Are We There Yet?
Yesterday between classes, I looked up from my Kindle to see one of my students repeatedly hitting another boy on the back of the head. He was clearly angry and exclaiming something in Korean I couldn’t understand. I immediately sat up and started yelling. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” The hitting stopped. “BOTH OF YOU OUTSIDE […]
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Sometimes I think teaching has literally made me insane. Or perhaps I was simply insane to decide to teach in the first place. Sometimes my students are great. Everyone comes on time with their books prepared and pencils sharpened, having gone to the bathroom and drunk a satisfactory amount of water. Whatever candy or toys […]
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I caught one of my students cheating yesterday. Well, a student in the following class caught her. The girl had written the longest vocabulary word on her test (delicious) on her desk and left it plain as day for the next student who used that desk to see. Not the most subtle technique. But even though the truth […]
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On Monday, I returned to work after a two-week vacation. I love returning to places after vacation. Everything feels so fresh. The time away gives you space to miss people, to miss the routine. Despite one student’s “No hello, Teacher” greeting on Monday, I couldn’t help feeling all warm inside as I welcomed the kids back. There was one student, however, I was slightly apprehensive about seeing…
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Last week, I saw an ugly side of one of my young students. English name of Brian. He is normally very cute and engaged during class (and I may even subconsciously favor him sometimes..). He just has the kind of attractive personality that makes you want to call on him all the time.
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This week my voice got hoarse, which made it difficult to speak loudly during class, which made me realize how much I rely on yelling to control my classroom. Since that fallback was no longer an option, I resorted to a technique my roommate has mentioned a few times: the whisper technique. I started talking in a […]
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Yesterday my boss came in to talk to me about one of my students. Apparently this student had gone home and told his mother that I treated him unfairly, only punishing him and no one else. While that was not true, I knew exactly which student my boss was talking about even before she mentioned […]
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I could not stop smiling yesterday during my crazy class, the one packed with noisy third grade boys who like to fight with each other and test the limits of my patience. I was outright grinning from ear to ear. Because those kids were behaving SO WELL!
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