Take A Chance On Me (Baby Set Me Free)

No, I'm not talking about my girlfriend. My director called me into his office during my last class and decided it was a good time to respond to a letter I wrote 2 weeks ago. I didn't know whether he'd paid my salary, but I'd guessed no, and I also guessed he wanted me to come whimpering and quivering into his office today. Like I said, I didn't really know whether he'd paid it, I hadn't checked, but I had an inkling this morning when he stepped into his domain (which it has to be said is quite scruffy and dirty) triumphant, and he said hello to the secretary and ignored...I just had an idea that some strategy was behind that. Maybe baby.

So in his office he scribbled on a tiny piece of paste-it yellow message paper my salary, and under that, minus W100 000. Before we got to that he mentioned that some students have quit the school, and I guess this was my fault.
I don't know. I mean, in my experience, a lot of directors, before they get to the point, they either criticise you or praise you with something besides the point, and then real point, is never made, or emerges very much in a sort of by-the-way way.

I managed to make a couple of points, and watched him grind his hand hard against his forehead as I spoke, much as Tom Cruise does in Jerry Maguire when the stress gets to him.
I suggested we make a few rules at the school.
Maybe:
1) Come to class on time
2) Don't eat in class
3) Listen to the teacher

I know. All three are kind've implicit, but not at this school. I'm not sure what the philosophy is here, but I think it boils down to this:

Kids need to come here and occupy and enjoy themselves while their parents are at work. That's the most important. We'll teach some math and English, but if they don't learn anything that doesn't matter. What's important is that they are here in a safe environment where they can study and learn if they feel like it.

Do you think I'm joking?

This makes an almost sick contrast to CDI which basically robotcontrolled every utterance you said, timed to the minute. And each class was around 3 hours.

These suggestions to the director were in part because he wanted me to spare the rod with the students.
In my 3 years at Kangs I never once used capital punishment. This is in part because of the system, and also because there is often another teacher present. But that school, as mediocre as it was, had a few rules posted on the walls.

It's a challenge to get discipline out of students when many of them come in 15 minutes late into a 30 minute class, and half the time they are stuffing their faces with food. The implication of eating in class means they need to leave the class to throw away plastic wrappers, or clean their faces, or clean the mess they've made. At least one student turned her book into what looks like a palm tree after she spilled a water bottle over it. All the apges have curled back. It looks great, but try writing on that.
Just these 2 things create an environment of chaos and a sort of erratic teaching pattern which incentivises bad behaviour. I've used stickers as a great way to reward good behaviour. It's provided the means for much better behaviour across the board. But there are still one or two devils in every class who simply aren't interested.

It's possible to get the momentum of the class going without getting them in line, and I usually do this. But there are times when discipline is absolutely necessary. It's a shock when you find yourself saying loudly, 5 or 6 times, "Be quiet, be quiet..." and you realise no one can actually hear you over the noise and mayhem. If you think that's OK, try repeating that in 10 classes. You'll be horase before you get halfway, and it's not teaching. It's then that you raise your voice to a take-no-nonsense shout and suddenly everyone snaps to attention. That's discipline. It's when you raise your voice like that and a student ignores you that you have to consider weaponising a piece of chalk.

I've got a great class where the ability to speak English is almost subzero, except for one little girl who continues to be astonishingly brilliant. Cindy - what would I do without you?
But the others are a lot of fun, and Frank isn't far behind Cindy.
There was a lot of upset in the beginning, as they gave up on me (all they got from me was blah blah be quiet blah) and I gave up on them. But they're still young enough to be happy and positive towards someone they don't understand even a little, even if he is giving them a lot of grief.
I tried reasoning.
I tried handsup.
I tried pushups.
I tried and tried and tried.
When I did role call and I got to Lily, I'd sing a little melody with it: "The Lilee of the Valleeee..." and they'd all chime in the next time when we got to her name.
And then they picked up on another little songpiece I used, to indicate we're going to refer to the audio CD for role plays.
Point to the radio.
Sing: All we need is...radio goo goo, radio gaa gaa.

Now whenever I take out the CD, the song erupts, and it's also useful to sing words to hear and feel how they sound. Today we did an easy one: "All we need is, radio (pointing to it) coffee..." But today, also, no one could say, "July 11th, Monday, Rainy."
So we all sang, "All we need is, Radio-July-11th-Monday-Rainy." It must be sung with that catchy Queen melody. And shah, before you knew it quite a few had it.

Another funny thing happened in this class with a kid called Harry. Today I had about W7000-W8000 in W1000 notes. And I'd just dropped two W1000 in a previous class - the kids were very quick to point me to the first and second errant notes. They're very honest in that way. So in the very next class, in the middle of trying to extricate an answer to "How was your weekend?" from Harry Potter, I saw another W1000 under Cindy's desk, and irritably dug it back into my pocket. Not long after that, Harry was in tears. In my wehgohgin ignorance I thought that the hard high 5 I gave him had hurt him, but it turns out I'd taken his money. He'd happened to drop his W1000 on the floor. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, and once I did, I handed the money back to him, and then explained, "Hey teacher, that's my money. My money teacher.?

Anyway, back to my wonderful boss. So a few students have quit, and in fairness to him, I think he was trying to say it's our common cause to prevent that from getting worse, as a school. And what I can do is that I mustn't give 'be-kwaai-it' hand smacks, and he's deducting W100 000 from my pay for the air ticket blah blah. That's how I understood it all. Okay the W100 000...I still don't know what it was for. A fee for changing the ticket? I don't know. The air ticket went up and by that amount from the amount he first paid? Or because I missed a day of school? I don't know. I drew a line through it, and put W50 000 instead in pen, and then said, "Remember, last week, you said W50 000."
Which he did.
And so that was the deal.
But the point is, it was also a negotiation. Korean style.

Before I left, and I think this was kind've cheeky, but we are about the same age, and I mean, it's reality, but I basically said to the guy, "Some students have quit. Maybe you think it's me? But while I'm here your secretary has quit, and two or three other teachers. The students are behaving very badly. Maybe we can have just one or two simple rules. We need to get everyone organised." I pointed out quickly that when he was in the army, they'd had rules. Any business needs some rules. I know. An employee shouldn't educate his or her boss. By way of example I said, "Especially time. If a student is late, and there's no rule, what can you do? Sometimes they are 15 minutes late. What happens if I am late for class, or late to come to school? There must be rules for the students too."
Right then he glanced at his watch. "Oh...oh...you are late for class. You must go now."
Exactly.

I hope, soon, I'll be the boss. This employee business is for losers who can't kickstart their own lives.