I am a horrible person. Over the last two days, I've made two of my students cry. CRY. Today I also managed to break a window. Yet I also received unsolicited, unaccompanied comments that I'm giving good lessons, from my students.
The reason these students were crying is simple - I tore pages out of their notebooks.
Horrible!
You see, the notebook is sacred. It stays with them from 8th grade to 10th grade when they take the exam. They don't have books, so this is the only copy of the information available to them.
And I go to this poor country and start ripping their books up. Callous! But, like all teenagers, their attention span and work ethic is limited. They push all boundaries, laughing in the face of respect. I have recently made the rule that if you are doing other work in class - even if it's Biology - I will rip that page out of your book. Clearly, I start with a warning, then I only really have to do it once and they get the message. But it's traumatizing.
And proves I'm an asshole.
Yesterday, a girl sitting with her two friends (yes, three girls on a two-person seat by choice), was working, head buried in something other than Biology. So, naturally, I picked on her. I asked her a question obvious to the rest of the class who was listening. I gave her all the help I could, but she was simply incapable of using what she had written in her book. So I grabbed the book and tore out the page she was looking at. I told her it was because she didn't know how to use it, so what use was it to her?
I'm a pompous white guy.
I then used the page to, very snippily, demonstrate how to use the information by tearing it carefully along drawn lines. It was clear that she and the rest of the class got the point - and she was incredibly mad.
I spoke with her afterwards and she was still fuming. But I think, for the first time, I may have gotten the message across to her. "You're not here just to write and memorize. You need to be able to use the information. Or else it's no good to you." If she really wants the info back, she can copy it from someone else very easily.
Abominable!
And today, a girl was working on her drafting project. She had, bound, about 20 sheets. She was finishing up one of these sheets when I lost patience with her. I grabbed the project, asked her why she was doing this in my class and knew what I do when people do other work during my class. She begged forgiveness. I gave her a choice - I tear off one sheet or take it all, unharmed, and give it back next week. Knowing that she needed it this week, the choice was tough, but she went with tearing one sheet out. My heart almost went with it.
I know that I have to do these things in order for students to give themselves a fighting chance of learning during my lessons. Otherwise, they take advantage of every tiny little inch I give them. Talking, doing other work, and disrupting class are all huge for me.
Which leads me to the broken window. A student from a different turma than the one I was teaching walked in unannounced and without permission. I immediately told him to turn around and walk back out, fully intending to not let him in. He stood right up against the doorway. To drive home my point, I slammed the door. Mistake. The door adjoining it shook violently, knocking loose most of the glass in it and sending that glass crashing to the ground. Teachers came out and inquired about what happened. The student ended up cleaning all of it and will most likely end up paying. Do I feel good about that? No. Do I think he'll learn? Only not to enter MY room without knocking first.
Peace
John
