Many volunteers come to training saying things like "I love my students", and "teaching is great". I hesitate before saying anything like that. My students, on the whole, give me tons of problems and often turn me into an unmotivated lump by the end of the day. I know it's a city thing - but it's also a "we see white people every day. They're all rich and unapproachable, so why should you be any different?" thing. This great combination leads to sometimes outward hostility and most times complete lack of discipline. Yes, often complete lack of discipline.
Though I try.
Kicking students out, giving the entire class an absence, giving red absences (get 3 and you're out of school), giving zeroes in quizzes and tests, tearing sheets out of notebooks, simply not giving classes but holding the students responsible for the material...often it still does not guarantee that I can give a class. Example.
I gave four ACS' today. The first one I gave I only had to kick a couple students out. But I had another lesson with the same class and they made so much noise - even after throwing several students out and calling roll early - that I had to stop the lesson short. I knew I had lost control and they had no intention of participating or cooperating. My mental sanity was at stake. This happens at least once or twice a week.
In one of my ACS' today, of which there are two versions - one for the right side of the desk and one for the left, because they sit two to a desk - a girl actually got up and moved around to sit on the other side of the desk. Not only was she disrupting the class, but she had clearly seen a previous version of the quiz I had given in another turma and decided she knew the other side better. So I threw her out.
Then I noticed that the girl she was sitting with didn't have a proper uniform, and I had just gotten spoken to about enforcing the uniform rule (no uniform, no classes). So I threw her out, too. It's incredible - depending on the teachers that students have every day, they will wear different clothes. Uniform if a teacher will throw them out for not having it. Short skirt for girls who want to flirt with the teacher. Random Amiercan paraphernalia for me. If they just put that much effort into their schoolwork!
I've been trying to figure out lately why it is that language is more easily understood than spoken. It seems to make sense that you can understand what's going on by picking up on key words, but all those little words you don't know pose a problem when speaking. I think that's one aspect. There's also body language that in a native speaker can serve to help communicate, but a learner will use in place of proper language. Additionally, memories can be triggered by hearing a word - somehow this is often easier than thinking simply of a translation.
This last one has me hung up - what structure exists in the brain that makes it easier to recognize than to translate a word? At what point does the word take on its own meaning, independent of explanation or translation?
Peace
John
