Demon Classes

September 20, 2011

As I have mentioned in the past, I have two classes full of demon children. Today, I had a full schedule, so I got to see both of these classes. Thankfully for everyone, these classes are never back to back. Class seven is the class I have had problems with from the start. On Friday Paul took over my class to show them who is who in the classroom. He originally was just disciplining for me as I went along with my lesson but eventually took over my lesson because he couldn’t just silently peg out children to discipline. He took my two class clowns and made models out of them at the front. He literally shaped the child’s hands in what he wanted them to look like for each action. The boys did seem to enjoy this extra attention. However, he didn’t hesitate to force them into obedience. He pulled a boys hair to make him stand up straighter. While the other children laughed, Paul got his point across to these children. I am told that the last thing you want in China is to stand out; it is embarrassing and not acceptable. So to use the clowns as my puppet is embarrassing. I honestly had my doubts about it. Yesterday, the head teacher of class seven sat in my class. The children are terrified of their head teachers. For this class, this was the most I ever saw them behave. We got through our lesson content, and I might have even tried to make it fun for them. I was so impressed with their behavior (well, skeptically impressed). Today is day two of the week. The head teacher went about her business. The resident teacher looked ready to go. And the class fell to pieces around us. We had boys standing at the back. We had boys I walked by and cuffed upside the head. I left angry. I don’t know what to do about these children. This is the second song that they are not going to know because they fool around. I almost don’t care – they will fail their English at the end of the year and I will fail at teaching one class. Whatever, I will teach at least three well.

At lunch today we had a planning session for our quickly approaching National Day celebration week in Beijing which will also be my birthday celebration for the most part. I think I will add a dinner here in town for everyone, but we will be on the Great Wall of China for my birthday. I had a cup of coffee because I didn’t get my naptime. It went well, Erin recommended a Hostel and Niha went off to book dorm rooms for the five of us that are going for sure. We are going into town tomorrow in our lunch break to buy train tickets (hopefully).

My three good classes were great. I had one class the sound system on the computer wasn’t working properly and they sang the song without the music. I was so impressed with them. There were some struggles with words, but those are always there, it’s just easier to notice without the music covering it. They can all sing the song and do the actions. Hooray teacher. So, with one class to go, I go to my other demon class. Two weeks ago, the head teacher and the resident teacher yelled at my class (along with me) and we accomplished nothing. I had them three times last week to everyone else’s two and we got not very far. Erin sat in and they still misbehaved. Today was my first day with class ten this week. Having already dealt with demons today, I wasn’t really willing to put up with shit. The resident teacher had a child or two standing at the back of the room. I don’t consider those children my responsibility – I don’t even know why they are at the back of the room. I decided to do something I saw in Erin’s class yesterday. I had a boy stick his tongue out at me. I could have done many things, but I just made him stand up, push his chair in and stand behind his desk. I gave a boy a couple warnings and he also stood behind his desk. He tried to sit down a couple of times and was repositioned behind his desk. When we switched activities, I let the boys sit down. The two at the back were also sent back to their desks. With this activity, the children had to tell me the word and to hit the correct picture on the chalk board. I decided not to take shit here either. Normally I just erase points if someone is stupid. Today I kept the first person who purposely said the word wrong (I understand that the TH sound is hard, and I understand that maybe you forgot the word you were saying), and made him stand at the front with me. I made him a puppet. With his hands in the air, we stuck up the correct finger for the action. Everyone laughed. When they were quiet, we practiced saying the word. Then the whole class said the word. He went back to his seat. I did this with each person who was stupid. A couple of them made sure to say the word right the next time. Some decided this humiliation was actually fun and did it each time I called on them. At the end of class, one boy made his name tag into an airplane and threw it at me. I told him to give it to me nicely. He threw it at me again. I cuffed him. He did it again. I cuffed him harder. He did it again. I grabbed his wrists. He threw it again. I grabbed his wrists and started dragging him out of the room (class was over). I must have relaxed a little, because he shrugged out of his jacket and I had it in my hand and he ran away. This was fine by me. I walked up to the head teacher, handed her the jacket and told her that his boy threw things at me. She was not amused. I calmly walked out of the classroom. And damn did it feel good! Look who can be in control. Be a douche and repeat it for the class. Throw things at me and teacher will deal with you. I won’t hit the children as much as the Chinese teachers will, and I don’t think it’s my place. If you really piss me off, your teacher will know and she will do whatever it is that she does. Although class ten didn’t learn as much as my other classes, and certainly didn’t behave, I walked out of there with a smile on my face. I am done with their bullshit. Students who tell me off, in their eight year old way will be “tattled on" to their teacher.

