(Justin) I just finished my 4th week of teaching. I'm slowly learning classroom management; it's a real challenge to keep kids engaged and come up with fun and short activities. Discipline is an issue because kids are still deciding whether to take me seriously. As mentioned in my previous post, some classes have significant challenges. Here are some stories from school so far:
Attendance is somewhat arbitrary. Next week the country will be on holiday from Wednesday to the following Monday, but some parents are leaving for overseas trips early, meaning some kids are going to miss almost two weeks of school. I had one student show up in the 3rd week of school because his family was still on vacation at the beach. No worries, it's allowed.
Last Friday as I was getting ready to start my last class, a parent walked in with a large birthday cake, drinks, cups, and utensils. She announced that we were having a birthday party for her son that hour. (The homeroom teacher of this class is long gone by my lesson time.) So...I guess I have to cancel class, and now I have to help manage 17 rowdy kids with a party. One of my colleagues, the native Turkish teacher who teaches English reading and writing came running in and graciously helped. She later explained to me that this mother is crazy and when she saw her in the hallway she helped stave off a confrontation between the mother and the principal, who didn't give permission for the party much to the mother's fury. The kids enjoyed the party but later demanded more treats. (Grrr.)
I have one group of 3rd graders that makes their homeroom teacher cry; she says it's the worst class she's seen in 25 years. Their previous teacher quit halfway through last year, and apparently never instilled much discipline when she had the class. (Sometimes kids will have the same teacher 1st through 4th grades, meaning the teacher makes a lasting impact good or bad.) I've seen teachers and principals chew this class up and down with little result. I've seen one-on-one pep talks with kids with little result. There is no such thing as detention or suspension that I can tell.
Speaking of crying, I see a lot of it in all my grades. Some kids cry when they are made fun of. Others cry after they've been punched by someone whom they made fun of. Others cry when I start to drag them to the principal's office after repeated warnings. One 4th grade boy started crying just because one of his friends was crying, kind of like that scene from Kindergarten Cop. Boys and girls alike. Whenever one is crying, rest assured 10 kids will raise their hands and say "So-and-so is crying," until I deal with it...again.
Sometimes my classes will also get canceled due to an exam, field trip, or special lesson. I usually find out about it right when the class meets, though you think they'd send an email out or put it on the calendar. (Does this happen for roving teachers in the U.S. too?) We also have after-school meetings or seminars that aren't scheduled more than a few days in advance. I can get out of some of them but not most. People love to give long-winded speeches, and this happens often at gatherings, making them drag on. Apparently a faculty-parent meeting after school last week featured long lectures by the teachers to the attending parents, such that the meeting went for three hours. Fun times!
Thanks for tolerating my education observations. I should say that so far I enjoy my coworkers and bosses, and that there are perks to the job (more on those later).
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