speaking of lame!

GOODNESS.  Lame reminds me - I called one of my students lame today, but I don't think he understood what I meant.  I think there was a whole lot of misunderstanding going on, actually.

First of all, let me explain that the class he is in is tied for first place in my "Worst Behavior" class contest.  There are actually only two classes now that give me trouble, thank heavens, so the competition isn't that big.  But back to this class.

The kid that was misbehaving is the class leader - already a bad sign when your class leader is also class troublemaker, right?  Yes.  He's hilarious - some of the time.  He's crazy - all of the time.  Supposedly he really likes to dance.  He tells me this, other students tell me this -- "Teacher!  He's crazy.  Korean psycho!"  and then, shortly after that, "Teacher!  He's dancing man!"

Today he and his cronies told me that they were on the dancing team.  I could believe this - there are all sorts of teams and clubs over here.  But then they all started laughing really hard - so now I doubt the validity of this claim.  Maybe they just thought it really hilarious to say "dancing team" in English and they really are on one, or maybe they are making it all up.  Who knows.  Anyway, this kid was totally challenging me in class - at one point I told him, "Shh - " with my finger over my lips - he looked at me, nodded, and then kept talking!  WHAT the -- kid!  I corrected him, but I don't think any of it sunk in.  Later on we had some bizarre 5 minute ... face off? conversational impasse? during which I tried to convince him to look at his paper and he insisted on staring intently into my eyes.  I think this is pretty rude, especially given the cultural context, but he and his friends thought it was hilarious.  Then I gave up with the work and asked him if he was bored, if class wasn't fun.  He actually got a little serious for a minute - long enough to check the meaning of "boring" with his friend, after which he replied with "Oh, no, no teacher!  Class -- funny."  Great.  Then - weirdest thing - he reached up to my back and pulled back on my t-shirt a little bit.  What?  There are only two logical reasons for that, in my mind.  1 - maybe he was pulling so my tag would be tucked in again, if it was exposed?  I am not sure if it was or not.  2 - maybe it would make sense if I were flashing someone when I was bending over at his table.  I wasn't quite at that angle (I checked later to be sure, ha), and even if they could see down my shirt, they'd just see my bra.  (I apparently consider that not a big deal?  Not when I am in the middle of trying to convince my students to do their work, I guess, ha.)  And the student that touched my shirt wasn't at an angle to see anything anyway, even if the possibility presented itself. The one student that could have seen something was the only one at the table who made any semblance of participation, so I don't think that he was distracted by anything that I was or was not inadvertently displaying.

So.  Dancing Man Leader Kid is not the only troublesome one in the class, but I do believe he influences the others.  Even the higher level kids are a pain - they act like they are all that because they can do their worksheets well enough, but they disregard a lot of my verbal instructions.  And then there are a few other low-level disrupters scattered throughout.

I am going to have to Do Something about this class.  It makes me sad, a little.  I really like them - as individuals, they are funny and good kids - good as in "good hearts," ha, not really "well behaved."  But I'm bored with the shenanigans.  If I get tough, they will also be sad for a while, ha, but it is for their own good.  I think I'll go at things with a combination of rewards and punishments.  So tedious, ha.  Anyway, I'll keep you updated on what methods I pursue and how it turns out.