Wednesday I have a pretty hyperactive class first, and today was the world record for crazy classroom stories.
There are two boys and four girls, and they are always talking amongst each other, wrestling, and really not paying attention to me. I can get them engaged if I play a game or something, but they aren’t supposed to just be playing games the whole class. What’s it like? Here’s a sample – I show a flashcard with “hamburgers” on it, I say “hamburgers”, three students repeat it, two students continue their conversation with each other, and one boy says “Hamboooooooo!” and then walks over and kicks me in the balls four times.
At various times during the class I had students climbing up me like a tree, boys wrestling on the floor saying “Hambooo!” over and over, and three of the girls lifting their skirts to compare what underwear they were wearing that day.
Yeah. I know.
As an added bonus, one of the boys was chattering away and his front tooth fell out. He laughed heartily, blotted the bloody socket with his white shirt sleeve, and told everyone that “blood tastes good!” By the time I got there with tissues he was grossing out the girls by showing them his tooth.
Clearly I need to get this class under control, but I’m not sure what steps I’m going to take to do it. On one hand, this isn’t high school and the students aren’t tested on their English – if I don’t cover everything in a class that’s not a problem, but I do want to cover something. I think I’m going to have to just use more Japanese with them, and maybe use a lot more of the “command form” of Japanese. I hate to talk down to kids, but if they act like rabid monkeys then I guess I have to.
Fun, fun, fun. I guess that is why this is a part time job. You’d drop dead working with these students all day long.
However, it’s not all bad news. The next students that came in (and really, most all of the students I teach) behaved, listened with interest to what we were learning, and at the end of the day I think they did learn something useful.
When I came home at the end of the day I was pretty tired out. Kuniko heard my story and said, “Really, don’t try to do too much. You can quit if you want!” I told her that it is a good learning experience, and maybe a nice preview of fatherhood someday. So I’m going to treat this as a challenge. Can’t wait to see what happens next Wednesday class. Luckily I have next week off, so I can take some time and come up with a plan to deal with these guys. Or I could use the time to get six little straightjackets that fit them.
