Creative Discipline

I know I've written a lot about my attempts at controlling my classroom, but I haven't really talked about specific discipline methods. You know, the kind that would get me fired from any school in North America.

When I first got here, I remember being told that having a student stand up, face a wall, and/or leave the class was perfectly acceptable a lot by my superiors. I remember thinking that, although atypical of the discipline methods I had seen in classrooms up to that point, they weren't such outliers as to be completely useless tactics for me.

And then I started hearing more stories of...creative discipline, as used by my co-workers. And I figured some of it didn't sound half bad. This, combined with the additional stress of teaching three new classes, having to prove myself as a capable teacher in control of a classroom, has led to some interesting methods in the last couple weeks. Which is how I accidentally fell into this situation:

THAT TIME I USED CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND EVERYONE LAUGHED ABOUT IT

I googled "corporal punishment hands in the air" just to check that what I did to my poor student, Tom, was really corporal punishment. All the search results were about Korea. There you go. I'd originally heard of my boss doing this to a student from another teacher, but at the time, I thought it disgusting. But then I actually started teaching.

So the story goes like this. In my smart, boss'-favorite-class PK1, I have this student Tom, who is a real joker. He is a very respectful boy, usually, but he is definitely getting to that age where kids start thinking "Why should I do what you tell me to do?"

So he was speaking in Korean non-stop during class, while other students were reading. I told him to cut it out. After about ten seconds, his chatter started up again. "Tom," I told him. "I need you to stop speaking in Korean. If you can't quit it, you can stand against the wall." In typical prepubescent boy way, he tested me by speaking in Korean, so I made him stand up. Things were pretty congenial at this point. He didn't get moody and pissy, he stood up with that goofy grin on his face, just wondering how far he could push me. So still, the Korean wouldn't stop flowing from his trap. So I said, "That's it, hands in the air." At this point, the whole class (all four of us) is laughing, including Tom. So then I make Tom read from the book sitting on the desk, with his hands in the air. It was all we could do to get through the paragraph.

After that, I let him sit down and I've never had Tom, or any of the rest of the class, test me again. We are buds and it was all in good fun. Of course, it's not exactly a story I would want to rehash with a future employer in youth services.

 And then there was that time:

TEACHER THREATENS CLASS WITH PEEING OUTSIDE

Yeah, it happened, okay? My kindy kids were running around like crazy people during our bathroom break, so I said "Excuse me! My class is acting like animals!" Which only led to all eight of them hopping around making animals noises. So I leaned in real close and told them, "Animals can't go to the bathroom inside. Do you need to go to the bathroom outside?" They all nodded vigorously, still acting like loons. So I called up the elevator. Which is about the time one girl started crying about how she didn't want to go to the bathroom outside. So sue me.

But honestly, I have been trying to think of more creative discipline ideas, things closely tied into the crime, but I'm coming up with nothing here. Ideas are welcomed! I think my class even appreciates it.

You Can't Take It With You

Things are changing around school again. We lost the Canadian and on Sunday night, received the Canadian 2.0, a nice girl who can rival my height. Last week was a hard week, teaching 23 hours in brand-new classes in three days after coming off my Vietnam high. There may have been some tears. There may have been some resentment. But as soon as all that reared its ugly head, life got better again.

Now, I'm teaching Kindergarten again. I forgot how utterly obnoxious 6-year-old children can be. Is it bad to be saying that? Well, I'm not even a little bit sorry. There is a bonus: the student The Canadian #1 had issues with (Jack), already has a relationship with me after all the hours he spent in the teacher's room not being in her classroom, and has been remarkably easy to teach as a result. But despite how undeniably sweet they can all be in their innocence and ignorance of the world around them, sometimes I have to ask them to all put their heads down for a moment to give myself one sweet second to just breathe.

I upgraded my Basic English class for PK4B (Post Kindergarten). The kids are in the 2nd/3rd grade and I am in LOVE. It's a good thing, too, because I see them five times a week. They speak well, have very definite personalities and opinions, and are disciplined enough to not have to be directed back to their work every four seconds. A welcome relief. We also get to read fun stories and write real sentences and goof around with each other, so it's kind of like my playtime.

I'm still teaching IE2B (Intermediate English), but I lost my four favorite students because they were just too dang smart to stay in my class. Unsurprisingly, they are all girls. So now I'm just left with five stinky and annoying boys (+2 great girls). I'm only half kidding--things can get pretty rank after 80 minutes shut in a classroom together. It's also much more energy-consuming to teach a class primarily made up of boys. You have to make sure they aren't bullying. You have to get them to stop shouting in excitement. You have to ensure they aren't drawing or playing games under the table or whispering in Korean. It's exhausting. When the girls ruled the roost, it was different. I am desperately missing them.

