Some advice

So first off, I PROMISE a LOOOOONG entry awaits this weekend about my trip this past weekend. I have the majority of it already typed up, I just need to insert pictures.

I was done with work today (on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm done about an hour and a half earlier than the other teachers), but I stayed to do some work. It's May and a LOT of stuff has been taking place this week. All the elementary classes have these placements tests, and the teachers have to not only grade them, but also we also have to write up a separate evaluation grading them on a scale of how good/bad each student is on different levels such as speaking fluency, reading comprehension, and even class presentations, overall attitude in class and homework (as in, how often do they actually do it and how much effort do they put into it). So yeah, I had a fair amount to do. Anyway, during my last class I had to switch my teaching material. I share this class with another teacher (as in the first 45 minutes I teach certain materials and then the next hour and a half this teacher teaches other materials). The placement test they were supposed to take had been blocked for the time I was supposed to teach them, meaning I wasn't going to teach today but rather administer and oversee the test. The other teacher and I both agreed that the test should be administered during her teaching block because she has them for a longer amount of time. Our Korean supervisor agreed, and I was given some of the teaching materials (the phonics portion) of the other teacher to teach during my time block so that the other teacher could use that same amount of time during her block to administer the test. You following me so far?

Anyway, from what I was told these kids have a hard time paying attention, staying focused, constantly fight, etc, especially during the phonics lesson which they all think is very boring. When I was first told this I was surprised because the same kids in general do not misbehave with me. They do something every once in a while (as to be expected), but that's about it. From what I was hearing this was constant for the other teacher. So I was very interested to see how the children would behave with me now that I was teaching material they considered very boring.

The children behaved exactly the same way they always do with me. Focused, staying in their seats, not talking out of turn, etc. They were even trying to one-up each other with answers. At one point there was indeed a lull and I apologized to the kids, telling them I knew the material was boring (I do need to note that the book is terrible, and there are CONSTANT errors). But they unanimously said "No boring, teacher. Carla Teacher is funny," which I'm guessing meant, "We're not bored, teacher. You make it funny." So that warmed my grinch heart.

Speaking of my grinch heart, this is a good time to report something that happened just BEFORE I was about to teach the aforementioned class. My Korean supervisor came up to me to just give me a few notes on what I was going to teach the kids (remember that I wasn't teaching my original materials), and my supervisor said, "Julia [one of the girls in the class] didn't do her phonics homework. Be nice to her, OK?" I was like, "OK... why are you telling me this?" My supervisor told me that Julia would be very upset if I yelled at her for it because she's scared of me. I laughed so hard. Just some background: my kids get a yelling if they don't do their homework. I've also started giving them reward points if they do their homework, and they get more points if it shows they put effort into their homework (this is definitely the least motivated group I teach). This, so far, has actually been paying off. Anyway, I asked my supervisor how the other kids reacted to knowing I was going to be teaching them some of the stuff that is supposed to be from the other teacher. My supervisor said they didn't know. I was obviously confused as to how Julia could comment that she was scared of me if she didn't know I was teaching the material. My supervisor said, "Oh, her mother had called me at one point to tell me that she's afraid of you."

Is it bad that I take joy in knowing my kids fear me? Because I honestly do. It's not the first time a supervisor has told me a kid fears me, and I know it won't be the last. (One such other instance: my friend, Yelena, who is also a teacher at my school, has a girl who is an "attention whore" with an attitude. I came into her classroom once to give her something and Yelena told me after I left this girl said, "I don't like Carla Teacher." When asked why she responds with, "She's scary." Yelena was happy to know her little diva had a fear of someone).

But then something hit me. My kids fear me, but they have fun with me. All of them. From my kindergartners to my 5th graders. And I realized how I was able to bring this about: I am serious and expect them to be little adults, but at the same time I don't take myself too seriously as a teacher. I constantly joke with my kids, whether they're 6 years old or 10 years old. I'm very animated. I make faces, gestures, little comments, etc. I cover my mistakes (and I do make quite a few mistakes) with humor. And my kids love it. But at the end of the day when Carla Teacher puts her bitch face on they know I mean business (by the way, Yelena has told me I have a VERY good bitch face).

So I guess if you're reading this and thinking about being a teacher, or are teaching but still struggling on how to do things, I'd say: be strict, expect the best, but let your kids know you're still human underneath it all.

-AALA