you pick one of them to stand at the front and show the rest how to do it (stand, sit). I used to just stand up there myself, but it’s way more fun to pick a kid. Then I had some bouncy balls that I was throwing around the room getting kids to answer questions. “Would you rather have the big yellow ball? Or the small red one?” It worked well for a while. Until a kid stole one of the balls and chucked it at my head. I didn’t see who threw it either, but I could certainly narrow it down to two kids. We stopped playing immediately, unfortunately. That was the only notably bad behavior the whole class though which is a huge improvement!
As people usually tell you when things are hard, "It'll get better." This job will get easier, at least that's what I'm banking on. And as for the food tasting better? Well... I'll let you know if that ever happens. I did find some rice cakes that taste pretty good, though! (yep, you read it right, I've resorted to rice cakes as the best tasting food in this country. well, that and Pizza Hut)
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