Are you pregnant?

I had a very lazy weekend and I've had a lot of time to reflect on my first week of teaching. It had many ups and down and only two major mental breakdowns. Success? I think yes.

 The first one was on my second day of teaching (Mon. was all grade 6 and Tues. was grade 5). I was warned about the boys in this grade by the teacher that I replaced. Not that that did me much good. They are little terrors and I've concluded that their behaviour is a result of Korean attitude towards males. They are God's gift, therefore, they can do no wrong and the little stinkers know it, too. 

To be fair, I laid out the rules on the very first class (including the consequences) so I've been relentless for the whole week, unfortunately, my student have been relentless too but I think I'm winning. I've acquired quite a collection of prohibited objects (cell phones, MP3s) and items that were being used in unacceptable ways, for instance, a pencil case being used as a weapon and an exacto knife that was being used to widdle away at a desks (to my horror, students here use, what they call, exacto knives to sharpen their pencils, but they're more like the knives that I think of my dad using to cut carpet...with the blades that pop out and can be broken off when they're dull....ya, so safe). This is especially worrisome for me because these kids are SO aggressive. They just go AT each other ALL the time. Even the girls slap each other around like I've never seen before. Many times this week I've grabbed arms in mid swing, set  them in a lap and said "do not hit". Much like teaching a 6-month old but whatever. I have to make a statement with my tone and my stank eye, because I'm not physically intimidating... they may be Asian, but many of them are bigger than I am. This includes the special student who has class next door to me and literally pulled me out of class and dragged me down the hall by one arm. 

A girl's gotta go what a girl's gotta do. 

I'm pretty happy, though, that Mrs. Lee has started to pick up on my stern attitude. On Friday, I confiscated a cellphone and the boy was told, like all the students, that if I take something away from you, you can come back at 4pm and get it. When he did come back to retrieve his phone, he didn't bow to Mrs. Lee and she wouldn't give it back.  GO MRS. LEE! 

My second breakdown was when I taught my first "extra class" which is an optional, extra English classes for those who want it (and whose parents can pay, I guess). I had a whole lesson planned out of fun activities that were designed to help them review vocab. from their first term. To my horror, they don't actually speak ANY English (they know colours, numbers and a few nouns). This turned out to be an advantage, though, when I shouted "HOW CAN I TEACH THEM? THEY CAN'T SPEAK ANY ENGLISH!" and started to whimper. Next week we start the curriculum (work books and CD-ROMS with little videos) so the pressure of designing things for them is now gone. 

I know I'm coming across as that teacher from elementary school who you all have terrible memories of and every time you think of her, you cringe and pee your pants a little, but all of the new Native English teachers were warned "do not smile until the new year". So, really, I'm just being obedient.  Plus, there were many good times throughout the week. Mostly just me getting really excited when I would ask a question and they would understand. But this was usually followed by blank stares when I exclaimed "great job" or "awesome". 

Baby steps. 

Baby baby steps.

ps- The title comes from an inquiry that one of my grade 3s made. No, I am not pregnant, but thanks for asking.