But it seems they are missing me, too. Linda (Teacher sucks! girl), an avid reader, comes to the teacher's room during my prep to ask me to help her pick out "good" books, even though she's read almost all the books we have to offer. She peers into our classroom during the few minutes of overlap while she waits for her new class to begin. I think she misses us. But she's too smart for us, now.

I also received my boss's pet class--PK1--a class of students that have been at our school the longest. They are supposed to be our best students, but I find my PK4B surpasses them (if only because they get supplemental English instruction daily instead of twice a week) in every area except writing. We'll work on that, though. I also find it quite difficult to build a relationship with students that I only see two times a week, like we don't really know each other, that I am only a momentary mentor to be traded in for the next with ease. Which is true, but I don't like feeling that way.

After coming back from Vietnam and being thrown into this new schedule, I am coming to the conclusion that it is not only the Korean students whose life is made up of school, but their parents' lives are made up of work. There is no work-life balance. In Vietnam, there was enjoyment, color, more. But here, this is it. Yes, the Koreans play hard, but if only to anesthetize themselves to the experience of totaling their existence in the hours worked, the opinions about them held by their peers or colleagues, or achievement.

I have always known I wanted my life to be more than that, than achieving what the world expects of me, than being successful, than being someone important. Those things are important to me, as they are generally important to people, but mostly, I want to enjoy my life. I want to savor foods. I want to find beauty in silence, in small moments observed or experienced. I want to make friends with and learn from ten-year-olds instead of merely being their disciplinarian and teacher. I want to enjoy laying in bed all day or traveling to a new country totally alone or exploring some new-to-me corner. I want to make money, if only to enjoy not making money for months on end, using up my savings and merely enjoying the breeze in leaves. I want all these things that you can't get from work, that can't be bought, because these are things that aren't things at all, that you can take with you in the end.

That Time I Taught My Students the Word "Sucks"

I have this class if wonderful, brilliant 4-graders. And I love me some 4-graders. They haven't yet got a chip on their shoulder, they're desperate to please, thoughtful gifts mean something to them, they can carry on intelligent conversation, and this particular class is completely full of students clamoring to answer my every question before I've even asked it.

On the particular day in question, I was asking my students about how much homework they had over the weekend, and not surprisingly, it was an insane amount. "That sucks!" I said without thinking.

"Teacher, what is 'sucks'?" asked Linda, one of the brightest students in the class.

So then I was "forced" into explaining. I told them how it's just something you say if something is not good. And I gave them several examples. But still, I wasn't so sure they understood. So I just left it at that, seeing as I would prefer if this lesson didn't get back to their parents.

As class was commencing, I told my students that they would, unfortunately, have to do an extra assignment for homework that evening. And Linda, sweet Linda, says "Teacher sucks!"

At least she applied what she learned?

New Students

Things have been crazy hectic at work lately. My director just bought a new hagwon and we have been going through the process of combining the new school's students into our current classes and making new classes.

I used to have this absurdly long prep time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Actually, out of my eight-hour work day, I was only teaching 80 minutes. That's the stuff dreams are made of.

No more. Dreams are dashed. Gone are the days of feeling prepared walking into a class. Now, I am lucky if I know what I am supposed to be teaching before I walk into the classroom. If I don't have to waste the first ten minutes of class looking for a book to copy, making enough copies for all of the students, and only then finding out I don't have the accompanying listening CD, well, then it's been a great day. Oh, and dinner! If I get to eat my dinner before seven, it's a blessing!

What happened to my life? Work has been not so enjoyable lately. All of the teachers, we are pinched for time and feeling stressed. We've all been pretty snippy at each other lately. And it doesn't seem like there will be any reprieve soon. We are losing The Canadian in a week! (Nothing serious, just decided to go home early). Her replacement won't be here until January, and really we need two or three in order to make the workload bearable.

These are the joys of working for a hagwon, a private business where the end goal is making money. That's a harsh criticism, but I am actually pretty lucky. Others I know have had it worse--losing students (i.e. profit) meant getting fired, a slow decline of going out of business where there monthly salary payments kept coming later and later and then not at all. It could definitely be worse.

Through it all, there has been a silver-lining--new students! I am enjoying my new students, even if they mean that I am strapped for time. A few, in particular, stand out to me.

I had been warned by the teacher at the former hagwon that one of my new classes were killer to keep on task and were total monsters. Well, I went and had an awesome class and was flying high on good teacher vibes. I was so pleased! After I taught them, the Sou'frican taught them a different subject. Five minutes into her teaching period, she barges in on my class shouting "Grapes?? Cake? Toad? Bread? Tiger?!?" Apparently the class had told her fake almost-real names. Grace became Grapes, Kate became Cake, Todd became Toad, Brad became Bread and Tiger, well, Tiger stayed Tiger.