Erin had her desk rifled through last night. She is currently building Lego cars as a point system and someone swiped her car bases. She told Paul and talked to one of the head teachers that has been her teacher since she started here. They had to use the computer to translate that things were stolen from her desk, but when he figured it out, he yelled at the other teachers to talk to their children. My class seven teacher came in a few minutes later with a Lego car. Demon number one was sitting at her desk (this is the child that didn’t used to be allowed in my classroom at all) and was apparently the guilty culprit, but only of one of the two cars. Tony, as this Demon is called in English, has been doing lessons in the office for two days. In the next break, as I hung out in the office, breathing deeply before class seven, four children came in (I am 99% sure they were Erin’s kids) and deposited a car on her desk. So, she got her stuff back, but she is still mad that we have to use the office and our stuff is not safe. I am sure the lecture that starts on Paul’s end hasn’t even started yet. Effing kids. My stuff is all kept in my bag and in the middle drawer of my desk, so maybe they think I don’t have anything? My sticky ball would be fun to steal though I am sure. Patrick also had something stolen from his desk. He had confiscated a toy from a child and the child would get it back if he was good the next day. Of course, the child was good the next day, but the toy went missing overnight. Patrick went out looking for a replacement toy but couldn’t find it, so he was going to tell the child that his toy was missing and Patrick would buy him something similar. What crap! Naughty kids – beat them all!

*breath in, breath out*

Not much has gone on since I last wrote. Last week we taught for three days and I had each of my classes only twice. We learned a song because it was easy. Class seven never sang it because Paul was mad at them on their second day. Class ten learned it and had a review session of songs but still don’t fully know their songs. DEMONS!

On Friday night we were offered a free meal at an Italian Restaurant in town. The restaurant wanted our opinion on how they were doing and what could be changed about the menu or the service or anything. We went all out in eating and drinking (they really should have made us pay for our drinks!). The food was pretty good. I enjoyed the time there. They had a fruit pizza that I wanted to take home and I got it for free as well. In the end, there was a pizza on the table I had boxed up (it wasn’t mine but was near me), my fruit pizza and an extra order of chicken that was sitting on the table that I went home with. I felt really bad, but I knew it would all get eaten at home. Chance carried some of it for me so that I didn’t look like a piggy. I had big plans for Saturday and spent the entire day on Skype. I talked to Dad for the first time in a month and to Justin (from my college days) for the rest of the day. I went out with Dave, Chance and George for dinner at 7 pm. We met Sunny (he works at the Bank of China), Sunshine (she sings with Dave sometimes) and a man from the States whose name I can’t remember at the restaurant. Dave met the American on Friday night – he works at a middle school in central Yangzhou. Apparently talking on the phone all day is hard on me, I came home and crashed hard. Sunday I was up at a decent hour and went to down before noon for groceries. I had a drink at Gloria’s and then hit the Da Ren Fa for some much needed groceries. I was home by two. I read the Teaching Guide for the week’s lessons plans and thought a little about this week. Around 4 I went upstairs to the porch and we played a game until dinner was ready. Krista was making Jambalaya for everyone. After dinner everyone went their separate ways and I went to bed. Nothing exciting, but a very nice weekend!

No big plans for this coming weekend. We will be leaving Sunday October 2 for Beijing and will return the morning of the 7th. We have to work the weekend of the 8/9 which will suck. I bet they choose a Tuesday and Thursday for our extra days, which will mean I teach all my children 6 times that week! Kill me now! The weekend after that, I will sleep until I can function again!

Hope all is well, wherever you are! I love you!