So much earth-shattering news of late that it's hard to keep up. Just wanted to take a second to chronicle my own (very minor) woes. Teaching at a Junior High can be a whole different bag of hammers than teaching at a cram school. First of all, if you teach at a cram school, then the students you see will for the most part want to be there, and have a certain knowledge of English and interest level coming in.
When you teach at a Junior High, and you're teaching the very lowest level students (i.e., the ones who never come to English cram schools), then all the above points are missing. Throw in the fact that it's a private school, and the concomitant 'little emperor' factor, and then it is indeed a whole different ball 'o wax.
Many of these low-level kids (in English, that is) are low-level in all their classes. You have kids who have to attend school for 15 hours a day, five days a week, and parents and/or administrators who don't give a damn about them actually learning anything or even if there is any class discipline. Some kids (granted, only a small handful) regularly come into class, put their heads down on their desk and head off to sleepyland for the duration of class.
Others never bring class materials (books, pencils, etc.) and always (coincidentally, I'm sure) happen to be the ones that like to chat/make a lot of noise while bothering other students (grabbing them, their books, and so on). Again, a small number, but with class sizes in the 40s, even two or three of these miscreants can cause havoc for the unwary teacher.
What to do? Well, wake them up, stand them up, and if that doesn't work, then send them to stand in the hall. Rarely (though it does happen) send them to the office. There are a small core of kids (talking Junior High here) who are regularly under some form of punishment by all their teachers, both foreign and local. Parents are called, and even asked to come in, but with the whole 'little emperor' syndrome (my little Johnny can do no wrong!) going on, it's just a big waste of time, and may even get the parents angry at the administrators.
I've managed to solve the no materials problem with my students (basically shamed them into bringing their stuff), and sleeping is just about solved. But the general rowdiness (rowdyness? sp?) yakking really loud problem will still occasionally rear its ugly maw. The school administrators clearly don't care. And as I see these kids once a week, only 2 hours out of the 75(!!!) they have to be there a week, I absolve myself of really any blame in the matter.
It really bugged me at first, but after talking to numerous good, attentive students, apparently the miscreants are that way in nearly all of their classes. It still bothers me, but after reading some US message boards about class discipline problems (some places in the US still allow corporal punishment!), it seems like small beer in comparison. The majority of the kids (even my low-level kids) are really good kids, but just overwhelmed at having to attend such long hours in class. I try to make the best of it, ignoring the miscreants as best I can.
Why do I get the lowest level kids? 'Cos my Chinese is so damned good, and the adminstrators want me to use it. No reason not to just to have a Taiwanese English teacher teach them, but parents want to have a white face in there (like that has some value! ha! ha!), and the school is only too happy to comply. Damn me and my superior language abilities. The whole white face pony situation is better left for a rant at some future date.
