Chapter 33: "Class Change! The REPORT."

And my first Monday with the new schedule is OVAH!! This means I've met pretty much all my students. It went thusly:

First class was the class of all boys (no more girl) that I had last term. This class includes the Smart Kid and Child Abuse Boy. They're just as insane as always. Today we were reviewing the months, and I was having each of them say the months backwards, just because they can. They were doing it, but as they are all little 8-yr-old boys, they must do it at the top of their lungs. We were having fun, but the head teacher came in anyways and told them to be quiet. She looked a bit shocked at what was going on. I control the class pretty well, I think, but like I said, they're insane.

Next was a new class that I have MWF. They seem pretty obedient, but not so quiet. They're maybe 9 or 10 years old, and their level, while lower than the first class, isn't bad for their age. But they have this cute talent. They can pinch their noses shut (maybe this is just something Asians can do) and suck in really sharply, so their nose stays pinched shut. Then they cross their eyes and flap their hands. They look like some weird sort of bird, it's hilarious.

Next was another new MWF class. I know a few of these kids from my very first term, and they're nice. There is one girl who said hi to me every time she saw me in the halls, so it's easy to remember her. I also have Mute Girl, who cried in my class on my very first day of teaching (wasn't my fault). There's one boy who cracks me up in there. His antics. I'll be writing a lot about them I think, because he's such a goofball.

After that (sorry, this is my long day) I had another new class, which, when everyone is in attendance, will have like 9 or 10 kids. Oh my gosh. That is a lot of little buggers to handle. They behave pretty well. I guess they are also 10-11 years old. All the boys wanted to do name-changes too. One boy wanted to name himself Plevin (rhyming with another boy's name-change to Kevin). I tried to tell him that Plevin is not a name. But he could've been saying "plumbing" for all I know. Their accents are quite thick.

Next was the class I loathe the most, because of those irritating 12/13-yr-old girls who insist on speaking Korean in class, no matter what I do, and laugh at me and talk about me in Korean openly. Brings me right back to junior high, except now I can't even understand what they're saying. So, when I heard that the entire class, except one new girl, was on a camping trip, I nearly cried. It was the best day of my life.

The next class was one I had last term, but with some new girls that I already knew from a different class from last term. It's five girls now, all of them as sweet and nice as they can be. Btw, one of them was the girl who threw up in class, but now that I know her and she speaks up more (and is not ill), I can't bear to dub her with a nickname that pertains to barf -_- The one drawback to this class is that they all want to be my friend and not study, so they're harder to control. I'd rather just babysit them and not teach. They're the type to swarm me and braid my hair. There's no way I'll be putting any of them out in the hall this term ;_;

The final two classes are those poor junior high classes that I teach from 8:20 till 9:45. And that's late, my friends. They're so subdued, it's not like it's hard to keep them in line. But I feel like I have to do a Three Stooges routine to get any sort of reaction out of them. Granted, it is extremely boring material. However, one funny thing did happen in the last class. We had a word test, and they boys' grades were baaaad. So I told them to copy all their mistakes five times. One boy didn't want to, he only wanted to copy them 3 times (wouldn't you, if you had fifteen words to copy?). We haggled for a bit, but he wouldn't go up. And since the kids really have no incentive to do any homework at all, I can't exactly say, "Do your homework or else." So we did what all great and powerful leaders and dictators do to come to decisions of grave importance. We played rock-paper-scissors. He won.