Stressed Students

The moon was fantastic tonight. It's incredibly full and bright. No stars were visible, which made the moon stand out even more. Then there were numerous wispy gray clouds that kept floating in front of the moon. They weren't thick enough to completely block it out, just mute it a bit. Had I been in the countryside or on a mountaintop or by the sea in Bangojin it might have been spooky. But on a busy city street, it was just a nice piece of beauty.

On the door of my apartment building there was a flyer that wasn't there before. It had a lot of writing in Korean, but I didn't stop to look too closely. At first I thought it was some kind of notice about the mailboxes or trash, but then I saw "112." I'm pretty sure that 112 is the phone number for the police. (119 is for fire and ambulance, I think.) For all I know, it could say, "Warning! Dangerous killer on the loose! If you see anyone suspicious, call the police immediately!" My imagination is perhaps a little over-active.

In Steven's (Stephanie's 6 PM class) English Diary, he wrote nearly every day this week. The point system is working well for some students! (They get 5 points for every diary they write. His class has to write at least 2 diaries per week.) I still don't know what they can do with the points, or if it's strictly competition within their class. In one entry, Steven wrote,

Today I went to the PC-room. I went with my friends seven. And PC-room is computer room same. So I like there. Today My friends with me play the game. The game title is Crazy Arcade. I like this game. So today is beautiful day. I want to everyday same today. Do you want to go PC-room?

I responded,

Is your friend's name "seven," or did you go with 7 friends?

It was this morning that I checked ALL of the diaries (only took THREE hours, at least I was at home and could relax and listen to music while I was correcting them). However, between classes Steven found me and asked, "Teacher, did you check my diary?" (I share that class with Matt.) Yes, I did. "Oh, seven is not friend's name. I went with seven friends." Oh, OK. "Goodbye, teacher!"

During the 4 PM break I returned to the doctor and he confirmed what I already knew--the ear is responding well to the medicine. He only gave me 3 days worth of drugs, though, so I have to go back on Monday.

I tried using Matt's system of discipline today. In the past I've used the "3 strikes and you're outside the classroom" system. But especially with a larger class, that means that 12 students x 2 strikes equals 24 interruptions without much of a penalty. Matt puts the kids in the corner of the classroom if they speak Korean even once during class. I got strict with the 6 PM Can You Believe It class, giving them an "x" if they spoke Korean. But then with the 7 PM class I tried Matt's "corner" method. It only took a couple of kids to get the point across. I kept them in the corner, inside the classroom, for 2~3 minutes (faced away from the class). That way they could still hear the English, but couldn't see what was going on or make funny faces at everyone else. They really quieted down, while Jason didn't say anything in any language. Hey, as long as he isn't disrupting class, fine!

At 8:30 the girls were back, and only seconds after my explanation of the corner system and one warning, Grace was the first to try it out. She whined and it took a couple of minutes to get her to comply, but then she was better for the rest of class. Sylvia didn't respond as well, however. She angrily stomped to the corner, and when I allowed her to go back to her seat she sulked for the rest of class, wouldn't look at me, and didn't say goodbye at the end of class. Was I ever that bad as a teenager?!

The kids are under way too much stress. Yesterday the elementary school kids, today the middle school students. The girls are finished with their tests, but some aren't that happy about their grades, and they're still exhausted and stressed. Luby came into class a little late, and complained about not being able to get into her house after school because her twin brother (also my student) wouldn't wake up and let her in. I encourage them to speak about whatever interests them, so I asked a follow-up question. Suddenly she was crying as she explained that she banged on the door, and kicked the door, and yelled at her brother, but he wouldn't wake up. Then she called her mother, who called their house to wake the son up and have him let her in, but he still wouldn't wake up, and Luby was waiting for 30 minutes, and so she couldn't get inside to change clothes and change books, so she had to borrow a book from Mona for class. Every word was in English. I told her it was no problem that she didn't have a book--don't worry about it! I asked her if she had gotten any sleep recently, but the tests only finished yesterday and it doesn't sound like she has.

Sally and Lily were taking the G-TELP test that they missed on Monday, Ben was late, and Tony was absent, so only Laura and Edward were there to see the outburst from the normally very strong, though unconstrained Luby. I positioned myself between Luby and Edward so he couldn't see her blubbering, but I still had to give him some stern looks to keep him from laughing. Laura, too, was smiling at the pettiness of the problem. But put someone under that much stress, especially at such a young age (7th grade, or around 13 years old) and when they're going through so many teenage things, not to mention the hormones, little things can be monstrous. Luby's brother, Tom, didn't come to class tonight. Either he's studying for the last of his tests tomorrow, or Luby killed him.