Monday and Tuesday I left work ex.huas.ted. The 10th and last class of the day were kicking off. It’s a middle school prep class; they are 13-14 years old. We all remember that age… Last week, besides leaving work exhausted, I left work feeling sorry for the teachers and my mom who had to deal with me during my pre-pubescent years.
MONDAY: Walked into a bare looking classroom; only 4 of 11 students were in the room. “Where is everybody?” The reply didn’t answer the question; “Is today the Christmas party?” Assuming the majority of the class were absent due to big school entrance exams, I just answered the question. “No, next Monday is the Christmas party.” A boy sneered, “not today!?” Then all 3 boys in the room slung their bookbags over their tender shoulders, and proceeded to walk out of class, each kid eye-balling me like he was a bad-ass while exiting.
Stunned and shocked by named display, I asked the one lone girl and student sitting in the class, “where are they going?” I looked at the attendance sheet I share with the Korean teacher from the previous class. Everyone was in the 5pm class. The girl just looked down at the table and shrugged her shoulders.
Walking down the hall, I saw one classroom with the light off. I opened the door, turned on the light, and there was the whole class–just chilling and playing with their cell phones. “What are you guys doing? Why are you in here?” No one could speak. “What’s going on? Does someone want to talk?”
I entered my partner Korean teacher’s room, pulled her aside – into the hallway, and caught her up to speed. When she spoke to our students, she didn’t get much feedback, either. I returned to the room, pulled out a stack of $2 KJC reward money, and gave it to the one kid who kept her ground, thanking her for staying in class. Eventually, the kids returned back to class, with all but a few minutes left. One boy who walked out of the class eyeballing me actually texted during the rest of class. I confiscated his cell phone; he got it back the next day.
TUESDAY: Test day. 2 kids always talk to each other and never do their work. I asked Harry the nice way to “be quiet;” he nodded his head. Then his pal, Looney as he righteously named himself, kept at it. “Looney! Did you not just hear what I said!?” Looney acknowledged my words then KEPT talking. Then it happened: my buttons were all pushed in the right places.
“How are you going to look at me after I just told your friend to be quiet and then you kept talking…after I warned you twice?? Did you not hear what I said or do you need to clean your ears?” The rest of the class chuckled in their seats before biting their lips when Looney responded. “No, I can hear” he responded defensively. “Oh really!? So then you heard me but kept on talking? That’s just disrespect. You can leave my class.” He paused, the rest of the class was tense, holding their breath. “NOW!” He grabbed his stuff and murmured something under his breath, in Korean, on his way out.
” Come again, a little louder!?” I could see fear in dude’s eyes. I walked his butt to the front counter and proceeded to recount the past two days of this boy’s unpleasant, disrespectful, rude attitude. Every day in that class he does nothing but distract other students.
By the time I got back in the class, there was enough time to assign them homework and rescheudle the exam for Monday, the day of the Christmas party, which already was cancelled from Monday’s no-light strike the student’s pulled.
After all that, Harry, was fidgeting under his desk. Teachers, like parents, have eyes in the back of our heads and apparently Xray vision through tables as well. His cell phone was also confiscated.
I held them 10 minutes after class until the next class bell rang. They could have left the classroom 10 seconds after the bell; the condition to a ticket out the door was to apologize to the teacher for the past two days.
Once the boss was there, everyone said “I’m sorry, teacher,” and split. After all was said and done, the boss said the only solution is to change teachers. Showing responsibly and resilience, I declined the proposal. “No, kids need stability. The whole thing in the meeting last week was about not giving up on the bad kids, spending more time with them.” I definitely took up two days dealing with behavior issues, “the students need stability, and so do I. I’ve had classes for months and the very last month of the course had the teachers change on me due to scheduling. It’s not cool at all, for the students or me. It’s really stressful to come into work and see you are teaching a brand new class that very same day! The solution is not in swithcing classes or teachers, but working with these students and figuring out a method that works for both of us.” The boss seemed pleasantly surprised by my drive to persevere and not give up.
A Line in the Life of Phoebe* 