Of course, nothing gold can stay. My schedule changes again right before Christmas. Since the Canadian is leaving, I have been asked to take on her schedule, with the addition of at least two new classes. This means I will be teaching a full block without any planning whatsoever as well as teaching and developing a rapport with 35 new students. I fear the coming months.

Currently.

Hello, blog land! I don't have any specific thing to update everyone on, but I want to share what's going on 'round these parts these days.

• School: The days seems to melt into weeks, and now it's the end of October and my second month in Korea is already coming to a close. I already feel like it is going by too quickly. I just want to press pause so I can savor every delicious food, enjoy hanging out with new-found friends, hugging on my students, and learning about a new culture. Even my sixth-graders gave me a reprieve on Friday. I was recapping everything they've learned (snorefest) and telling them about birds of prey in Arizona and Trailer Park Boy's pet tarantula and snake and they were actually listening. They were actually interested! Success!
• Friends: I'm making friends. This is big, people. Now, adventuring solo is a choice, not a mandate. And for a geek with social issues, this is big news.
• Phone: Can't stop playing with it. It's a love/hate thing right now. Mostly totally in love. 

Today, I am going to go to Itaewon, the foreigner quarter of Seoul, hit up a South African restaurant and check out What The Book. Life is good.

Who rocks? Oh, that's right.

I'm a boss.

Today I paid off my student loans. In full. Like I'm so close to being debt-free, I can smell it.
And I filled out applications for three graduate programs. All I have to do now is update my resume, write my personal statements, send in the paperwork and basically everything else. Luckily, they aren't due until December (at the earliest), but I like being ahead of the curve.
And I like feeling like I'm a boss.

My First Day

I am entirely exhausted after my first day of work. That might have something to do with the fact that the airline zip-tied my luggage and I couldn't get into it to get my alarm clock and I was worried all night about not waking up on time and didn't know how to ask the Korean front desk people for a wake up call over the phone since I'd already taken my pants off and they certainly weren't getting put back on so I woke up every hour all night long, but I digress.

My day began with being picked up by the director of my school, someone who I think I will really enjoy working for. She drove me to school and helped get me set up with a "training schedule." That's in quotation marks because my training consists of

1. Observations
2. Writing notes about said observations in the cutest notebook ever
3. Typing up said observations as proof that I "learned"
4. Just teaching classes with little to no idea of what I am supposed to be doing

Only the first three really apply to my director. But I'll get to that.

First things first: my morning class. I am IN LOVE. They are kindergartners and like, the cutest, smartest things ever. At least one of them is already in love with me. I know because she gave me a hug. There's another girl in the class who reminds me of me at her age: really obnoxious, super loud, know it all. Honestly, not much has changed. I guess she reminds me of me now. They are really well-spoken and already possess a high acuity in English and did I mention I'm in love with them? Because I am.

Then I went out to lunch with my coworkers for kimbap (or gimbap, depending on who you're talking to). For those of you who don't know, kimbap is what happens when sushi and a sandwich make sweet, sweet love to each other. It's seaweed-and-rice-wrapped around egg, cooked tuna, pickle, processed ham and something else that I wasn't brave enough to ask what it was, it's full of cooked ingredients anyway, and well, it was delicious.

Next up...*groan*... we have our BEs. That stands for "Basic English." This split-class consists of first, five 1st and 2nd graders with very little English ability and second, nine very timid 3rd and 4th graders. I taught the first class, a math class, which really consisted of introducing myself and administering a test--which was STILL no easy feat. You'd think saying "Hello, my name is Samantha. No, Samanthhhha. Samanthhhhhhhh-- Just call me Sam" and throwing five tests out would be a piece of cake, right? Well, you'd be wrong. And then I observed the second class of the day, which was killer because it was a million degrees in the room and the teacher was the only one who was cold and I just wanted to sit down and I started feeling woozy. But other than that, I could tell it is going to be a difficult class because the students had a very poor understanding of English.

Finally, another split-class, but this one where I just taught the same lesson twice, which was nice. It was a science class. For the first group, a group of six girls, I got to do these terrible drawings on the board of a crab and a lobster and what should have been a horse... They laughed, at least, right? Then the next class, a group of ten (TEN) sixth-grade boys, at probably the most annoying age possible and they definitely embodied that stereotype.

And that brings me to now, exhaustion and an appreciation for how quickly elevator doors close here when you press the "close" button.

Every day's a school day!

I thought that someday, I might finally have an answer to the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" At the very least, I hoped that people would have stopped asking by now.

Today, I had a long talk with one of the principals that I work with. We talked for more than an hour about what I wanted to do, his [the principal's] son, and everything. It was the first time I'd talked to anyone that really understood my goals and my difficulties in choosing my future path.

So of course, now he's got me thinking about applying to schools, which kind of icks me out, considering I've been out of school for four months. And considering I've been doing nothing lately but watching Felicity, which, for those horrible uninformed, is about college.

Ugh.