Don't Drink the Kool-aid

There has been a trend, if you haven't noticed, in my posts. Most of the kids that I have are bad. Very bad. I think I posted last about being the meanie in Patrick's class. Well...since then, there have been more problems that I'm sure made almost every one of my classes hate me for.

Monday:

What a horrible day. Well not as bad as today, but damn near it. First, Jade was giving me problems in the Panda kindergarten class. She was captain, but didn't hand out any of the books, or participate in class. She just kept giving me the stink-eye. I kinda figured that it would just be a bad day. I'll skip Kangaroo class, cause they're always good for me. Then came Bad Kids 1. I seriously don't know how Patrick (I think it was him who had the class before me) handled them. They started the class off bad, and didn't stop until the end of class. I swear. At least they answer questions for me now, in sentences no less.

After Bad Kids 1, there were the Newbies. They shall be upgraded to Bad Kids 3. They were making a huge uproar. After the whole Silvia/June episode, they thought they could push me around. And, I found out who the ring-leader in the class is. Ken. He wasn't there the first few times that I taught, but has been there since. He's the one that starts the talking and doesn't stop. So, after handing out a few check marks, I kinda had the situation under control. (just wait til today...it gets worse)

The rest of the day wasn't bad. Thankfully. Except that I had to take Mike's class, so I was stuck there until 7, instead of 5:30 when I normally get to leave.

Tuesday:

The kool-aid has been officially handed out. Jade was being her normal 'I hate the world and don't want to do anything' self. I've given up on her.

Now, Tuesday and Thursdays are normally nice, because I don't have Bad Kids 1. However, I guess June's been talking to them. Cause, he and Elliot were horrendous. I don't know what it was, but they would not stop playing with random things. By the middle of class (the first break, cause I have them for an hour and a half) I had obtained a silver chain, two large magnets, 4 Yu-Gi-Oh cards (some sort of card game that fell out in the States like 5 years ago), and a paper shurinkan (or throwing star). Even after that, and checking their names off, they wouldn't stop. I swear, I think I'm gonna loose my voice from all the yelling I have to do. Anyways, I got mad enough that for the last 5 minutes of class, they had to stand with their hands above their heads. How I wish I had buckets of water.

The rest of the day was rather dull, comparatively.

Today (Wednesday):

Ah, so the horrors continue. Well Bad Kids 1 were their usual selves. No use in trying to say anything more.

Newbies (Bad Kids 3) were completely outrageous. I guess before I came in, June and someone else were semi-fighting, which got the class started. The only reason why I know they were fighting was because June had a flesh wound on his hand. Within the first 5 minutes of class, I had everyone's names on the board with checks. Well all except Mike. A rather quiet kid. Ken, Tim and June just wouldn't shut up. June was the first to go stand against the wall. But he kept going at it, so I had him hold books above his head. This was for about 10 minutes. I kinda forgot about him. Soon after Tim and Ken joined him. The class quieted down from there.

However, I'm sure they hate me now. Seeing that I've never punished them before. Oh, and I held them after class. They kept making bell sounds (seeing that the bells still aren't working), and once I said they could go, they all bum-rushed the door. That was it. I slammed the door shut and made them all sit down. Then, 1 by 1 I called them so that they could walk from the room like reasonable human beings, not a pack of hyenas moving for their next meal.

The day only went downhill from there. N3 (I haven't decided on a nick-name for them yet) weren't horrible, but they weren't their normally OK selves. However, time did fly with them. I've figured out, if the kids are good, time goes by too fast. If they're horrible little bastards, then time stops, and you're stuck in Hell.

My next class....we'll call them Teacher-Time class (seeing that's all I hear from them) were....well they were Bad Kids 3 level. They too have a ring leader. Lina. Dear god, can she talk. Talk talk talk talk talk. It wasn't until I made her go and stand against the wall, did I have some quiet. And with all the talking, I barely had time to get my lesson in.

And the creme de resistance.

Bad Kids 2. These kids seriously make me contemplate murder. Sometimes I wonder if the sentence for murder here is less severe than in the States. Max, the sweet one, was ok. He would talk when spoken to...and occassionally would gab with the other two. John and Harry just wouldn't shut up. I actually slipped a few times (okay, more than a few. It was about every five minutes) and told them to shut up...in English and Korean. However, it was Harry that drove me to fantisizing about strangulating a 9 year-old kid. He just wouldn't stop. He refused to take his test, even though on the ones he did answer, they were right. And then, he thought it was funny to give me lip when I handed out his daily vocab test.

That was the last straw. I went down and got Esther. She is the bane of existance for every student in the school. I can understand why, but still. They all fear/hate her. Hell even Bad Kids 2 John and Harry wrote in their books 'Esther Die'. I'm not kidding you. Anyways, Esther reemed Harry out for a good 10 minutes, and I was able to actually teach. Even John was being good for me.

However, after the reeming, Harry kept giving me dirty looks. Refused to take his homework, and stormed out of there. Bastard kid. I swear....I better not have this class next week. If I do...they may have to call the police for pre-meditated murder.

On a funnier side of things:

Most all of the classes have a daily vocab test. These are prepared and given to students before hand so that they can study off them. In the class I had to take over for Mike, Esther gave me theirs.

While they were taking their already studied test, I was reading over the one for the next day. On the bottom are a few sentences demonstrating how to use the words. And #2 blew me away. So much to the point where I had to leave class and show it to the other American teachers.

Here it is:

2) I'm (definately) going to kick his ass tomorrow.

Now...if you read this and don't understand why I find it so funny....just think. This sentence is to demonstrate how to use a word in every-day conversation. To 12 year-olds.....

That's right. We've just taught young, developing minds how to swear. Effectively too.

Another thing, though it wasn't in my class, a girl was rather creative with her essay assignment. Kate had her kids write an essay for if they were stranded on a desert island. Message in a bottle essentially. Well one girl took it literally, or was trying to get brownie points, cause she actually handed it in in a bottle. A soju bottle at that. Soju is Korean vodka btw. What was great was the message itself. She actually had a map drawn on it, with a danger spot (whirlpool) and where she would be on the island.

I don't know who this girl is, but she definately made my day better with that.

As is, that's all for now.